Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial

The Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial, and its placement in the 30th Street Railroad Station in Philadelphia is unique, it memorializes men who lost their lives in the defense of freedom while working in an essential industry using the representation of an angel, giving a spiritual sense to the ordinary men who made extraordinary sacrifices.

Penny Balkin Bach, the Executive Director & Chief Curator of the Association for Public Art, stated that, “We erect monuments so that we shall always remember, and memorials so that we shall never forget…monuments commemorate the memorable and embody the myth of beginnings, memorials ritualize remembrances and mark the reality of ends.” The Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial does mark the reality of ends, the end of lives sacrificed in service of country so that we shall never forget.

The memorial is in Philadelphia at the Thirtieth Street Station, Penn Central Transportation Company. The placement of this monument makes it appear to be a part of the supporting structure of the 30th Street Station that houses it, just like the men for whom it was erected supported their nation at war. The station itself was built between 1927 to 1933. The architecture of the station in which it is displayed is significant because it reflects how the stage was set when America and its workers were called on to go to war. During the 1920’s a general sense of well-being pervaded the country. The First World War was over, the economy was strong, and that sense of confidence was evident in the architecture of the decade.

Once the Great Depression hit, ornate architecture was viewed as too expensive of an indulgence except for two types of building; movie theaters (where the public went to escape the harsh realities of life) and government buildings (their use of decorative nuances suggested a return to the “good old days”) according to Nicholas Wainwright the former Director of the Historical Society of Philadelphia. The 30th Street Station was built with its classic styles borrowed from the architecture of the 1920’s and the federal style of the 1930’s as noted by Wainwright. The station, with a transitional neoclassical, art deco style, was one of the last major railway passenger stations constructed in the United States as documented by Joh Hepp, Associate Professor of History and co-chair of the Division of Global History and Languages at Wilkes University. The unique architectural style of the station, combining old and new ties in directly with the monument: the past and the present, the living and the dead, the secular and the spiritual.

Railroads, especially in the 1940’s were an essential part of the infrastructure of the United States. When Franklin Roosevelt gave his “Arsenal of Democracy” speech in December of 1940, the Pennsylvania Railroad was bouncing back from the Great Depression; passengers were down because of the advent of the automobile, but the freight business was booming according to Carl Landeck and Roger Thorne, historians for the Pacific Railroad and the Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society respectively. The Pennsylvania Railroad was in prime condition to do the job it had to do when war came, move troops and supplies and 1941 to 1945 were the zenith of railroads contribution to the war effort.

The Pennsylvania Railroad used steel P70 Heavyweight passenger cars to move both troops and passengers during the war, with the Pennsylvania Railroad delegating a large amount of their cars to troop transport. Troop movements were always kept secret, being identified only with a Military Authorization Identification Number, and even the men charged with the operation of the train were told only their portion of the end point for the military personnel or cargo. According to Landeck and Thorpe, one of the soldiers on the train noted they were packed in the cars “like sardines in a can” in an effort to get as many men as possible to the front as soon as possible.

According to a 1945 report from the Pennsylvania Railroad Company; " From January 1, 1941 to December 1, 1945-17,507,647 soldiers, sailors, marines and coastguardsmen were moved over The Pennsylvania Railroad System. This does not include any military personnel traveling on furloughs, which ran into many millions. To handle strictly military movements required 29,670 extra trains, composed of approximately 400,000 cars." The importance of the railroads to the war effort cannot be overstated. Without this support of the railroads in moving troops and supplies, the war effort would have been severely hampered. In addition, 45,194 Pennsylvania Railroad employees served in the military during World War II according to Landeck and Thomas. Of that number, 1,307 gave their lives for their country as noted by Wainwright.

The Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial was designed by Walker Hancock, who at the time of its construction was head of the Sculpture Department at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts as reported by Wainwright. During the war, Hancock served as one of the Monuments Men who were tasked with the preservation of fine arts and archives while experiencing the trauma of war firsthand. As a result, Hancock labored to assure that the depiction of the angel and soldier would not be melodramatic; instead it was designed to show the interdependence of the two figures according to Bach. The monument itself was constructed of bronze, with a height of 39
feet on a black granite base. The railroad memorial was unveiled August 10, 1952 to an audience including General Omar Bradley (who was then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), railroad officials, and Hancock. The honor of unveiling the memorial went to Robert E. Laws, a railroad employee, and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient for heroism in Luzon, Philippines as documented by Wainwright.

Following World War II, monuments began to emphasize reflection reconciliation and healing as opposed to the glory of war as noted by Bach. The war’s aftermath called for a memorial that was inspiring and solemn with the railroad officials who commissioned the work wanting an angel lifting the body of a soldier. This monument depicts the Archangel Michael with the representation of a young soldier in his arms, lifting him upwards from the flames of war as described by Wainwright. In Christian dogma, the Archangel Michael is called upon to save us from the snares of evil, in this case war, represented by the flames of war at the angel’s feet. The angel’s wings are pointed straight up as he lifts the lifeless body of the soldier. The vertical shape of the memorial suggests the ascending into heaven of the angel and the soldier, an affirmation once again that World War II was the “good war”, fought to ensure liberty and democracy and defeat tyranny all over the world. The black granite base, on which the angel stands, is inscribed with the names of each of the 1,307 railroad workers who died in World War II, and below the names are depictions of an ammunition belt and helmet, symbolic of implements of war left on the battlefield, no longer needed by the young soldier, and symbolically no longer needed by a nation now at peace. The choice of materials, bronze for the statue that suggests an almost glowing divinity, and the black base a solemnity and homage to the dead. The massive size of the sculpture suggests the size of the conflict it represents, a war that literally involved almost the entire world.

As noted by Bach, “As symbols of collective memory, monuments and memorials often have very different meanings to those who erect them and those who inherit them.” The relevance of the sculpture today is different from what was intended by those who conceived and constructed it, as it blends into the backdrop of the station, no longer a focal point, but its quiet elegance and strength is not unlike the men for whom it was erected: powerful, awe inspiring and linking the secular and the divine. Although a passersby might scarcely acknowledge the memorial exists and our collective memory of World War II gradually fades from consciousness, it does not mean it is any less important to our history and their legacy of democracy.

(Edited by Brad Poss)

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