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 Previous: Bleecker Street · Next: 14th Street/Union Square
Local station with two offset side platforms alongside four tracks. The fare control is at platform level, and there are indications of a sealed-up crossunder, long since closed. The station's decoration includes plaques depicting beavers, in honor of John Jacob Astor, who had made his fortune in the beaver pelt trade. Astor Place station was built in large part under what had been private property along the west side of Astor Place. Several buildings were demolished to make way for the station accounting for today's odd shape of Astor Place. In the pedestrian island where the entry to the northbound station platform is located, there is a reproduction of the famous IRT kiosks. The heavy brick-faced square columns on the downtown platforms support the old John Wanamaker (now K-Mart) store above them. The octagon windows on the brick wall of the platform were the store's showcases. K-Mart has reopened a direct entrance to their store from the southbound platform, which had been sealed for many years after the demise of the Wanamaker's store at that location. Astor Place was planned to be a transfer point for the 9th Street branch of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (today's PATH). The H&M station would be at about the same level as the IRT on 9th Street between Broadway and Cooper Square abutting the west wall of the Astor Place station. The reservation for this branch is still in force as of the early 1980s; an apartment house on 9th Street was prevented from certain basement reconstruction because the work would compromise the right-of-way. Greenwich Village transit activists suggested building this spur to provide some cross-Village transit but by now it seems impractical and unlikely. Station Decoration.
Artwork: Untitled, Milton Glaser (1986)
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