July 17, 2006
Forgotten NY calls on city to reopen first subway stop
 Kevin Walsh, the man behind the excellent website (and upcoming book,) Forgotten NY, was lucky enough to grab a spot on a recent tour of the "crown jewel" of New York City's subway system: the original City Hall station.
It has been long-shuttered to the public for security reasons (it sits under City Hall,) and because its platform is too short for the modern, longer trains, the Transit Museum scheduled two tours for members this summer; both sold out fast. (But Transit Museum Director Gabrielle Shubert last month told NewYorkology she hopes to add more tours of the station in September.)
From Forgotten NY:
The City Hall station is totally unique. None of its architectural elements (its ogee curves and polychromatic tile), none of its lighting schemes (both artifical and natural), and none of its signage techniques are repeated elsewhere in the New York City subway system.
The bare bulbs that line the entrance arch were unpilferable, since their screw threads were reversed; they could not be used in any other light sockets but these. This practice was repeated at other NYC subway stations until the onset of fluorescent lighting in the 1950s.
City Hall Station contains not one right angle. The pictures of the station's interior at Forgotten Ny detail the disrepair of the century-old alcoves. Walsh then asks readers to call on the Transit Museum to remedy the situation: "It is clear that City Hall Station shouldn't be permitted to waste away in its current state: the optimum solution would be to open it somehow as a transit museum annex."
If you want to know more about the station, on August 3 Open House New York is holding a slideshow lecture by historian Robert Klara at the Brooklyn Lyceum. You won't get to set foot in the station for this talk, but you'll see photos and the original blueprints.
The lecture is one of only a handful events sponsored through the year by OHNY, which holds its big annual weekend event every October, briefly opening to the public many of the city's off-limits spaces. Set for October 7 and 8 this year, the full list of sites will not be revealed until September, but Governors Island and Ellis Island offcials have indicated they will both open normally closed sections of their islands, and OHNY has leaked a few other spots as well: The City Reliquary in Williamsburg, the new Lower East Side apartment complex called the Switch Building, the Chrysler Building lobby, the David Ling Architect headquarters, a Red Hook boaters tour and behind-the-scenes tours of the Meatpacking District.
Earlier: Open House NY 2006 set for October 7 and 8
First 28 subway stations celebrated at Forgotten NY
Old City Hall station opened to public on centennial
July 17, 2006 09:25 AM in Architecture, Downtown, History, Museums, Sightsology, Tours, Transportology
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