Dean Street (BMT Franklin Avenue Line)

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Dean Street

New York City Subway station

Station information
Line BMT Franklin Avenue Line
Services None (demolished)
Platforms 2 side platforms
Tracks 2 while open, 1 at location today
Other
Borough Brooklyn
Opened Initial: August 15, 1896[1][2]
Reopening: October 28, 1901[citation needed]
Closed First closing: c. 1899[citation needed]
Final closing: September 10, 1995[3]
Next north Franklin Avenue
Next south Park Place


Dean Street was a station on the BMT Franklin Avenue Line of the New York City Subway, with its entrance on Dean Street west of Franklin Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Contents

[edit] History

Dean Street station had the unusual, if not unique, distinction of being opened and closed twice in its history, though the line it served continues in operation.

The Kings County Elevated Railway was connected to the Brighton Beach Line in 1896 by means of a ramp and short elevated line from a point south of the latter railroad's terminal at Atlantic and Franklin Avenues in Brooklyn. The local property owners were promised a station on the elevated structure near the old Bedford Terminal, and one was established by 1897 at Dean Street, nearly adjacent to the former terminal, which was closed.

The station was not well patronized and the elevated company closed it in 1899. An uproar ensued, including appeals to the State Railroad Commission. On October 28, 1901, Dean Street was opened for the second time.

The station continued to be poorly patronized, as it was only a few hundred feet from the Franklin Avenue station located at the busy intersection of Fulton Street and Franklin Avenue. Nevertheless, Dean Street was upgraded to handle six-car subway trains with the rest of the Franklin Avenue Line in 1924.

Dean Street station deteriorated with other stations on the line, and, in 1995, the New York City Transit Authority closed the station for the second and final time. The TA cited low patronage (the lowest on the subway system), its decrepit condition, and its proximity to Franklin Avenue station. At the time of its closing, Dean Street and Franklin Avenue were the two closest stations on the system. It was charged that many who used Dean Street station jumped the turnstiles, a major problem at the time, lowering the passenger count even further.

[edit] The station today

The line that once served the Dean Street station, the BMT Franklin Avenue Line, still operates as the Franklin Avenue Shuttle. The elevated portion of the line was completely rebuilt in the late 1990s, including the location of the Dean Street station, reopening in 1999. Virtually nothing visible remains of the former Dean Street station after the late 1990s rehabilitation.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "New Route to Coney Island", Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 14, 1896, p. 12. 
  2. ^ "First Trains to Brighton", Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 14, 1896, p. 7. 
  3. ^ "A Subway Station is Shuttered, the First in 33 Years," New York Times, September 11, 1995

[edit] External links

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