ENTRANCE and exit kiosks were constructed by the IRT, or Interborough Rapid Transit (today’s numbered subway lines) for its original 28 stations from City Hall north to 145th Street along Elm (now Lafayette Street) 4th/Park Avenue South, 42nd Street and Broadway. The kiosks originally had separate entrance (domed roofs) and exit (peaked roofs) structures, though I’m not sure if that distinction was carried through all the way to the kiosks’ extinction in the late 1960s.
They were always specifically referred to as “kiosks” because they were modeled after entrance and exit structures found on the oldest lines of the Budapest, Hungary’s subway (known as the Metro), constructed in 1896, which were in turn reminiscent of Hungarian summer houses, called ‘kushks’ that were modeled after similar ones found in Turkey and Persia. New York City has not constructed an entire new subway line since the 1930s, while Budapest’s newest line opened in 2014. The NYC Second Avenue Line is a northern extension of the Broadway Line; it is supposed to extend north to Harlem and south to Hanover Square, with completion in the far future. The youngest of FNY readers may see its completion in the late 21st Century.
Pretty early on, these entrance kiosks, placed on relatively narrow avenues and streets in Midtown, were interfering with sight lines of motorists and accidents were getting frequent, and so they were replaced with much less elaborate staircases and railings. All had been torn down by 1968.
See Off the Grid for more on the long-lost examples of subway architecture.
This photo, taken at Columbus Circle in 1904, is especially interesting. On the left, you can see Little Liberty, a 37-foot tall replica of Miss Liberty placed atop the Liberty Warehouse on West 64th Street. When the warehouse was torn down in the early 2000s, Little Liberty was moved to the parking lot at the Brooklyn Museum near Prospect Park. In early 2023, it was expected to be on the move once again, this time to St. Louis, Missouri.
Astor Place, one of the IRT’s original 28 stations, is especially interesting for its terra cotta station ID plaques and beavers (John Jacob Astor made his millions in the beaver fur trade), entrance to the old Wanamaker’s department store, and bricked-up entrance to the former Clinton Hall.