Terminal City (Grand Central Terminal)

Grand Central Terminal (often called Grand Central Station) opened in February 1913. In January 1913, advertisements were published in national magazines for “The Terminal City.” The opening of Grand Central Terminal would sponsor the growth of a mini-city within New York City, with hotels and office buildings (and later the United Nations) located in the area.
 
The firm of Reed and Stem and then the firm of Warren and Whetmore planned the Terminal City. The name “Terminal City” was popularly used for the opening of the Grand Central Terminal, but is mostly of historical interest today.
 
   
Wikipedia: Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT)—colloquially called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a commuter rail terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. Built by and named for the New York Central Railroad in the heyday of American long-distance passenger rail travel, it is the largest train station in the world by number of platforms: 44, with 67 tracks along them. They are on two levels, both below ground, with 41 tracks on the upper level and 26 on the lower, though the total number of tracks along platforms and in rail yards exceeds 100. The terminal covers an area of 48 acres (19 ha).
 
The terminal serves commuters traveling on the Metro-North Railroad to Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties in New York State, and Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut. Until 1991 the terminal served Amtrak, which moved to nearby Pennsylvania Station upon completion of the Empire Connection.
 
Although the terminal has been properly called “Grand Central Terminal” since 1913, many people continue to refer to it as “Grand Central Station”, the name of the previous rail station on the same site, and of the U.S. Post Office station next door, which is not part of the terminal. It is also sometimes used to refer to the Grand Central – 42nd Street subway station, which serves the terminal.
     
Google Books
25 January 1913, Harper’s Weekly, back page:
THE TERMINAL CITY
THE GREATEST CIVIC DEVELOPMENT EVER UNDERTAKEN—INCIDENT TO THE NEW GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL IN NEW YORK CITY, WHICH WILL BE
OPENED FEBRUARY, 2013
 
This vast undertaking comprehends the erection of a great Terminal City, a city within a city, occupying an area of thirty blocks, in New York City.
 
It will embrace hotels and modern apartment houses, convention and exhibit halls, clubs and restaurants, and department stores and specialty shops. In short, practically every sort of structure or enterprise incident to the modern city.
 
These features are all in addition to a post office, express buildings, and other natural adjuncts of the up-to-date terminal—expeditiously handle diverse traffic.
 
All these structures will be erected over the tracks of the terminal itself, while a plaza will surround the Terminal building, reached on the North and South by a new Boulevard, hiding all trace of the railroad yard.
 
Google Books
April 1913, Railroad Men, pg. 209, col. 2:
The Otis Elevator Company begs to announce that in its advertisement which appeared in the March number, mention of Reed and Stem as architects for the Grand Central Terminal City was inadvertently omitted.
 
It is a pleasure to call attention to Reed and Stem as the originators of the great Terminal City, in addition to Warren and Whetmore, to whom credit was duly given in the advertisement.
 
Google Books
Grand Central, the World’s Greatest Railway Terminal
By William D. Middleton
San Marino, CA: Golden West Books
1977
Pg. 91:
The New York Central was inordinately proud of its splendid new terminal, and Grand Central’s completion was widely advertised in journals of national circulation. This full page “The Terminal City” ad in the January 25, 1913, Harper’s Weekly proclaimed it “the greatest civic development ever undertaken.” its construction. The Times described the project as solving the “greatest terminal problem of the age.”
 
Google Books
Guide to New York City Landmarks
By Matthew A Postal and Andrew Dolkart (Landmarks Preservation Commission)
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
2009
Pg. 110:
The New York Central Building, set astride Park Avenue just north of Grand Central Terminal (see No. 301), was the linchpin of the Terminal City complex of hotels and office buildings sponsored by the New York Central Railroad.
 
Yale Daily News (New Haven, CT)
Yale Club of New York fights for landmark status
BY YANAN WANG
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
(...)
“Designed by James Gamble Rogers 1889, the Yale Club is one of only eight buildings remaining from Grand Central’s original Terminal City district,” Wise noted. “That’s significant.”
 
The Telegraph (UK)
Grand Central centenary: 100 fascinating facts
New York City’s magnificent Grand Central Terminal turns 100 this weekend. Here is a nugget of information for every year of its existence.
Compiled by Jolyon Attwooll 6:54PM GMT 31 Jan 2013
(...)
91. The construction of Grand Central sparked a building boom in the area, with hotels and offices sprouting up nearby, including the Chrysler Building, and leading to Grand Central’s nickname: “Terminal City”.