Old-school subway signs hiding in plain sight

The MTA obscures them with ongoing construction, cheap tiles, and ugly pipes and wires. But vintage subway infrastructure remains in many stations . . . if you look closely enough.

Most of the original detail in the 6 station at Lexington Avenue and 103rd Street, opened in 1918, disappeared after a renovation. But somehow this Downtown Trains mosaic survived.

The lovely Ionic columns and “exit to street” sign framing this exit from the IRT Fulton Street station are like archeological ruins from another era, hard to detect among the construction walls and modern turnstiles.

Imagine all the magazines and newspapers sold over the years at what was once a newsstand at the 77th Street R station in Bay Ridge.

The station—and presumably the newsstand—opened in 1916, but it’s long since been tiled over.

Tags: IRT Fulton Street Subway, NYC subways, old subway infrastructure, old subway stations, subway 103rd Street, subway newsstand, Vintage subway signs