232-248 W 31st St.
1908, McKim, Mead & White

This building is the sole remnant of the original Penn Station. It provided the electricity needed to bring trains through tunnels and into the station without steam, and supplied heat and light to the station. It was designed by the 1910 station's architect, Charles McKim of McKim Mead & White, and was completed two years earlier to help power its construction. The five-story structure is clad in the same pink granite used for the station. It has Classical features, with a façade divided into a large three-story section set on a base, capped with a projecting stone cornice, and an attic story with windows. Double-height Roman Doric pilasters separate each bay, with windows secured with iron grills. The attic story has a stone cornice that is smaller and less elaborately molded than the one above the base. It still serves what remains of the original station, but no longer generates power. Its smokestacks have long since been removed.