Services None (abandoned) Next north 96th Street Opened 27 October 1904 Platforms in use 2 | Structure Underground Borough Manhattan Locale Upper West Side Tracks 4 | |
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Address West 91st Street & Broadway
New York, NY 10025 Line IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line Closed February 2, 1959; 58 years ago (1959-02-02) Similar 221st Street, 145th Street, 86th Street, 18th Street, 96th Street | ||
91st Street was a local station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. It opened in 1904 as part of the first IRT line, and it closed in 1959 due to platform lengthening at adjacent stations.
Contents
History
Operation of the first subway began on October 27, 1904, with the opening of all stations from City Hall to 145th Street on the West Side Branch. A station was provided at 91st Street to avoid having 10 blocks without a subway station (86th Street to 96th Street).
The station's decline started to come about in 1948, platforms on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line from 103rd Street to 238th Street were lengthened to 514 feet (157 m) to allow trains of ten 51.4-foot-long (15.7 m) cars to stop at these stations; previously, platforms could only accommodate six-car local trains. The platform extensions were opened in stages through 1948. A further circumstance that caused the 91st Street station's closure came in the late 1950s. A new service pattern was implemented on the line during peak hours, removing a rush-hour service bottleneck north of 96th Street by rerouting local trains up the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line to Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street and express trains to the Bronx and 145th Street via the IRT Lenox Avenue Line. On February 6, 1959, all Broadway trains became locals and all Lenox Avenue trains were expresses, eliminating the need to switch tracks.
The rush-hour service could not be implemented until the platform extensions at stations on the line were completed. The original IRT stations north of Times Square could only fit five- or six-car trains. By 1958, the platform extensions at the local stations were nearly completed, but there were more problems with the platform extensions at the two express stations, 72nd Street and 96th Street. At 72nd Street, the track layout was simply changed, but at 96th Street, the local tracks and the outside walls had to be moved. A new mezzanine with stairways to the street was built between West 93rd Street and West 94th Street. Since the 86th Street and 96th Street stations had their platforms extended in order to accommodate 10-car trains, the 91st Street station was closed on February 2, 1959 because it could not have its platforms extended, since they would already be too close to the other two stations. Advertisements from 1959 persisted for several years before the station walls were graffitied over.
Station layout
The station's two abandoned side platforms are still visible from passing trains. The 91st Street station is fairly well preserved, with the exception of some litter and graffiti.