Of the station renovations along the IRT Broadway Line done in the late 1990s and early 2000s my favorite just may be the 66th Street-Lincoln Center station, one of the Original 28 stations opened by Interborough Rapid Transit in 1904. Lincoln Center is NYC’s premier performance space, with the Metropolitan Opera, David Geffen (Avery Fisher) and Alice Tully Halls, the Juilliard, Vivian Beaumont and Walter Reade Theaters, among many other venues. The “travertine acropolis of music and theater” as the AIA Guide to New York City puts it, occupies three blocks between West 62nd and 65th Streets and Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. It was begun with a turn of a spade by President Eisenhower on May 14, 1959 and cost $165 million: over $1 billion in today’s money, almost all of it in private contributions.
When subway engineers ran the line up Broadway to what became the Lincoln Square neighborhood in 1904, it was inconceivable that there would be a grand entertainment mecca this far north. Block after block of tenements lined the streets, which could be mean ones by the time “West Side Story,” set in the neighborhood, was written. NYC’s “power broker” Robert Moses was to raze a total of 18 square blocks to create Lincoln Center and public housing at the site, displacing 7,000 low-income apartments and replacing them with only 4400, according to Robert A. Caro’s book that gave Moses his title.
A complete overhaul in the early 1990s gave 66th Street completely new signage and wall decoration. Designers cleverly matched the typefonts and plaque design to original Grueby Faience specs. You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s the original signage, but the LC — for Lincoln Center (also spelled out on the station ID tablets) give it away.
An amphora (two-handled jug used in ancient Greece and Rome) is seen in the frieze, matching the ones at the Astor Place and 50th Street stations, which share overall design elements with 66th Street.
The shimmery, golden station mosaics are Nancy Speros’ Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers. These were placed here after the main renovations, in 2001.
66th Street, along with the old basement Flatbush Avenue LIRR terminal, share the distinction as the locales where I was stopped by the NYPD from taking photographs and forced to delete the photos from the camera. With my shabby appearance and shuffling gait, I can give off terrorist vibes.
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4/13/23