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Platform of Downtown train |
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| Station statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Address | Astor Place & Lafayette Street New York, NY 10003 |
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| Borough | Manhattan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Locale | NoHo / East Village | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Division | A (IRT) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Line | IRT Lexington Avenue Line | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Services | 4 (late nights) 6 (all times) <6>(weekdays until 8:45 p.m., peak direction) |
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| Connection |
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| Structure | Underground | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Platforms | 2 side platforms | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tracks | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opened | October 27, 1904[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Former/other names | Astor Place – Cooper Union | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traffic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Passengers (2010) | 5,623,822[2] 1.8% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rank | 71 out of 422 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Next north | 14th Street – Union Square: 4 6 <6> | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Next south | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Astor Place Subway Station (IRT)
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| MPS: | New York City Subway System MPS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NRHP Reference#: | 04001013[3] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Added to NRHP: | September 17, 2004 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Astor Place, also called Astor Place – Cooper Union on signs, is a local station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Completed in 1904, it is one of the original twenty-eight stations in the system. The station is on the List of Registered Historic Places in New York.
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Located at the intersection of Lafayette Street and Astor Place between the East Village and NoHo, it is served by the 6 train at all times, the <6> train during weekday in peak direction and by the 4 train during late nights. The original plans for the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad (now PATH) included a spur along Ninth Street to this station.
Astor Place is a local station with four tracks and two side platforms. The fare control is at platform level, and the underpass connecting northbound and southbound sides was removed in the 1980s. The northbound platform contains a news and candy stand, which replaced the original public women's lavatory. On the southbound side, the station has a department store entrance into a K-Mart. This store was originally constructed in 1868 as an A. T. Stewart. It had changed ownership and was a Wanamaker's when the station was constructed. The heavy brick-faced square columns on the downtown platform support the store above. The northern building of Wanamaker's store, but not the southern building above, burned in the 1950s. Octagonal windows on the brick wall of the platform were the store's showcases.
Plaques of beavers are located on the walls, in honor of John Jacob Astor's fortune derived from the beaver-pelt trade. The plaques, as well as name tablets, were made by the Grueby Faience Company in 1904. The station also has untitled porcelain on steel murals, made by Cooper Union alumnus Milton Glaser in 1986. During the renovation, the magnificent maroon and gold tile Cooper Union signs underneath the tile Astor Place signs were destroyed.[4] Black and white pillar signs read Astor Place on one pillar, then Cooper Union on the next.
The station underwent renovation in 1986. In addition to the famous glazed ceramic beaver plaques, new porcelain street artwork was installed. There is a reproduction of an IRT entry kiosk on the street level over the northbound entrance. There was an underpass between the uptown and downtown sides, but it was closed and covered up in the 1980s renovation. The access hatch to the underpass is visible behind the northbound token booth inside the fare control area.
The station itself is a point of local interest as it is on the List of Registered Historic Places in New York. Several other sites of historical and cultural importance located near the station. New York University and Cooper Union are located nearby. Visitors to the Astor Place area often rotate the Alamo (sculpture) which is at street level above the tail end of the northbound platform. A tiled-up doorway, on southwest wall behind the southbound token booth, sports a lintel proclaiming "Clinton Hall". This doorway once led to the New York Mercantile Library in the former Astor Opera House.[5]
The Eighth Street – New York University station on the BMT Broadway Line is one block west of the station.