This 15" section of terra cotta was removed from the front of the Union News corner stand near the train concourse exit before the damaged area was temporarily filled in with concrete. The floor directly below the marble corner stand had heaved up due to long periods of exposure to ice and water from the vandalization period of the 1990's. The edges were encrusted with a hard grit and you'd be hard pressed to have much encouragement that it would ever look like this again, but as you can see, with a little work, it still shines brightly!

From a side view, you can see over an inch of the orange, white, red and pink marble chips encased in a black marble resin. There is another inch or so of concrete below the terra cotta and two inches of cork below the concrete. The chipped marble mixture was poured into permanent brass forms, giving the floor its geometric patterns and borders. The top layer was ground down, sanded and buffed to a sheen.

When I got this section home, I used coarse grit sandpaper, then fine grit and washed it thoroughly. Once dry, I applied 6 coats of professional grade floor finish. This floor surface is damn near indestructible! Underneath the light dust layer currently covering the rest of the concourse floor lies a beautiful terra cotta shine! Even the few damaged areas can be easily repoured to match.

I estimate that nearly 20 million people must have stood on this section of floor over the last 77 years (50 as an active train terminal), buying their postcards and newspapers.