Elmhurst Avenue (IND Queens Boulevard Line)

History

The Queens Boulevard Line was one of the first lines built by the city-owned Independent Subway System (IND), and stretches between the IND Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan and 179th Street and Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. The Queens Boulevard Line was in part financed by a Public Works Administration (PWA) loan and grant of $25,000,000. On December 31, 1936, the IND Queens Boulevard Line was extended by eight stops, and 3.5 miles (5.6 km), from its previous terminus at Roosevelt Avenue to Union Turnpike, and the Elmhurst Avenue station opened as part of this extension.

Station layout

This underground station has four tracks and two side platforms. The two center express tracks are used by the E train during daytime hours and the F train at all times. Both platforms have a teal trim line on a black border with small "ELMHURST" signs in white lettering on a black background beneath them. They also have name tablets reading "ELMHURST AVE." in white sans serif lettering on a black background and teal border. Yellow i-beam columns run along both platforms at regular intervals with alternating ones having the standard black name plates in white lettering.

This station has a full-length mezzanine above the platforms and tracks supported by yellow i-beam columns. It is separated into three sections by two chain-link fences. However, underneath the westernmost staircase of the station, there is a passageway that connects the mezzanines from each direction, allowing free transfers between directions. Each platform has seven staircases going up to the mezzanine. The token booth is at the center in the middle section outside fare control with a small turnstile bank to either outer section.

This station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 6, 2005, as structure number 05000672.

Exits

The staircases to the street are at either end of the mezzanine. On the northwest (railroad south) side, one staircase goes up to the southwest corner of 82nd Street and Broadway while another goes up to the southwest corner of Britton Avenue and Broadway. At this end, there are two exit-only turnstiles from the Forest Hills-bound side of the mezzanine and two High Entry-Exit Turnstiles from the Manhattan-bound side. On the southeast (railroad north) side of the mezzanine, there are two staircases going up to either southern corners of 45th Avenue and Broadway and another going up to the northwest corner that is built within a store front and goes through a small underground shopping arcade. On this side, there are two exit-only turnstiles and one High Entry-Exit Turnstile from the Forest Hills-bound side and two High Entry-Exit Turnstiles from the Manhattan-bound side.

Nearby infrastructure

The Elmhurst station on the Long Island Rail Road's Port Washington Branch was about half a block to the south of this station before it closed in 1985.

Between this station and Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue, there are holes on the tunnel's ceiling which are the never-used tunnels coming from the Roosevelt Avenue Terminal station.