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| Station statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Address | Avenue H & East 16th Street Brooklyn, NY 11230 |
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| Borough | Brooklyn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Locale | Midwood, Flatbush | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Division | B (BMT) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Line | BMT Brighton Line | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Services | Q (all times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Structure | Open-cut/embankment | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Platforms | 2 side platforms | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tracks | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opened | 1907 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Former/other names | Fiske Terrace | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traffic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Passengers (2010) | 662,564[1] 19.2% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rank | 396 out of 422 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Station succession | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Next north | Newkirk Plaza: Q | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Next south | Avenue J: Q | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Avenue H is a local station on the BMT Brighton Line of the New York City Subway. Located at Avenue H between East 15th and East 16th Streets on the border of Midwood and Flatbush, Brooklyn, it is served by the Q train at all times. The campuses of Brooklyn College and Midwood High School are nearby.
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Avenue H is laid out in a typical local stop setup.[2] There are four tracks and two side platforms. The center two tracks are the express tracks used by the B train on weekdays.[2] The ~620 foot (~189m) platform accommodates full-length trains typically composed of eight 75 foot (22.86m) or ten 60 foot (18.29 m) cars. The station is located at a transitional point on the right-of-way. North of the station, the roadbed ramps down to an open-cut. South of the station, the line is on a raised earthen embankment. This is the result of an increase of grade on the line in the early 1900s which then allowed it to pass over (rather than under, as before) the newly depressed grade of the LIRR's Bay Ridge Branch and the nearby Manhattan Beach Junction station. The station platform lies over this crossing which exists between Avenues H and I.
Due to the change in elevation, the north end of this station is slightly above ground level and as a result, road traffic on Avenue H dead-ends on both sides of the line. However, there is a pedestrian tunnel underneath the embankment that connects the sidewalk on both sides.
The southbound (Coney Island-bound) local track is technically known as A1 while the northbound (Manhattan-bound) one is A2; the "A" designation is used for chaining purposes along the Brighton Line from the Manhattan Bridge to Coney Island. Although they cannot be accessed at Avenue H, the southbound and northbound express tracks are known as A3 and A4, respectively.
The station was opened around 1900 as Fiske Terrace, a two-track surface station serving the new planned community of Fiske Terrace in Midwood, Brooklyn. The station house, also known as the headhouse, through which the station is entered, is a landmarked wood frame structure built in 1905 as a real estate office of the T.B. Ackerson Company to sell homes in the new community. It was converted to railroad use in 1907, at the same time that the station was renamed "Avenue H."
In 2003, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced plans to demolish the structure, citing its wood construction as a fire hazard. The community intervened, emphasizing the building's historic importance, architectural significance, connecting to the adjacent community and the fact that several other wooden station houses on the subway system had been given landmark status earlier.
On June 29, 2004, the station house was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. This allows renovations inside, but preserves the major structure and exterior. The contract to "restore the landmark station control house" as well as rehabilitation of the platforms and other stations structures was advertised for bids by the MTA for January 2007.
The official designation report describes the building:
| “ | The Avenue H station on the BMT line [...] is the city’s only shingled wooden cottage turned transit station house. Often compared to a country train stop, it originally served as a real estate sales office for developer Thomas Benton Ackerson to sell property in the adjacent neighborhood of Fiske Terrace, an early twentieth century example of planned suburban development. The structure, with a hipped and flared roof and wraparound porch, evokes in miniature the area’s Colonial Revival and Queen Anne houses. After nearly a century of commuter traffic, the Avenue H station remains in service and retains much historic fabric, from a corbelled chimney to peeled log porch columns. It is one of a very small number of wood-frame station houses surviving in the modern subway system, the only station adapted from a structure built for another function, and the only surviving station from Brooklyn’s once-extensive network of surface train lines, which had originally attracted Ackerson and numerous other developers to the area.[3] | ” |
This station began reconstruction in September 2009. Both platforms were rebuilt with new edges, windscreens, and canopies. An additional station house on the extreme north end of the Coney Island-bound platform was added on what was once marshland. An ADA-accessible ramp is currently under construction from street level on the west side of Avenue H to this station house. The landmarked station house was also renovated and a bank of turnstiles was installed in the underpass below the tracks. An exit-only turnstile was also installed on either sides of the underpass. A short tunnel from this underpass leads to the single staircase to the Coney Island-bound platform.