Grand Central Was Born: Thanks Ira Place

Ira Adelbert Place
Born: May 8, 1854, New York, NY
Died: January 24, 1928, New York, NY
Relation to Author: 2nd Great Grandfather In-Law

On this date 100 years ago, Grand Central Station opened. Grand Central was built by New York Central and Harlem River Railroad, where Ira Place was a vice president.

Grand Central station is proudly celebrating this anniversary with advertisements around the city, TV programs on the history, and information and history on its website. You can go through the timeline on the website here. The description of the opening says:

Grand Central Terminal officially opened to great fanfare at 12:01 am on Sunday, February 2, 1913, and more than 150,000 people visited the new terminal on its opening day. Although construction was not yet entirely complete, Grand Central Terminal had arrived and New York City would never be the same again.

The timeline further says that the new station was constructed to expand and upgrade the lines to electric (the announcement of the new station came in 1902, one week after a deadly collision between steam locomotives) and would feature a double level terminal.

Ira Place was not a vice president during the entirety of the development and construction but based on his positions would likely have been involved. According to his obituary in the Cornell Alumni News, he became General Attorney at Hudson River Railroad Company (a part of Vanderbilt's New York Central and Hudson River Railroad) in 1902. In 1906 he became a vice president of New York Central.

In addition to his titles at the railroad, we have another piece of evidence that he likely had an important role with the station's development. In 1910 Ira sent a letter to the New York Times with details about the station as it was being constructed, which led to an article in the Times describing his letter and the plans.

So while everyone is celebrating this historic and beautiful station, we can also celebrate Ira's role.