Wagner Jr. on May 24, 1960, succeeding Robert Moses, who had served as Commissioner for an unprecedented 26 years. In this role, Morris sought to save the famous Doric columns that adorned the main entrance to Penn Station. While Morris, in this respect, served as one of the few dissenting voices during the early planning of the destruction of the first Pennsylvania Station, widely considered to have been in terms of architectural substance an irreversible and traumatic loss to the city, he ultimately failed at preventing the columns from being slated for their ultimate destruction and discarding in the New Jersey Meadowlands. Sunday folk music was regularly played in Washington Square Park on Sundays until April 9, 1961 when Morris rejected the folkies' application for a permit with no explanation. A riot ensued with many of the folk singers being arrested by police and placed into paddy wagons. Some people suspected that local real estate interests were involved, wanting to rid the park of beatniks and other "undesirables," as some called them. But whether Morris had been influenced by such interests was never determined. The riot and arrests themselves got plenty of newspaper coverage, with one headline proclaiming "3,000 Beatniks Riot in Village." But the hysteria faded quickly. Morris served as Commissioner until January 15, 1966 when he retired. He was replaced by Thomas P. F. Hoving. Personal life In September 1925, Morris was married to Margaret Copley Thaw (1905–1980). She was the daughter of Josiah Copley Thaw (1874–1944) and granddaughter of William Thaw Sr. and Mary Sibbet Copley. Before their divorce in 1940, they had two sons together: Peter Van Courtlandt Morris (b. 1931), who married Carlotta Marie Noel, daughter of Auguste L. Noel (d. 1964) and Theodora (née Winslow) Noel, in 1960. He is a pianist and composer. Newbold Morris (b. 1933), a member of the U.S. Marine Corps in 1966. After their divorce in 1940, his first wife remarried in 1949 to Harry William Seckel. On August 1, 1942, Morris married Constance (née Hand) Jordan (1909–2008), youngest daughter of renowned American judge Learned Hand. She was divorced from Lt. Robert Jordan and the mother to actor Robert Anson Jordan (1937–1993) and Constance Jordan. The wedding ceremony was performed by Mayor La Guardia in Gracie Mansion. Together, they were the parents of: Lewis Morris (b. 1944), a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania in 1966. Frances Morris