Woodhaven Boulevard (IND Queens Boulevard Line)

 Woodhaven Blvd
 "M" train ​"R" train
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Forest Hills- and Jamaica-bound platform
Station statistics
Address Woodhaven Boulevard & Queens Boulevard
Elmhurst, NY 11373
Borough Queens
Locale Elmhurst
Coordinates 40°44′00″N 73°52′13″W / 40.73347°N 73.870397°W / 40.73347; -73.870397Coordinates: 40°44′00″N 73°52′13″W / 40.73347°N 73.870397°W / 40.73347; -73.870397
Division B (IND)
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 SBS, Q60, QM10, QM11
Structure Underground
Platforms 2 side platforms
Tracks 4
Other information
Opened December 31, 1936 (1936-12-31)
Station code 264[1]
Wireless service [2][3]
Former/other names Woodhaven Boulevard–Slattery Plaza
Woodhaven Boulevard–Queens Mall
Traffic
Passengers (2017) 6,871,409[4] Decrease 3.8%
Rank 63 out of 425
Station succession
Next east 63rd Drive–Rego Park: E  ​M  ​R 
Next west Grand Avenue–Newtown: E  ​M  ​R 

Woodhaven Boulevard is a local station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway, consisting of four tracks. Located in Elmhurst, Queens, it is served by the M train on weekdays, the R train at all times except nights, and the E train at night. The station serves the adjacent Queens Center Mall, as well as numerous bus lines.

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.

History

Track layout
to 63 Dr
to Grand Av

The Queens Boulevard Line was one of the first lines built by the city-owned Independent Subway System (IND),[5][6][7] and stretches between the IND Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan and 179th Street and Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens.[5][7][8] The Queens Boulevard Line was in part financed by a Public Works Administration (PWA) loan and grant of $25,000,000.[9]

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.[10] 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,[11][12] and the Woodhaven Boulevard station opened as part of this extension.[13][14][15] As a result of the extension, areas in Elmhurst were accessible by subway.[16]

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.[17] 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.[17] 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.[17][18]

Queens Center Mall first opened in 1973,[19] but the name convention on subway maps was not in use until the mid-to-late 1980s.[lower-alpha 1] 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.[20] The station was also heavily used, serving 15,000 passengers per weekday by 1993.[21] 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.[21][22] After the renovation, the station retained the now out-of-date "Woodhaven Blvd–Slattery Plaza" name tablets.[18]

Station layout

G Street level Exit/entrance
M Mezzanine Fare control, station agent, MetroCard machines
P
Platform level		 Side platform, doors will open on the right
Southbound local ← "M" train toward Middle Village–Metropolitan Avenue weekdays (Grand Avenue–Newtown)
← "R" train toward Bay Ridge–95th Street (Grand Avenue–Newtown)
← "E" train toward World Trade Center nights (Grand Avenue–Newtown)
Southbound express ← "E" train "F" train do not stop here
Northbound express → "E" train "F" train do not stop here →
Northbound local → "R" train ("M" train weekdays) toward Forest Hills–71st Avenue (63rd Drive–Rego Park) →
→ "E" train toward Jamaica Center–Parsons/Archer nights (63rd Drive–Rego Park) →
Side platform, doors will open on the right

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.[23] 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.[24][25] 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.[26][27]

The name tablets on this station still retain the original name of Woodhaven Boulevard–Slattery Plaza.[18] The tilework in this station consists of blue bands with a black border,[28] similar to the tilework found at the Elmhurst Avenue stop, two stations west.[29]

One of the "orphaned" station entrances, at the southeast corner of Woodhaven Boulevard and Queens Boulevard.

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.[30]

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.[31][32]

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.[30][33] These staircases date back to the station's original opening.[10] 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.[33][34]

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.[30][33][34] 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.[34] The construction of the Long Island Expressway removed this intersection.[30][33] This is also a staircase that dates to the station's opening.[10]

Bus service

Q53 Limited Bus via Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards prior to its 2017 conversion to a Select Bus Service route.

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 SBS) terminate at the station, with the Q53 SBS 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.[30][35]

Route Stop location North/West Terminal[35] South/East Terminal[35] via[35] notes[35]
Local Bus Routes
Queens Boulevard (northbound); Hoffman Drive (southbound) Woodhaven Boulevard Old Howard Beach or Hamilton Beach Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards
Howard Beach Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards, 155th Avenue, 157th Avenue
Jackson Heights (82nd Street Station) Glendale (81st Street and Myrtle Avenue) 90th/92nd Streets, Dry Harbor Road, 80th Street Some AM rush northbound service terminates here.
59th Avenue; Hoffman Drive Corona (60th Avenue and Otis Avenue) Rego Park (62nd Drive and 108th Street) Eliot Avenue, Metropolitan Avenue, Penelope Avenue, 63rd Drive Via Middle Village–Metropolitan Avenue Station
Queens Boulevard (northbound); Hoffman Drive (southbound) Woodhaven Boulevard Arverne Q53 trips: Broadway and Queens Boulevard
All trips: Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards, Rockaway Beach Boulevard		 Select Bus Service
Woodside (61st Street Station) Rockaway Park (Beach 116th Street Station)
Queens Boulevard Williamsburg, Brooklyn Rego Park (63rd Drive Station) Grand Street and Grand Avenue, Queens Boulevard
East Midtown, Manhattan South Jamaica Queensboro Bridge, Queens Boulevard, Sutphin Boulevard
92nd Street and 59th Avenue 92nd Street Queens Village (Queens Village LIRR Station) Horace Harding Expressway, 188th Street, 73rd Avenue, Springfield Boulevard
Express Bus Routes
Woodhaven Boulevard (near Hoffman Drive) Midtown Manhattan Rego Park / Elmhurst Loop (Drop-off Only) 3rd or 6th Avenue
Downtown Manhattan Downtown Loop

Notes

  1. ↑ According to scans of 1980s subway maps:
    • "1983 Subway Map". New York City Transit Authority. 1983. Retrieved July 10, 2016. Woodhaven Blvd–Slattery Plaza
    • "1987 Subway Map". New York City Transit Authority. 1987. Retrieved July 10, 2016. Woodhaven Blvd–Queens Center

References

  1. ↑ "Station Developers' Information". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
  2. ↑ "NYC Subway Wireless – Active Stations". Transit Wireless Wifi. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  3. ↑ More Subway Stations in Manhattan, Bronx in Line to Get Online, mta.info (March 25, 2015). "The first two phases included stations in Midtown Manhattan and all underground stations in Queens with the exception of the 7 Main St terminal."
  4. ↑ "Facts and Figures: Annual Subway Ridership 2012–2017". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. July 12, 2018. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  5. 1 2 Duffus, R.L. (September 22, 1929). "OUR GREAT SUBWAY NETWORK SPREADS WIDER; New Plans of Board of Transportation Involve the Building of More Than One Hundred Miles of Additional Rapid Transit Routes for New York". The New York Times. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  6. ↑ "QUEENS SUBWAY WORK AHEAD OF SCHEDULE: Completion Will Lead to Big Apartrnent Building, Says William C. Speers". The New York Times. April 7, 1929. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  7. 1 2 "Queens Lauded as Best Boro By Chamber Chief". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. September 23, 1929. p. 40. Retrieved October 4, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ New York Times, New Subway Routes in Hylan Program to Cost $186,046,000, March 21, 1925, page 1
  9. ↑ "TEST TRAINS RUNNING IN QUEENS SUBWAY; Switch and Signal Equipment of New Independent Line Is Being Checked". The New York Times. December 20, 1936. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  10. 1 2 3 "PLANS ARE CHANGED FOR QUEENS SUBWAY: Traffic Crossings at Nassau and Woodhaven Boulevards Altered to Avoid Congestion. VIADUCT PROJECT DROPPED Main Driveway to Be Depressed, Side Routes to Be at Grade-- New Bids Due Soon. How Plans Were Changed. Elimination Plans Received". The New York Times. June 22, 1930. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Reproduction Poster of Extension to Union Turnpike – Kew Gardens". Flickr – Photo Sharing!. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  12. ↑ Roger P. Roess; Gene Sansone (August 23, 2012). The Wheels That Drove New York: A History of the New York City Transit System. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 416–417. ISBN 978-3-642-30484-2.
  13. ↑ "PWA Party Views New Subway Link: Queens Section to Be Opened Tomorrow Is Inspected by Tuttle and Others" (PDF). nytimes.com. The New York Times. December 30, 1936. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  14. ↑ "CITY SUBWAY OPENS QUEENS LINK TODAY; Extension Brings Kew Gardens Within 36 Minutes of 42d St. on Frequent Trains". The New York Times. December 31, 1936. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  15. ↑ "OPENING MOVED UP FOR NEW SUBWAY; Traffic to Be Started on the Extension of City's Line to Kew Gardens on Thursday. EIGHT STATIONS ARE ADDED La Guardia and Official Party Will Inspect New Queens Branch on Wednesday". The New York Times. December 26, 1936. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  16. ↑ "NEW RETAIL AREA IN QUEENS BOROUGH; Sees Roosevelt Avenue Subway Station as Great Shopping Centre. ADVANTAGES POINTED OUT Accessibility to Many Home Communities Assures Potential Market". The New York Times. July 9, 1933. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  17. 1 2 3 Wilkinson, Christina; Walsh, Kevin (March 5, 2006). "REGO PARK, Queens". Forgotten NY. Retrieved August 18, 2015.
  18. 1 2 3 For more information on the current tablets that state "Woodhaven Blvd–Slattery Plaza", see the following sources:
    • Schneider, Daniel B. (October 15, 2000). "F.Y.I." nytimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
    • Karni, Annie (October 7, 2012). "Subway stations retain signs listing places and streets that no longer exist". nypost.com. New York Post. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
    • Walsh, Kevin (July 29, 2014). "Ely Around in Queens". queens.brownstoner.com. Blank Slate Factory, Inc. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  19. ↑ Siwolop, Sana (March 3, 2004). "COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE: REGIONAL MARKET – Queens; Renovations And Renewal For a Mall". The New York Times. Retrieved July 11, 2016. Built in 1973
  20. ↑ Gargan, Edward A. (June 11, 1981). "AGENCY LISTS ITS 69 MOST DETERIORATED SUBWAY STATIONS". The New York Times. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
  21. 1 2 Hernandez, Raymond (November 21, 1993). "NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: ELMHURST/EAST ELMHURST; An Offer of Help for the Tired Woodhaven Blvd. Station". The New York Times. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  22. ↑ "The New Woodhaven Blvd Station Woodhaven Blvd station Built in the 30s Renewed for the 90s" (pamphlet). Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  23. ↑ "The Express Stop That Never Was". ltvsquad.com. LTV Squad. June 2, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  24. ↑ Kihss, Peter (April 13, 1967). "3 Routes Proposed to Aid Growing Queens Areas" (PDF). nytimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  25. ↑ "Adding City Transit Line to Rockaways Is Chamber '47 Goal". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. January 2, 1947. p. 4. Retrieved October 10, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ↑ "Queens Bus Riders Join in Campaign For Station Shelters: Protection Is Sought At Slattery Place, Plus an Express Stop". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. December 15, 1940. p. 10. Retrieved October 10, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ↑ "Express Station Plea Is Weighed". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. October 20, 1940. p. 8. Retrieved October 10, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ↑ Cox, Jeremiah. "Woodhaven Blvd". The Subway Nut. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  29. ↑ "IND Queens Boulevard Line: Woodhaven Boulevard-Queens Mall". www.nycsubway.org. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  30. 1 2 3 4 5 "MTA Neighborhood Maps: Forest Hills" (PDF). mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2015. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  31. ↑ "MTA Arts & Design: Woodhaven Boulevard". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
  32. ↑ Cook, Lauren. "NYC subway art you need to check out". am New York. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
  33. 1 2 3 4
    • "SUBWAY-SIDEWALK INTERFACE PROJECT TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM IV ISSUES AND OPPORTUNITIES" (PDF). transalt.org. New York City Department of City Planning,. November 2000. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
    • "SUBWAY-SIDEWALK INTERFACE PROJECT: WOODHAVEN BOULEVARD STATION" (PDF). transalt.org. Transportation Alternatives, City of New York, New York City Department of City Planning, New York City Department of Transportation. 2000.
  34. 1 2 3 Cox, Jeremiah. "Woodhaven Blvd (G,R,V)". The SubwayNut. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
  35. 1 2 3 4 5 "Queens Bus Map" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. December 2017. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
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