Vaulted ceilings, pendant lighting, mosaic tiles, colored glass that let in natural light—these are some of the spectacular features of the City Hall IRT station, opened in October 1904 and the southernmost station on the original IRT route.
Unfortunately all of this beauty has been shut off to passengers since 1945—when the station was deemed redundant because the Brooklyn Bridge station so close. Also, it just didn’t accommodate the longer trains necessary to carry the vast numbers of city commuters.
Tags: City Hall IRT, City Hall IRT Station, CIty Hall Station, City Hall Subway 1904, City Hall Subway Station, Closed NYC Subway Stations, First Subway Station NYC, Most Beautiful Subway Station, Subway 1904 NYC, Subway Postcards NYC, Subway Station Vaulted Ceiling
Ephemeral New York 
December 3, 2018 at 7:00 am |
If you don’t get off the #6 when it turns around to head back north, you can get a view of the station. The best view is from the front so you’ll have to ask to motorman for permission, but I’ve never been refused.
December 3, 2018 at 3:57 pm |
I’d heard that they won’t let you stay on the 6 to see it anymore, so good to know it’s still possible.
December 3, 2018 at 11:38 am |
Wow! Amazing!
December 3, 2018 at 12:57 pm |
A “showcase”, clearly intended to impress investors. For those interested in more detailed history with images, here’s a link: http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/abandoned/cityirt.html
December 3, 2018 at 3:57 pm |
Thanks! A showpiece for sure, but I like to think of it now as a hidden treasure.
December 3, 2018 at 7:49 pm |
They do let you stay on the 6 train as it goes round the loop, but the Transit Museum holds tours of the old station…go to their website. The access through a staircase for those tours.
I’ve been in the station several times. It’s about three cars long.
The other reason it’s closed is that the curve itself is to hard for it to accommodate doors opening on middle cars on the trains that were rolled out after World War II. They had a similar problem on the inner loop at South Street, so they bricked up part of the inner platform as a wall, and modified the dedicated rolling stock on the Bowling Green-South Ferry Shuttle such that the middle doors simply would not open.
December 3, 2018 at 9:30 pm |
http://youtu.be/qQAvxBp4x3M
Waiting for a train at a dazzling subway station | Ephemeral New York
December 4, 2018 at 2:36 am |
[…] Source: FS – 898253 Waiting for a train at a dazzling subway station […]
May 2, 2022 at 1:47 am |
[…] Tunnel Day happened on March 24, 1900, and City Hall was decked out with flags, banners, and bunting. Makes sense: City Hall was the focal point for city politicians and other bigwigs, but it was also the site of the groundbreaking of the first station—the “crown jewel” City Hall IRT station. […]
May 11, 2022 at 1:44 pm |
There’s a story that City Hall station was last used by FDR as a way to hide his disabled legs from the awaiting public.