36th Street station (BMT Fourth Avenue Line)

Track layout
to Atlantic Av to 25 St to 9 Av Unused 40 St trackways to 45 St to 59 St

The 36th Street station was constructed as part of the Fourth Avenue Line, the plan for which was initially adopted on June 1, 1905.[7] The Rapid Transit Commission was succeeded on July 1, 1907, by the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC), which approved the plan for the line in late 1907.[8][9] The contract for the section of the line that included the 36th Street station, Route 11A4, which extended from 27th Street to 43rd Street, was awarded on May 22, 1908, to E.E. Smith Construction Company for $2,769.913.97 (equivalent to $78,819,000 in 2019). The New York City Board of Estimate approved the contract on October 29, 1909.[8][10] Construction on the segment started on December 10, 1909, and was completed in October 1912.[7]

As part of negotiations between New York City, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT), and the Interborough Rapid Transit Company for the expansion of the city's transit network, the line was leased to a subsidiary of the BRT. The agreement, known as Contract 4 of the Dual Contracts, was signed on March 19, 1913.[8] 36th Street opened on June 22, 1915, as part of an extension of the subway to Coney Island station, which included the Fourth Avenue Line north of 59th Street as well as the entire Sea Beach Line.[11][12] The station's opening was marked with a competition between two trains heading from Chambers Street station in Manhattan to the Coney Island station, one heading via the West End Line and the other via the Sea Beach Line; the latter got to Coney Island first.[12] As part of the Dual Contracts, the original southern half of the station was closed to make room for an above-ground connection to the BMT West End Line, and a new northern half was constructed.[13]

In July 1959, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) announced that it would install fluorescent lighting at the 36th Street station and five other stations along Fourth Avenue for between $175,000 and $200,000. Bids on the project were to be advertised on August 7, 1959 and completed by fall 1960.[14]

In the 1960s, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) started a project to lengthen station platforms on its lines in Southern Brooklyn to 615 feet (187 m) to accommodate 10-car trains.[15] On July 14, 1967, the NYCTA awarded a contract to conduct test borings at eleven stations on the Fourth Avenue Line, including 36th Street, to W. M. Walsh Corporation for $6,585 (equivalent to $50,492 in 2019) in preparation of the construction of platform extensions.[16] The NYCTA issued an invitation for bids on the project to extend the platforms at stations along the Fourth Avenue Line between Pacific Street and 36th Street, on March 28, 1969.[17] Funding for the renovation projects came out of the NYCTA's 1969–1970 Capital Budget, costing $8,177,890 in total.[18]

The station was overhauled from 1996 to 1997.[19] The changes included retiled walls,[20] rebuilt staircases, new tiling on the floors, upgrading the station's lights, installing ADA yellow safety treads along the platform edge, and new track-beds for local and express trains. It also included an art installation by Owen Smith called An Underground Movement: Designers, Builders, Riders. It features ceramic mosaics on mezzanine and stairway walls, and depicts the workers that have made the subway system possible.[21] In 2019, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced that this station would become ADA-accessible as part of the agency's 2020–2024 Capital Program.[22]

The station's only two exits are from the open northern mezzanine above the tracks at the very south end of the station. Outside fare control, two street stairs lead to the northwest corner of 4th Avenue and 36th Street. Another street stair leads to the northeast corner.[25]