Astor Place station

Track layout
to 14 St to Bleecker St

Construction started on the first IRT line in 1900.[7] The part of the line from City Hall to just south of 42nd Street was part of the original IRT line including the Astor Place station, opened on October 27, 1904.[1]

In 1981, the MTA listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system.[8] The station underwent renovation from June 1984 to May 1986. The station was renovated for $2.5 million, and was part of the Adopt-a-Station program. The money included $600,000 from the Federal Urban Mass Transit Administration, $125,000 from private sources, including some from the Vincent Astor Foundation. The scope of the project included the restoration of the famous glazed ceramic beaver plaques, new improved lighting, the installation of noise-abatement material, as well as the installation of new brown floor tiles. A new piece of porcelain steel artwork by Cooper Union alumnus Milton Glaser was installed, and a cast-iron copy of one of the station's original kiosks was built. There was an underpass between the uptown and downtown sides, but it was closed and covered up in the 1980s renovation.[9]

The original plans for the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad (now PATH) included a spur along Ninth Street to this station.[10]

G	Street level	Entrances/exits
P Platform level	Side platform
	Northbound local	← toward Pelham Bay Park or Parkchester (14th Street–Union Square) ← toward Woodlawn late nights (14th Street–Union Square)
	Northbound express	← do not stop here
	Southbound express	→ do not stop here →
	Southbound local	→ toward Brooklyn Bridge (Bleecker Street) → → toward New Lots Avenue late nights (Bleecker Street) →
	Side platform

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 access hatch to the underpass is visible behind the northbound token booth inside the fare control area. 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. During the renovation, the magnificent maroon and gold tile Cooper Union signs underneath the tile Astor Place signs were destroyed.[11] Black and white pillar signs read Astor Place on one pillar, then Cooper Union on the next.

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 are located near the station. The New York University and Cooper Union are both located nearby. Visitors to the Astor Place area often rotate the Alamo Cube, at street level above the tail end of the northbound platform.[13] 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.[14] Other points of interest include:

• McSorley's Old Ale House[13]
• Cooper Union New Academic Building[13]
• Cooper Square Hotel[13]
• Public Theater (Astor Library)[13]
• Colonnade Row / Astor Place Theatre (Blue Man Group)[13]
• Kmart (former Wanamaker Department Store Annex)[13]
• Hamilton Fish House[13]

The Eighth Street – New York University station on the BMT Broadway Line is one block west of the station.[13]

• 
  Downtown entrance
• 
  Uptown entrance, a reproduction of an old IRT kiosk
• 
  Faience plaque with beaver, by Heins & LaFarge / Grueby Faience Company, 1904. The Astor fortune was based on trading beaver pelts
• 
  Faience name tablet by Heins & LaFarge / Grueby Faience Company, 1904.
• 
  Tile with initial "A"
• 
  Former women's restroom converted into newsstand
• 
  Columns with alternating Astor Place and Cooper Union sign plates

• Stookey, Lee (1994). Subway ceramics : a history and iconography of mosaic and bas relief signs and plaques in the New York City subway system. Brattleboro, Vt: L. Stookey. ISBN 978-0-9635486-1-0. OCLC 31901471.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Astor Place (IRT Lexington Avenue Line).

• nycsubway.org – IRT East Side Line: Astor Place
• nycsubway.org — Untitled Artwork by Milton Glaser (1986)
• Station Reporter — 6 Train
• Forgotten NY: Subways and Trains — Original 28 IRT subway stations
• MTA's Arts For Transit — Astor Place (IRT Lexington Avenue Line)
• Fourth Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Lafayette Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Platforms from Google Maps Street View
• Lobby and Kmart entrance from Google Maps Street View