The City Hall station, also known as City Hall Loop station, is a closed station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. It is located under City Hall Park, next to New York City Hall, in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The station was constructed for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as the southern terminal of the city's first subway line, which was approved in 1900. Construction of the segment of the line that includes the City Hall station started on September 12 of the same year. The station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway. As ridership grew, it was deemed infeasible to lengthen the original platform to accommodate ten-car trains. The station was closed on December 31, 1945, because of its proximity to the Brooklyn Bridge station. Since then, the platform has remained unused (except for occasional tours and events), while its track continues to be used as a turning loop.
The City Hall station, with its single track and curved side platform, was the showpiece of the original IRT subway. The single platform and mezzanine feature Guastavino tile, skylights, colored glass tilework, and brass chandeliers. The Rafael Guastavino-designed station is unique in the system for the usage of Romanesque Revival architecture. The tunnel passing through the City Hall station is still used as a turning loop for the and can be seen from passing trains. The station is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History
Construction and opening
Planning for a subway line in New York City dates to 1864. However, development of what would become the city's first subway line did not start until 1894, when the New York State Legislature passed the Rapid Transit Act. The subway plans were drawn up by a team of engineers led by William Barclay Parsons, the Rapid Transit Commission's chief engineer. They called for a subway line from New York City Hall in lower Manhattan to the Upper West Side, where two branches would lead north into the Bronx. A plan was formally adopted in 1897, and all legal conflicts over the route alignment were resolved near the end of 1899. The Rapid Transit Construction Company, organized by John B. McDonald and funded by August Belmont Jr., signed the initial Contract 1 with the Rapid Transit Commission in February 1900, in which it would construct the subway and maintain a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line. In 1901, the firm of Heins & LaFarge was hired to design the underground stations. Belmont incorporated the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) in April 1902 to operate the subway.
The station had always been envisioned as a terminal with loop tracks. The initial plans in the 1890s called for a multi-track loop, extending beneath the City Hall Post Office and Courthouse, which was then at the southern corner of City Hall Park. The loop was planned to have either two tracks (on two levels) or four tracks. When the plans for the IRT line were changed in 1898 to allow the express tracks to go to Brooklyn as part of the subway's Contract 2, the planned City Hall station was changed to a single-track local station, thereby avoiding a grade crossing with the express tracks. Under the 1898 iteration of the plan, the loop was to diverge from the line at the south end of Centre Street, traveling west under City Hall Park, south under Broadway, and then northeast under Park Row. In addition, tracks from the loop would have led to the post office building. East of the loop, there were two express tracks and two storage tracks.
Construction of the loop A formal groundbreaking ceremony was performed at City Hall on March 24, 1900, pursuant to the contract's requirements. The ceremony was officiated by then-Mayor Robert Van Wyck. Degnon-McLean Contracting Company was awarded the contract for Section 1, from the City Hall loop to Chambers Street. Work began promptly after the groundbreaking. The tunnel was built using a cut and cover method, with steel beams supporting a concrete roof made of jack arches. A further change was requested in September 1900, which would provide more room for the loop on the Park Row side.
Plans for the loop under City Hall Park were modified in January 1901, providing for a shortened loop. By that March, the City Hall Loop was planned to be built just north of the post office, rather than around it. At the end of the month, trees in City Hall Park were being removed in preparation for the loop's construction.
The portion of the loop in City Hall Park was excavated starting in April 1901. The trees were removed from the park using derricks. One worker was killed that May when a derrick boom in front of the subway excavation was knocked loose. Sand from the excavation was sold to builders who sought the sand for its "good quality". The short section adjacent to the post office could not be constructed because the Treasury Secretary had not approved the work, leading the IRT to request approval from Congress. The entirety of the loop within City Hall Park had been excavated by that August. Most of the excavation was covered over shortly afterward, although a small part remained open to facilitate work on the station.
In late 1901, the contractors began excavating the tunnel under Park Row, which would carry both the northbound track of the loop and the express tracks to Brooklyn. Work on the station was placed on hold because the station's concrete vaults were difficult to pour during winter.
By February 1902, three-fourths of the work for the station's side walls had been completed, and work had started on the vaults. The tunnel under Park Row had been fully excavated and was being covered with steel beams. Most of the loop was completed by late 1902, except for the section under the post office. The contractors excavated the remainder of the loop after they were given temporary permission, in December 1902, to use the vaults underneath the post office.
Completion By late 1903, the tilework of the sidewalks and the station's staircase were completed. Construction materials were being stored in the station's only entrance and exit. The subway was nearly complete, but the IRT Powerhouse and the system's electrical substations were still under construction, delaying the system's opening. On New Year's Day 1904, mayor George B. McClellan Jr. and a group of wealthy New Yorkers gathered at the City Hall station and traveled to 125th Street using handcars. The IRT conducted several more handcar trips afterward. The first train to run on its own power traveled from 125th Street to City Hall in April 1904.
The City Hall station opened on October 27, 1904, as the southern terminal station of the original 28-station New York City Subway line to 145th Street on the West Side Branch, now the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. At the time, the station was called "City Hall Loop". Prior to the opening, more than 15,000 people were issued passes for the first series of rides from the City Hall station's platform. McClellan attended the opening ceremonies, which began at 1:00 p.m. The first subway train departed from City Hall at precisely 2:34 p.m., with McClellan at the controls. President A. E. Orr of the Rapid Transit Board requested that all New Yorkers join in the celebration by blowing whistles and ringing bells. The new line carried 27,000 passengers for free until 6 p.m., and another 125,000 passengers paid to ride the subway in the six-hour period that followed.
Operation
Early years
Because of the limited number of entrances to the City Hall station, it was served exclusively by local trains, which also stopped at the much larger Brooklyn Bridge station. All express trains terminated at Brooklyn Bridge and did not go around the loop. Furthermore, the City Hall station was originally an entrance-only station; disembarking passengers had to go to the Brooklyn Bridge station. After the Fulton Street station opened in January 1905, the City Hall Loop was served by local trains to the West Side Branch at all times and by local trains to 145th Street on the East Side Branch (now Lenox Avenue Line) during the daytime. By July 1905, East Side local trains to 145th Street ran to City Hall at all times, while West Side locals bypassed this station and went to Bowling Green or South Ferry. To address ventilation issues, the IRT installed ventilation grates in City Hall Park in mid-1906. By the end of the year, West Side locals ran to City Hall during rush hours, and East Side locals ran to City Hall at all times.
Not long after the station opened, the IRT started displaying advertisements in the station, which was highly controversial but was allowed under the IRT's contract to operate the route. The New York City government initially did not find the ads to be problematic, but public outcry led the city to file a lawsuit to force the IRT to remove the ads. In 1907, the New York Supreme Court ruled that the IRT was allowed to keep the ads. To address overcrowding, in 1909, the New York Public Service Commission proposed lengthening the platforms at stations along the original IRT subway. As part of a modification to the IRT's construction contracts made on January 18, 1910, the company was to lengthen station platforms to accommodate ten-car express and six-car local trains. The City Hall station was not lengthened, but the platforms at other stations were extended, and six-car local trains began operating in October 1910.
In 1918, the Lexington Avenue Line opened north of Grand Central–42nd Street, and the original line was divided into an H-shaped system. All local trains were sent via the Lexington Avenue Line, running along the Pelham Line in the Bronx. In 1938, as part of a remodeling of City Hall Park, city parks commissioner Robert Moses proposed relocating the entrances of the IRT's City Hall station and those of the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT)'s adjacent City Hall station. The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940.
Decline Increased subway ridership led to longer trains, and thus longer platforms, in the years after the subway's construction. The City Hall station, built on a tight curve, would have been difficult to lengthen, and it was also quite close to the far busier Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall station. In addition, the new, longer trains had center doors in each car, which were an unsafe distance from the platform edge. Movable platform extensions were installed to fill the gap. By the 1930s, the New York Herald Tribune reported that the City Hall station was little used, "and many of the younger generation have never seen it". During World War II, shortly before the station's closure, the skylights were blacked out with tar for safety.
In its final years, the City Hall station was not open at night and on Sundays, when trains continued to South Ferry. The majority of passengers used the Brooklyn Bridge station, which was only about away. The Brooklyn Bridge IRT station provided both local and express service, including trains to Brooklyn, and it was much closer to the Brooklyn Bridge streetcar terminal and the BMT's Park Row elevated station. The city also wanted to operate ten-car trains after taking over the IRT, but the City Hall station could only fit six cars. Given the extensive renovations that would have been required to bring the station up to modern standards and the fact that the city wanted to improve City Hall Park by removing the entrance kiosks, the city decided to close the station instead. The final day of service was December 31, 1945. The station recorded 255,000 entries in its final year, or about 800 entries per day. By contrast, the Brooklyn Bridge station had 14 million entries the same year.
Post-closure