Apr 07, 2022 - Sale 2600

Sale 2600 - Lot 182

Price Realized: $ 6,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
(NEW YORK CITY.) Volume of early Grand Central Terminal blueprints and reports. [4], 31, [7], 45, 24 leaves of typescripts (erratically paginated), typescript carbons, hand-colored blueprints, plans, and manuscripts. Oblong folio post binder, 11 x 17 inches, with some blueprints folding out to a larger size; minor wear, minor dampstaining toward end, a few items detached or with separations at folds. New York, 1910-1917
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Additional Details

Grand Central Station on 42nd Street in Manhattan remains one of the busiest and most elegant transit hubs in the world. It replaced another complex in the same location. Construction began in 1903, demolition of the old terminal began in 1910, and the present terminal was completed in 1913. This volume was compiled in 1917 using documents dating back to 1910, some of them incorporating data going back to 1900. The purpose was apparently to provide a comprehensive valuation of the company's properties. It is divided into three sections: Land, Building, and Yard. Each section contains detailed tables of valuations of the terminal's various properties, allocating them to "carrier" or "non-carrier." These are interspersed with plans and blueprints of various properties owned by the terminal's participating railroads, some extending as far north as 56th Street. Several tables list the land acquisition costs and grantors for dozens of parcels acquired from 1900 to 1912, each keyed to a color-coded plan. The building reports name the Terminal's tenants and the rent paid, and the terms of leases for major tenants. At the rear are 22 plans and blueprints of the Terminal properties, including a majestic side view of the main station buildings.

The volume contains a few cover letters, all of them retained carbon typescripts sent by assistant engineer Philip Hichborn Spear (1880-1960) to F.W. Stevens, the terminal's General Valuation Counsel. The volume appears to be Spear's retained copy of the detailed notes he submitted for an appraisal. Provenance: purchased by the consignor at a farmhouse auction in Pennsylvania circa 1975.