Many urbanophiles are aware of the Door to Nowhere on the north Times Square Shuttle platform, emblazoned with the word “Knickerbocker” that long ago opened to a staircase leading directly to the Knickerbocker Hotel, which stood above the station.
However, if you walk to the other end of the same platform, you will find, near the ceiling, a remnant of a brick arched doorway. That one led to the 1904 Times Tower and was used for freight deliveries from subway cars, or work trains, into the building. It was bricked up decades ago. The Times Tower still stands there, but now it’s used as a giant billboard.
8/27/13
4 comments
By “deliveries from subway cars”, surely you mean people and not freight? If not, let’s hear the story of what was being delivered!
Freight, I should have clarified.
I seem to recall — I think I’ve got this right — that when the subway first opened, it was used to deliver newspapers around Manhattan. I seem to think that stacks of papers were loaded from the press room of The Times into subway cars, and off they went.
I didn’t know the subway ever did freight deliveries. Do you have more information on this? Google tells me that Chicago once had an entire freight subway system but it was completely separate from the passenger system. I can’t imagine how freight would have been moved on the NYC subway since passenger service was 24/7 with high frequencies since day one.