The 1940s tourist attractions of the “Penn Zone”

If you think the streets around Penn Station are crowded with out-of-towners now, imagine how jammed they must have been in the 1940s.

Back then, this was the “Penn Zone,” according to this vintage postcard, a stretch of Midtown brimming with massive hotels and must-see sites for tourists.

Some are still here, of course, such as the Empire State Building and Macy’s (number 8). But the original Penn Station (2) bit the dust in 1963, and the Hotel McAlpin (4) is now called Herald Towers and is a rental apartment building.

Gimbel’s (10) and Sak’s 34th Street (9) are ghosts. The Hotel New Yorker (6) keeps packing them in, while the Hotel Martinique (3) endured a tortured history as a 1980s welfare hotel before reopening as a Radisson.

The glorious past of the Hotel New Yorker

New York City is home to some pretty luxe hotels. But how many featured their own working hospital with four operating rooms?

Only the Hotel New Yorker, still hosting guests on 34th Street and 8th Avenue but without the extravagance it had when it opened in 1930. 

Among the amenities back in the day: More than 2,500 rooms (each one with its own radio). Ten private dining rooms. A 42-chair barber shop. Five restaurants.

This 1940s postcard, with the slogan “where night turns into play,” makes it sound like a decadent destination.

The New Yorker had a sports past too. Leo Durocher made it the Dodgers’ headquarters during the 1941 World Series. Joe Di Maggio even lived there.