Philadelphia Public Art @philart.net
Landmark: 30th Street Station
On the Avenue of Technology tour. Officially renamed William H. Gray III 30th Street Station in 2019
Pennsylvania Railroad Memorial Plaques
* Memorials to William Wallace Atterbury,
George Gibbs
and
John Edgar Thomson
* small
heads,
trains
* inscription:
1866-1935
William Wallace Atterbury
Tenth President of The Pennsylvania Railroad
Director General of Transportation of
American Expeditionary Forces - World War I.
Friend of Labor - Pioneer in collective bargaining
Servant of the American people in war and peace
With courage and foresight he introduced
electrification in to the railroad's system
1861 - 1940
George Gibbs
Consulting Engineer
Whose vision and tenacity of purpose
led to the development of the
Pennsylvania Railroad's articulated
electric locomotive class GG1
placed in operation 1934
and contributed so much to the
advancement of the art of electric railroad
transportation
1808 - 1874
J. Edgar Thomson
Father of the Pennsylvania Railroad
First Chief Engineer - Third President
He planned the railroad's present system
He left his fortune in trust for
the education and maintenance of female orphans
of railway employees whose fathers may have
been killed in the discharge of their duties
* North Waiting Room.
30th Street Station.
Northeast corner, 30th and Market.
* 39.956205,-75.181755 [map] [nearby]
* Exhibits: Mass Transit
* See also:
+wikipedia.org's William Wallace Atterbury page
+wikipedia.org's John Edgar Thomson page
Spirit of Transportation
Karl Bitter,
1895
* big
group of people,
mostly standing,
some sitting,
horses,
sheep,
oxen,
wagon and carriage,
basket
of fruit,
model train,
model boat,
model airship
* inscription:
This panel, the conception and work of Karl Bitter, sculptor, was executed in 1895 and placed in the waiting room of Broad Street Station Philadelphia from which place it was removed to this site in January, 1933. The spirit of transportation is represented in triumphant procession of progress led by a little child carrying a model of an airship, a prophetic vision of a mode of transportation to come.
* North Waiting Room.
30th Street Station.
Northeast corner, 30th and Market.
* 39.956140,-75.182025 [map] [nearby]
* Exhibits: Mass Transit
* See also:
+wikipedia.org's Karl Bitter page
Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial
Walker Hancock,
1952
* big
vertical
people
(one winged)
* prominently displayed in the movie Witness
* inscription:
front:
In memory of the men and women of the Pennsylvania Railroad who laid down their lives for our country 1941-1945.
back:
That all travelers here may remember those of the Pennsylvania Railroad who did not return from the Second World War.
* East end of the main lobby.
30th Street Station.
Northeast corner, 30th and Market.
* 39.955655,-75.181400 [map] [nearby]
* Exhibits: Religious,
War,
Mass Transit
* See also:
+wikipedia.org's Walker Hancock page
Clock
2009
* clock
* East side of 30th Street Station.
West side of 29th at JFK.
* 39.955600,-75.180950 [map] [nearby]
* Exhibits: Mass Transit
Amtrak Logo
2013
* logo
* inscription:
30th Street Station 1933
* Plaza.
West side of 30th Street Station.
East side of 30th at JFK.
* 39.955860,-75.182950 [map] [nearby]
* Exhibits: New,
Mass Transit
The Porch Fence
Groundswell Design Group,
2015
* trees
* Fence.
The Porch. South side, 30th Street Station.
Along the North side of Market, East of 30th.
* 39.954777,-75.182130 [map] [nearby]
* See also:
+groundswelldesigngroup.com
The Porch Swings
Bill Curran Design,
Gehl Studio,
2015
* big
swings
* The Porch. South side, 30th Street Station.
North side of Market between 29th and 30th.
* 39.954850,-75.182050 [map] [nearby]
* See also:
+billcurrandesign.com
+gehlpeople.com
William H. Gray III 30th Street Station Sign
Calori and Vanden-Eynden Design,
2015
* station renamed for William H. Gray III
* big
name,
sign
* There is another, less dramatic version on the 29th Street side. The station was renamed in 2019 and the back panel was added to both signs. The first picture is the original.
* Southwest corner, 30th Street Station.
Northeast corner, 30th and Market.
* 39.955070,-75.18297 [map] [nearby]
* Exhibits: Mass Transit
* See also:
+wikipedia.org's William H. Gray III page
Tools of the Trade
Virginia Maksymowicz,
2022 (installed)
* tools,
map
* inscription:
Tools of the trade is meant to make visible the often invisible role that
railroad workers play in building and maintaining Amtrak's infrastructure.
Artist Virginia Maksymowicz commuted on the Amktrak Keystone Service
for over 25 years, between her home in Philadelphia and Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, where she taught as a professor of sculpture at Franklin and
Marshall College. Maksymowicz credits her time on the train for
producing some of her best thinking, including designing, researching,
and planning many of her artworks.
At the time Tools of the Trade was created, the artist was working
on a series of sculptures involving plaster casts of tools and bones,
matephorically relating them to various structures. It occurred to her that
Amtrak's national route system is another kind of structure, one that
connects north and south, east and west, much like a bodily skeleton
connects heat to toe and hand to hand.
Maksymowicz wanted to represent this structure through casts of the
type of tools that Amtrak workers might use on the job. She collected
vintage tools, railroad spikes and clips; she made silicon molds from
them and cast them into lightweight plastic. Casts
of spikes and bolts suggest mountains, and
S-curved wrenches, calipers and railroad clips
signify water.
* North Waiting Room.
30th Street Station.
Northeast corner, 30th and Market.
* 39.956030,-75.181675 [map] [nearby]
* Exhibits: New
* See also:
+maks-arts.com
