Station: Astor Place (IRT East Side Line)
From nycsubway.org
IRT East Side Line at Astor Place. Reproduction IRT kiosk. Photo by: Jason R. DeCesare, 1995.
| IRT East Side Line |
Overview
Opened: 10/27/1904
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. The beaver plaques and station name tablets are original decoration made by the Grueby Faience Co.
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.
Artwork
Untitled, Milton Glaser (1986)
Photo Gallery
 Image 11422 (64k, 750x562) Photo by: Robbie Rosenfeld Location: Astor Place |
 Image 11427 (47k, 728x539) Photo by: Robbie Rosenfeld Location: Astor Place |
 Image 11436 (54k, 717x530) Photo by: Robbie Rosenfeld Location: Astor Place |
 Image 11437 (47k, 750x562) Photo by: Robbie Rosenfeld Location: Astor Place |
 Image 32443 (115k, 814x507) Collection of: Ed Levine Location: Astor Place |
 Image 38381 (169k, 1044x788) Photo by: Richard Panse Location: Astor Place |
 Image 78767 (203k, 1044x791) Photo by: Roberto C. Tobar Location: Astor Place |
 Image 110301 (61k, 640x480) Photo by: David Blair Location: Astor Place |
 Image 110306 (57k, 640x480) Photo by: David Blair Location: Astor Place |
 Image 110312 (59k, 640x480) Photo by: David Blair Location: Astor Place |
 Image 110314 (55k, 640x480) Photo by: David Blair Location: Astor Place |
 Image 115275 (225k, 1024x692) Collection of: Collection of nycsubway.org Location: Astor Place |
 Image 115278 (276k, 1024x682) Collection of: Collection of nycsubway.org Location: Astor Place |
 Image 115281 (218k, 1024x688) Collection of: Collection of nycsubway.org Location: Astor Place |
 Image 126761 (255k, 1024x686) Photo by: Eric Oszustowicz Collection of: Joe Testagrose Location: Astor Place |