The Borough Hall/Court Street station is an underground New York City Subway station complex in Brooklyn shared by the BMT Fourth Avenue Line, the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and the IRT Eastern Parkway Line. The complex comprises three stations: Borough Hall on the two IRT lines and Court Street on the BMT line. The stations are located under Court, Joralemon, and Montague Streets, next to Brooklyn Borough Hall, in the Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights neighborhoods of Brooklyn. It is served by the 2, 4, and R trains at all times; the 3 train all times except late nights; the 5 train on weekdays; the N train during late nights; and limited rush-hour W trains.
The Borough Hall station of the Eastern Parkway Line was built for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as part of the city's first subway line. The station opened on January 9, 1908, when the original IRT was extended into Brooklyn. The Borough Hall station of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line opened on April 15, 1919, as part of the Dual Contracts. The Court Street station of the Fourth Avenue Line was built for the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT; later the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, or BMT) as part of the Dual Contracts, and opened on August 1, 1920. Several modifications have been made to the IRT and BMT stations over the years, and they were connected within a single fare control area in 1948.
The Eastern Parkway Line station under Joralemon Street has two side platforms and two tracks on the same level. The Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line station under Brooklyn Borough Hall also has two side platforms and two tracks on different levels. The Fourth Avenue Line station has one island platform and two tracks. Part of the complex is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The original portion of the Eastern Parkway Line station's interior is a New York City designated landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History
First subway Planning for a subway line in New York City dates to 1864. However, development of what would become the city's first subway line did not start until 1894, when the New York State Legislature passed the Rapid Transit Act. The subway plans were drawn up by a team of engineers led by William Barclay Parsons, the Rapid Transit Commission's chief engineer. The Rapid Transit Construction Company, organized by John B. McDonald and funded by August Belmont Jr., signed the initial Contract 1 with the Rapid Transit Commission in February 1900, in which it would construct the subway and maintain a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line. In 1901, the firm of Heins & LaFarge was hired to design the underground stations. Belmont incorporated the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) in April 1902 to operate the subway.
Several days after Contract 1 was signed, the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners instructed Parsons to evaluate the feasibility of extending the subway south to South Ferry, and then to Brooklyn. On January 24, 1901, the Board adopted a route that would extend the subway from City Hall to the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)'s Flatbush Avenue terminal station (now known as Atlantic Terminal) in Brooklyn, via the Joralemon Street Tunnel under the East River. Contract 2, which gave the IRT a 35-year lease, was executed between the commission and the Rapid Transit Construction Company on September 11, 1902. Construction of the Contract 2 tunnel began at State Street in Manhattan on November 8, 1902. and work on the Joralemon Street Tunnel began in 1903. By July 1907, the Borough Hall station was nearly completed except for the entrances.
The Borough Hall station opened on January 9, 1908, as the terminal for the extension of the IRT Lexington Avenue Line from Lower Manhattan. Borough Hall was the first underground subway station in Brooklyn; people waved flags throughout the borough to celebrate the station's opening, and officials celebrated the occasion with a parade and a banquet. Prior to the Borough Hall station's opening, the only rapid transit in Brooklyn had been the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT)'s elevated lines, which operated only as far as the Manhattan ends of the Brooklyn Bridge. The opening of the station thus also alleviated congestion on lines that used the Brooklyn Bridge. A temporary switch was installed just west of the station, allowing trains to terminate on the southbound track until the line could be extended. An extension to Atlantic Avenue opened on May 1, 1908, completing the Contract 2 IRT line. Bronze bas-reliefs by William Ordway Partridge were installed at the Borough Hall station in early 1909 to denote the station's status as Brooklyn's first underground subway station.
To address overcrowding, in 1909, the New York Public Service Commission proposed lengthening the platforms at stations along the original IRT subway. As part of a modification to the IRT's construction contracts made on January 18, 1910, the company was to lengthen station platforms to accommodate ten-car express and six-car local trains. In addition to $1.5 million (equivalent to $ million in ) spent on platform lengthening, $500,000 (equivalent to $ million in ) was spent on building additional entrances and exits. It was anticipated that these improvements would increase capacity by 25 percent. The northbound platform at the Borough Hall station was extended to the east, while the southbound platform was extended to the east. During the construction of the platform extensions, the facade of Brooklyn Borough Hall began to crack because of vibrations from construction equipment. On January 23, 1911, ten-car express trains began running on the East Side Line, and the next day, ten-car express trains began running on the West Side Line.
Dual Contracts After the original IRT opened, the city began planning new lines. One of these, the Centre Street Loop in Manhattan, was to connect the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and Williamsburg Bridge with a new tunnel under the East River. By 1910, the IRT's Borough Hall station was so crowded that residents of Brooklyn Heights, a residential neighborhood west of Borough Hall, wanted a stop to be added on the proposed Centre Street Loop within Brooklyn Heights. At the time, the line was supposed to have a station at Borough Hall, then slope downward under the East River. The Public Service Commission ultimately rejected a proposal for a Brooklyn Heights station because it would have required the tunnels to be built at an extremely steep slope of five percent.
IRT lines
As part of the Dual Contracts, approved in 1913, the New York City Public Service Commission planned to split the original IRT system into three segments: two north-south lines, carrying through trains over the Lexington Avenue and Broadway–Seventh Avenue Lines, and an east–west shuttle under 42nd Street. This would form a roughly H-shaped system. The Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line would split into two branches south of Chambers Street, one of which would turn eastward through Lower Manhattan, run under the East River via a new Clark Street Tunnel, and connect with the existing Contract 2 IRT Brooklyn Line at Borough Hall. The IRT was authorized to construct a station at Borough Hall. The line's Borough Hall station was a two-level station, with a connection to the existing Eastern Parkway Line station; the double-deck arrangement was required because the eastbound track had to pass under the existing line. To minimize disruption at street level, the line was excavated using cast-iron tunneling shields, typically used for underwater tunnels, rather than via the cut-and-cover method used elsewhere in the system. Entrances were planned along Fulton Street (now Cadman Plaza West) at Montague Street and at Myrtle Avenue.
Construction of the Clark Street Tunnel began in 1914, but the section of the line under Fulton Street was delayed by disputes over the demolition of part of the Fulton Street elevated line. By January 1919, the tracks for the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line were completed, but signals and station finishes were still being installed. The IRT decided to push forward the tunnel's opening after learning that BRT workers might go on strike. On April 15, 1919, the Clark Street Tunnel opened, and the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line's Borough Hall station opened with it, extending West Side Line express trains from Wall Street on the other side of the East River to Atlantic Avenue. The connection doubled the number of IRT trains that could travel between Manhattan and Brooklyn, and it eased congestion in the Joralemon Street Tunnel, the only other tunnel carrying IRT trains between the two boroughs. Direct express service to Times Square was provided to the inhabitants of Brooklyn for the first time as a result; trains through the Joralemon Street Tunnel made express stops in Manhattan, skipping Times Square.
In 1920, a new entrance at the northwestern corner of Joralemon Street and Court Street was completed. That year, the Eastern Parkway Line was extended east of Atlantic Avenue. The Joralemon Street Tunnel services, which had previously served all stops on the Eastern Parkway Line, became express services, while the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line services ran local on the Eastern Parkway Line. Although the Eastern Parkway Line's express tracks already existed, they previously had been used only for storage. The tracks were reconfigured so that Eastern Parkway express trains could no longer stop at the Hoyt Street station, the next stop east.
BRT line Also planned under the Dual Contracts was the Broadway Line and Fourth Avenue Line of the BRT (after 1923, the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation or BMT). Under the Dual Contracts, the Whitehall–Montague Street route was to be built, connecting the Broadway Line in Manhattan and the Fourth Avenue subway under the Flatbush Avenue Extension to the west of the DeKalb Avenue station. The BRT was authorized to construct a station on the Whitehall–Montague Street route at the intersection of Montague and Court Streets. The Court Street station was to be built at the eastern end of the Montague Street Tunnel, a pair of tubes carrying the BRT line under the East River. Because of the station's depth, there would be elevators ascending to Clinton Street at its western end. The eastern end was to contain stairs and escalators leading directly to Court Street and to the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line station. A ramp extending west to Henry Street was also proposed but not built. This ramp was proposed as a compromise when the Public Service Commission had rejected plans for a second station in Brooklyn Heights.
Construction of the Montague Street Tunnel's two tubes began in 1914. The north tube of the tunnel was holed through on June 2, 1917, followed by the south tube on June 20, 1917. Service via the Montague Tunnel began on August 1, 1920, with the opening of the Court Street station. The Court Street station was one of three subway stations to open in Brooklyn Heights; the other two were Clark Street on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and High Street on the Independent Subway System (IND)'s Eighth Avenue Line. The BRT, along with the IRT and the city government, shared control of the Borough Hall/Court Street station.
Later modifications
1920s to 1960s