The Broadway–Lafayette Street/Bleecker Street station is a New York City Subway station complex in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line and the IND Sixth Avenue Line. It is served by the 6, D, and F trains at all times; the B and M trains on weekdays during the day; the 4 train during late nights; the <6> train during weekdays in the peak direction; and the <F> train during rush hours in the peak direction.
The complex comprises two stations, Bleecker Street and Broadway–Lafayette Street. The Bleecker Street station was built for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), and was a local station on the city's first subway line, which was approved in 1900. The station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway. The Broadway–Lafayette Street station was built as an express station for the Independent Subway System (IND) and opened on January 1, 1936.
The Bleecker Street station has two side platforms and four tracks; express trains use the inner two tracks to bypass the station. The Broadway–Lafayette Street station has two island platforms and four tracks. The transfer between the downtown IRT platform and the IND platform has been within fare control since May 19, 1957, and the corresponding free transfer from the uptown IRT platform to the rest of the station opened on September 25, 2012. The station complex contains elevators, which make it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The original portion of the Bleecker Street station's interior is a New York City designated landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History
IRT Lexington Avenue Line
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. It 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 Bleecker Street station was constructed as part of the route segment from Chambers Street to Great Jones Street. Construction on this section of the line began on July 10, 1900, and was awarded to Degnon-McLean Contracting Company. In the vicinity of the Bleecker Street station, the subway was to run under Lafayette Street, a new thoroughfare constructed between 1897 and 1905. This involved widening, connecting, and renaming two formerly unconnected streets: Elm Street, which ran south of Houston Street, and Lafayette Place, which ran north of Great Jones Street to an intersection with Astor Place. The southward extension of Lafayette Street and the construction of the subway required the demolition or underpinning of several buildings in the street's path. This resulted in the creation of narrow land lots on either side of Lafayette Street between Houston and Great Jones Streets, an area that included the Bleecker Street station's site. Even after the subway was completed, many of the narrow lots on Lafayette Street remained undeveloped for decades.
During the station's construction in 1903, a portion of the ceiling collapsed, reportedly because of poor workmanship. By late 1903, the subway was nearly complete, but the IRT Powerhouse and the system's electrical substations were still under construction, delaying the system's opening. Except for the collapsed section of the ceiling, the station itself was finished by January 1904. The Bleecker Street station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway from City Hall to 145th Street on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. The opening of the first subway line, and particularly the Bleecker Street station, helped contribute to more development in the East Village, which at the time was already densely populated.
1900s to 1930s Shortly after the station opened, IRT workers allowed advertisers to place more than 40 advertisements on the walls, even though the Rapid Transit Commission had banned the IRT from displaying ads in stations. The IRT proposed modifying the ads so they harmonized with the station's architecture, but the Municipal Art Society wanted the ads to be taken down because they overlapped with the name tablets on the walls. Legal disputes over the advertisements continued until 1907, when a New York Supreme Court judge ruled that the IRT could display advertising at stations.
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. In addition to $1.5 million (equivalent to $ million in ) spent on platform lengthening, $500,000 (equivalent to $ million in ) was spent on building additional entrances and exits. It was anticipated that these improvements would increase capacity by 25 percent. The Bleecker Street station's northbound platform was extended north by , while the southbound platform was extended south by . Six-car local trains began operating in October 1910.
In December 1922, the Transit Commission approved a $3 million project to lengthen platforms at 14 local stations along the original IRT line, including Bleecker Street and seven other stations on the Lexington Avenue Line. Platform lengths at these stations would be increased from . The commission postponed the platform-lengthening project in September 1923, at which point the cost had risen to $5.6 million. The commission again considered lengthening the IRT platforms at Bleecker Street in December 1927. At the end of the month, the Transit Commission requested that the IRT create plans to lengthen the platforms at Bleecker Street and three other Lexington Avenue Line stations to . The northbound platform at Bleecker Street needed to be lengthened by , while the southbound platform needed to be lengthened ; both platforms could be extended to either the north or south. The federal government placed an injunction against the commission's platform-lengthening decree, which remained in place for over a year. By 1929, the New York City Board of Transportation had not yet drawn up plans for the Bleecker Street station.
1940s to 2000s The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. The New York City Board of Transportation issued a $1.97 million contract in early 1947 to extend the southbound IRT platforms at Bleecker Street and Spring Street to fit ten-car trains. The work was finished the next year.
In late 1959, contracts were awarded to extend the platforms at , , , , , Bleecker Street, , , , and to . In April 1960, work began on a $3,509,000 project (equivalent to $ million in ) to lengthen platforms at seven IRT Lexington Avenue Line stations to accommodate ten-car trains. The northbound platforms at Canal Street, Spring Street, Bleecker Street, and Astor Place were lengthened from ; the platform extensions at these stations opened on February 19, 1962.
In 1979, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the space within the boundaries of the original Bleecker Street station, excluding expansions made after 1904, as a city landmark. The station was designated along with eleven others on the original IRT. The IRT station was renovated in the late 1980s, but the renovation was delayed by one year because the project had to be redesigned to conform to landmark regulations. High entry-exit turnstiles were added at the Bleecker Street entrance to the southbound platform in 1998. The previous turnstiles at that entrance, which had dated from the 1930s, often malfunctioned and did not allow passengers to enter. The Bleecker Street station's original interiors were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
IND Sixth Avenue Line
Construction and opening New York City mayor John Francis Hylan's original plans for the Independent Subway System (IND), proposed in 1922, included building over of new lines and taking over nearly of existing lines, which would compete with the IRT and the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT), the two major subway operators of the time. The IND Sixth Avenue Line was designed to replace the elevated IRT Sixth Avenue Line. The first portion of the line to be constructed was then known as the Houston–Essex Street Line, which ran under Houston, Essex, and Rutgers Streets. The contract for the line was awarded to Corson Construction in January 1929, and construction of this section officially started in May 1929.
In 1930, the New York City Board of Transportation (BOT) identified the locations of 104 stations to be built in the IND system. Under this plan, there would have been an express station under Houston Street between Broadway and Lafayette Street. The same year, as part of the Broadway–Lafayette Street station's construction, the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank gave the city permission to build and operate an entrance to the station within the bank's building at the northwest corner of Houston Street and Broadway. The BOT awarded a $371.113 contract in July 1932 for the installation of finishes at the Broadway–Lafayette Street station and three others along the Houston–Essex Streets Line. In early 1934, the BOT began looking to rent out a vacant lot at the intersection of Lafayette and Houston Streets, which had been cleared for the construction of the subway. That July, the BOT solicited bids for the installation of signals and switches on the Houston–Essex Street Line; the contract had been scheduled for January 1933 but was delayed eighteen months because the city did not have enough money.
The Broadway–Lafayette Street station opened on January 1, 1936, as one of the first four stations on the Houston–Essex Street Line, the first part of the Sixth Avenue Line. At the time of the station's opening, some of the columns had not been finished. The two local tracks split from a junction with the Eighth Avenue Line south of West Fourth Street–Washington Square, running east under Houston Street and south under Essex Street to a temporary terminal at East Broadway.
1940s to 1990s