Astor Place (IRT Lexington Avenue Line)

Astor Place
 
New York City Subway rapid transit station

Downtown platform
Station statistics
Address Astor Place & Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10003
Borough Manhattan
Locale NoHo / East Village
Coordinates 40°43′47″N 73°59′30″W / 40.72972°N 73.99167°W / 40.72972; -73.99167Coordinates: 40°43′47″N 73°59′30″W / 40.72972°N 73.99167°W / 40.72972; -73.99167
Division A (IRT)
Line       IRT Lexington Avenue Line
Services       4  (late nights)
      6  (all times) <6> (weekdays until 8:45 p.m., peak direction)
Transit connections NYCT Bus: M1, M2, M3, M8
Structure Underground
Platforms 2 side platforms
Tracks 4
Other information
Opened October 27, 1904 (1904-10-27)[1]
Wireless service [2]
Former/other names Astor Place – Cooper Union
Cooper Union
Traffic
Passengers (2015) 5,447,655[3] Decrease 5.3%
Rank 81 out of 422
Station succession
Next north 14th Street – Union Square: 4  6  <6>
Next south Bleecker Street: 4  6  <6>

Astor Place, also called Astor Place – Cooper Union on signs, is a local station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Completed in 1904, it is one of the original twenty-eight stations in the system. Located at the intersection of Lafayette Street, Eighth Street, Fourth Avenue, Cooper Square, and Astor Place between the East Village and NoHo, it is served by the 6 train at all times, the <6> train during weekday in peak direction and by the 4 train during late nights. The station is on the List of Registered Historic Places in New York.

History

Track layout
Legend
to 14 St
to Bleecker St

Construction started on the first IRT line in 1900.[5] The part of the line from City Hall to just south of 42nd Street was part of the original IRT line including the Astor Place station, opened on October 27, 1904.[1]

In 1981, the MTA listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system.[6] The station underwent renovation from June 1984 to May 1986. The station was renovated for $2,500,000, and was part of the Adopt-a-station program. The money included $600,000 from the Federal Urban Mass Transit Administration, $125,000 from private sources, including some from the Vincent Astor Foundation. The scope of the project included the restoration of the famous glazed ceramic beaver plaques, new improved lighting, the installation of noise-abatement material, as well as the installation of new brown floor tiles. A new piece of porcelain steel artwork by Cooper Union alumnus Milton Glaser was installed, and a cast-iron copy of one of the station's original kiosks was built. There was an underpass between the uptown and downtown sides, but it was closed and covered up in the 1980s renovation.[7]

The original plans for the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad (now PATH) included a spur along Ninth Street to this station.[8]

Station layout

G Street Level Exit/Entrance
P
Platform level		 Side platform, doors will open on the right
Northbound local ← toward Pelham Bay Park ( toward Parkchester rush hours and middays) (14th Street–Union Square)
← toward Woodlawn late nights (14th Street–Union Square)
Northbound express ← do not stop here
Southbound express → do not stop here →
Southbound local → toward Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall ( toward New Lots Avenue late nights) (Bleecker Street) →
Side platform, doors will open on the right
Downtown entrance

Astor Place is a local station with four tracks and two side platforms. The fare control is at platform level, and the underpass connecting northbound and southbound sides was removed in the 1980s. The access hatch to the underpass is visible behind the northbound token booth inside the fare control area. The northbound platform contains a news and candy stand, which replaced the original public women's lavatory. On the southbound side, the station has a department store entrance into a K-Mart. This store was originally constructed in 1868 as an A. T. Stewart. It had changed ownership and was a Wanamaker's when the station was constructed. The heavy brick-faced square columns on the downtown platform support the store above. The northern building of Wanamaker's store, but not the southern building above, burned in the 1950s. Octagonal windows on the brick wall of the platform were the store's showcases.

Plaques of beavers are located on the walls, in honor of John Jacob Astor's fortune derived from the beaver-pelt trade. The plaques, as well as name tablets, were made by the Grueby Faience Company in 1904. During the renovation, the magnificent maroon and gold tile Cooper Union signs underneath the tile Astor Place signs were destroyed.[9] Black and white pillar signs read Astor Place on one pillar, then Cooper Union on the next.

Entrances and exits

Uptown entrance, a reproduction of an old IRT kiosk

The station has two entrances, one in each direction. The southbound platform's entrance is at the southwest corner of Astor Place and Lafayette Street, while the northbound platform's entrance is in the traffic island bounded by Fourth Avenue, Lafayette Street, and Eighth Street.[10] There is a reproduction of an IRT entry kiosk on the street level over the northbound entrance.

Points of interest

The station itself is a point of local interest, as it is on the List of Registered Historic Places in New York. Several other sites of historical and cultural importance located near the station. The New York University and Cooper Union are both located nearby. Visitors to the Astor Place area often rotate the Alamo Cube, at street level above the tail end of the northbound platform.[11] A tiled-up doorway, on southwest wall behind the southbound token booth, sports a lintel proclaiming "Clinton Hall". This doorway once led to the New York Mercantile Library in the former Astor Opera House.[12] Other points of interest include:

The Eighth Street – New York University station on the BMT Broadway Line is one block west of the station.[11]

Image gallery

References

  1. 1 2 New York Times, Our Subway Open: 150,000 Try It, October 28, 1904
  2. ↑ "NYC Subway Wireless – Active Stations". Transit Wireless Wifi. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  3. ↑ "Facts and Figures: Annual Subway Ridership". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
  4. ↑ "NPS Focus". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. Retrieved December 9, 2011.
  5. ↑ "www.nycsubway.org". www.nycsubway.org.
  6. ↑ Gargan, Edward A. (June 11, 1981). "AGENCY LISTS ITS 69 MOST DETERIORATED SUBWAY STATIONS". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  7. ↑ Blau, Eleanor (1986-05-17). "REFURBISHING OF IRT STATION APPLAUDED BY WELL-WISHERS". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-09-05.
  8. ↑ "Map of Hudson & Manhattan Railroad Hudson Tunnel System" (PDF). columbia.edu. Hudson & Manhattan Railroad. December 31, 1912. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  9. ↑ "1982 Photo of Astor Place Signage". Cable (Cooper Union Yearbook). 1982. Retrieved December 9, 2009.
  10. ↑ "MTA Neighborhood Maps: East Village" (PDF). mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2015. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "MTA Neighborhood Maps: East Village" (PDF). mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2015. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  12. ↑ Clinton Hall at Astor Place (Forgotten New York)

Further reading

External links

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