Demolished, Abandoned or Repurposed: Remembering Brooklyn's Lost Subway Stations
The subway system may give off an air of permanence, but like just about everything else in this ever-changing city, it’s grown and evolved over the decades. A number of Brooklyn’s stations have been lost to time, and some platforms abandoned. While some are far from visible to the law-abiding passenger, others have been rehabilitated and…
The subway system may give off an air of permanence, but like just about everything else in this ever-changing city, it’s grown and evolved over the decades. A number of Brooklyn’s stations have been lost to time, and some platforms abandoned.
While some are far from visible to the law-abiding passenger, others have been rehabilitated and two completely obliterated.
Court Street
Closed due to low ridership in 1946, the Court Street station has since been given new life as the New York Transit Museum. Along with two platforms at the neighboring Hoyt-Schermerhorn station, the once-abandoned tracks now host old system cars as part of the museum’s historic display of subway memorabilia. The station was part of the IND line as a shuttle between Court Street and the stop at Hoyt-Schermerhorn. It is located in Downtown Brooklyn.
Myrtle Avenue
In the case of Myrtle Avenue station on what is now the B/Q line, the stop may be unused but it is far from forgotten: This is the location of the much beloved Masstransiscope, a piece of moving artwork that can only be experienced by riders on cars leaving the northbound platform at Dekalb Avenue’s express track. The installation, created by artist Bill Brand with the MTA’s blessing, consists of a series of images that, when viewed from the moving subway car, appear to be moving themselves. The station was originally closed in 1956.
Park Avenue
A now-demolished Brooklyn station, Park Avenue was a train stop along the BMT Jamaica line located between the Myrtle and Flushing avenue stations. It was closed at some point between 1912 and 1915.
Dean Street
Another demolished Brooklyn subway station, the Dean Street stop along the BMT Franklin Avenue shuttle line was closed in 1995 due to low ridership and decrepitude, then dismantled. Before its demolition, the Dean Street station had been closed once before, in 1901, also due to low ridership.
[Photos by Hannah Frishberg]
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All of these stations are indicated as being on the B line, but that’s trivially shown false by a look at a map.
Court St used to be served by Fulton St locals, ie. today’s C, which terminated there rather than going to Manhattan. Eventually as noted, people weren’t using Court St because Jay St was closer to most of the “action” downtown, so the C was rerouted to run to Manhattan, thus closing Court St.
Park Ave was on the BMT Broadway Line, aka today’s J/M/Z trains.
Dean St was on the Franklin Ave Shuttle (correctly noted, but it was never the B train).
Perhaps there is confusion over the fact that all of these are on what’s known as the “B Division” aka the lettered lines.
Thank you. We’ve corrected the post
Pardon me, Park Ave was on the BMT Jamaica Line, running on Broadway in Brooklyn.
” Park Avenue was a B train stop located between the Myrtle and Flushing avenue stations”
What Flushing Avenue B train station?
the Myrtle and Flushing avenue stations service the J/M trains, but they were the stops closest to the former Park Avenue station, even though they were not on the same line