Editor’s note: An original Penn Station eagle hides in plain sight

History buffs have for years kept track of the whereabouts of 22 granite and marble eagles that once graced the original Penn Station. These nearly four-ton sculptures survived the station’s tragic demolition in 1963 and were reinstalled as far away as Virginia, Maine and even Missouri, where two became part of an Eagle Scout project. While the surviving eagles found a second life, including one proudly perched at the Long Island Railroad’s Hicksville station, two were installed outside the 7th Avenue entrance of today’s Penn Station. The website Untapped New York, however, discovered them missing in 2019. They were moved into storage to make way for a facelift the developer Vornado was giving to the exterior of 2 Penn Plaza, the tower that sits on top of the station along with Madison Square Garden.

Now, five years later, one eagle has been quietly reinstalled on a plaza between 33rd and 34th Streets, behind The Rutherford sports bar. Vornado, which owns several buildings nearby, has completed a refresh of the area and renamed it the Penn District. It includes new 7th Avenue entrances into Penn Station and the Garden and 33rd Street pedestrian plaza. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority contributed a stunning glass mosaic at a new subway entrance off the plaza, depicting the clock that hung at the entrance to the original station. The district isn’t what advocates for building a new Penn Station that evokes the original have hoped for, but it is a placeholder until a new transit hub is built. Which makes the return of at least one of the original eagles a welcome sight, that is if you know where to look.