A couple of years ago, I walked the underground passageway beneath 6th Avenue in Rockefeller Center; you can walk from 42nd 47th Street all the way to 5th Avenue and 50th Street, at the Atlas statue across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, without having to enter the subway at all. There are a number of blue and white signs in the Avant-Garde font, which really got a workout in the 1970s and 1980s but is a bit passé today (there was a question about the font on a sign at the old Staten Island Teleport in yesterday’s post, and someone though it was Avant Garde, but it’s not.) The Avant Garde font was drawn by type designer Herbert F. Lubalin to be used in a now-defunct magazine of the same name:
From January 1968 through July 1971, Ginzburg published Avant Garde. While it could not be termed obscene, it was filled with creative imagery often caustically critical of American society and government, sexual themes, and (for the time) crude language. One cover featured a naked pregnant woman; another had a parody of Willard’s famous patriotic painting, “The Spirit of ’76”, with a woman and a Black man. [wikipedia]
At the same time, there was a pop group called the Avant Garde and they had a modest hit called “Naturally Stoned.” The singer was none other than future game show host Chuck Woolery.
I’d say the signs go back to the 1980s; for all I know, they have been replaced by now. Metro Cards, used for subway fares, were introduced in the early 1990s and became universal in 1997; now, they are being phased out and will be replaced by the OMNY card reading system in 2024. So this sign represents two prior generations of fare technology (before tokens were introduced, tickets or nickels were used for admittance).
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8/21/23
12 comments
Thanks for posting. Good catch. Guess the Rock Center folks still think of the subway booths as token sales outlets. Since COVID, the only way to buy rides is by using a vending machine to refill one’s MetroCard. The station agents no longer handle cash. They are eyes and ears, but not sales persons. A few specific booths allow riders to transfer unused rides from one MetroCard to another one, which an agent will perform.
A few minor corrections, please. First, “before tokens were introduced, tickets or nickels or dimes were used for admittance.” The fare was a dime from July 1948 until July 1953. Second, I don’t believe a person can walk from 42nd Street all the way to 5th Avenue and 50th Street without entering the subway. Believe you mean a person can walk from 47th Street to 5th Ave. & 50th Street without entering the subway, using the Rock Center station mezzanine and the shopping concourse.
I remember Avant Garde.A used book store wouldnt sell it to me because I was a minor.
But my best friends mother had all the issues so I got to see it anyway.Though its easily
been 50 yrs or more I still remember the article about Superman,the Cuban legend.
The northernmost (W51st Street) connection for the Rockefeller Center underground passageway is also the southern starting point for 6th 1/2 Avenue. You can connect through building lobbies and outdoor passageways, with full stop signs for the crosstown vehicular traffic. This will bring you to West 57th Street, which is a pretty good walk from anywhere in the Rockefeller Center complex. It’s a great pedestrian-friendly way to move through that part of midtown.
I would wager that if you ask any New Yorker of a certain age, and they still call it a token booth. I wouldn’t be surprised if most New Yorkers do, but I haven’t quizzed any Gen Z or Millennial as to what they call it.
Yes, the same way that most native New Yorkers, of any age, don’t call it “Avenue of the Americas”, just plain “6th Avenue”.
My father was a token booth agent for a while in the 60’s. At that time there were still Indian Head pennies, Buffalo nickels, Mercury dimes, and Liberty quarters/half dollars in circulation. He’d try to put them aside and make up the difference with his own pocket change. I wish I knew what happened to them!
You cannot walk outside of fare control from 42 to 50th. I think only from 47th and 6th to to 787 7th at 52nd.
I remember being able to walk underground from the 47-50 st station to the 34 st station w/o having to pay a fare. The passageway was closed decades ago due to safety issues. Kevin, I believe you covered the passageway before
The passageway you recall went between 40th & 6th Ave. (south end of 42-Bryant Park Station), and 35th and 6th Ave. (north end of Herald Square Station). The passageway was outside of the fare controls and included a street stairway to 38th Street, because the old 6th Ave. Elevated had a station there, between its 33rd and 42nd St. stops. The passageway never extended northward to the 47-50th St. Station, and was closed around 1980 because of crime issues. The space is still there, used for storage, but is not accessible to the public.
There never was a passageway/mezzanine connecting 42nd/Bryant Park with 47-50th Rockefeller Center. The IND station’s outside-of-fare control mezzanine originally ran from 34th St. to 42nd-Bryant Park with entrances at 34th, 35th, 38th and 40th Streets. This passageway, among 15 which were deemed dangerous passageways in the
system, were closed by NYCTA on March 28, 1991.
Does anyone remember the “Gimbel’s passageway”, where one could walk from 6th Ave to 7th? Technically one could have walked underground from 42nd & 6th to Penn Station
My father worked on 47th street between 5th and 6th Avenue. I remember when I was young (in the mid 60’s) you could walk from 47th to 43rd using the various arcades at street level that were then extant!