Division B (IND) Platforms 2 side platforms Borough Queens Tracks 4 | Structure Underground Opened 31 December 1936 Locale Elmhurst | |
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Line IND Queens Boulevard Line Services E (late nights)
M (weekdays until 11 p.m.)
R (all hours except late nights) Transit connections NYCT Bus: Q59, Q88
MTA Bus: Q11, Q21, Q29, Q38, Q52, Q53, Q60, QM10, QM11 Address Queens, NY 11373, United States Similar Grand Avenue–Newtown, Elmhurst Avenue, 36th Street, 67th Avenue, Queens Plaza | ||
Woodhaven boulevard ind queens boulevard line action weekend g o
Woodhaven Boulevard is a local station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway, consisting of four tracks. Located in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens, it is served by the R train at all times except nights, when the E train takes over service. The M train provides additional service here on weekdays except nights. The station serves the adjacent Queens Center Mall, as well as numerous bus lines.
Contents
- Woodhaven boulevard ind queens boulevard line action weekend g o
- History
- Station layout
- Exits
- Bus service
- References
Woodhaven Boulevard was opened on December 31, 1936, as Woodhaven Boulevard–Slattery Plaza. At the time, the station was part of the Independent Subway System. The plaza was demolished in the 1950s, but the name tablets displaying the station's original name were kept. In the 1980s, the Woodhaven Boulevard station was renamed after Queens Center, an adjacent shopping mall. The station was renovated in the 1990s after years of deterioration.
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.
During the station's construction, the main road of Queens Boulevard was depressed into underpasses at the intersections with Woodhaven Boulevard and Horace Harding Boulevard (also known as Nassau Boulevard). The easternmost underpass now carries Queens Boulevard below the Long Island Expressway (LIE), which replaced Horace Harding Boulevard. 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 Woodhaven Boulevard station opened as part of this extension. As a result of the extension, areas in Elmhurst were accessible by subway.
The station was originally named "Woodhaven Blvd–Slattery Plaza", after Slattery Plaza, the area where four main Queens thoroughfares (Eliot Avenue and Horace Harding, Woodhaven, and Queens Boulevards) intersected. The plaza, which no longer exists, featured several "mom-and-pop" small businesses. The plaza and subway station were named after Colonel John R. Slattery, former New York City Board of Transportation chief engineer who died in 1932 while supervising the construction of the IND Eighth Avenue Line. The construction of the LIE along the Horace Harding corridor in the 1950s resulted in the demolition of Slattery Plaza, although the name tablets retained the original name even after the plaza's demolition.
Queens Center Mall first opened in 1973, but the name convention on subway maps was not in use until the mid-to-late 1980s. The station became dilapidated by the 1980s due to lack of maintenance over the years, and in 1981, the MTA listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system. The station was also heavily used, serving 15,000 passengers per weekday by 1993. In 1993, the Woodhaven Boulevard station began a three-year renovation project as part of a general refurbishment of seventy New York City Subway stations. The refurbishment added a new station agent booth, as well as replaced platform tiles, staircase components, and lighting; added new signs and safety treads on the platform edges; and restored the station's restrooms. After the renovation, the station retained the now out-of-date "Woodhaven Blvd–Slattery Plaza" name tablets.
Station layout
Built as a local station, the station was constructed with bellmouth provisions to allow conversion into an express station. A close observation of both ends of this station reveals that the tunnel wall extends outward to allow space for the two side platforms to be replaced with island platforms, with the local tracks taking the side platforms' place. The station would have accommodated a major system expansion, with additional service coming from the Roosevelt Avenue Terminal station and the former LIRR Rockaway Line. Requests to convert the station were also put forward by the local community shortly after the station opened, due to heavy bus traffic feeding into the station and overcrowding at the Roosevelt Avenue express stop.
The name tablets on this station still retain the original name of Woodhaven Boulevard–Slattery Plaza. The tilework in this station consists of blue bands with a black border, similar to the tilework found at the Elmhurst Avenue stop, two stations west.
The station's full-length mezzanine allows crossover from any of the station's four staircases from each platform, with a total of eight staircases from the mezzanine to platform level. There is no direct indoor access to the Queens Center Mall's entrance at the northwest corner of Queens Boulevard and 59th Avenue from the mezzanine.
The 1996 artwork here is called In Memory of The Lost Battalion by Pablo Tauler. It uses nine support beams in the station's mezzanine wrapped in different materials— including glass, iron, and stainless steel—to honor the soldiers who served in the 77th Infantry Division during World War I.
Exits
The full-time side at the west end of the mezzanine has three street stairs. One leads to the northeast corner of Queens Boulevard and 59th Avenue, the closest to the mall. The other two staircases are through a long passageway to both southern corners of Queens Boulevard and Woodhaven Boulevard, acting as a pedestrian underpass outside of fare control. These staircases date back to the station's original opening. There is an entrance to the southeast corner of Woodhaven and Queens Boulevards that, as a result of the construction of the Long Island Expressway in the mid-1950s, leads only to two entrance ramps to the expressway, with no continuous sidewalk leading to the entrance.
The part-time portion at the former Horace Harding Boulevard on the east end has a closed and removed booth and one street stair to the north side of Queens Boulevard at 92nd Street. This entrance abuts two expressway ramps and leads to the former Horace Harding Boulevard, now replaced by the LIE exit ramp. This exit still has a directional mosaic pointing to it, listing the exit as 60th Avenue and 92nd Street on the north side of Queens Boulevard. The construction of the Long Island Expressway removed this intersection. This is also a staircase that dates to the station's opening.
Bus service
The station and the nearby Queens Center Mall are served by nine local MTA Regional Bus Operations routes and two express bus routes. Three of the four Woodhaven Boulevard bus lines (Q11, Q21, Q52 Limited) terminate at the station, with the Q53 Limited bus continuing westward towards the Woodside – 61st Street Station. Except for the Q88, Rego Park-bound Q59, Jamaica-bound Q60, and Corona-bound Q38, all northbound buses stop at the mall entrance, while all southbound buses as well as the QM10 and QM11 express buses stop at Hoffman Drive adjacent to Hoffman Park. The Q88 terminates at 92nd Street, in between the two halves of the mall.