Past and Present: Atlantic/Flatbush Junction
A look at Brooklyn past and present What a difference a hundred years makes. The photo on the left was taken in 1910, and shows the 1908 Heins and LaFarge subway kiosk on the left, and behind the elevated tracks, with the arched entryways, the original LIRR terminal, which opened in 1907. The Elevated train…
A look at Brooklyn past and present
What a difference a hundred years makes. The photo on the left was taken in 1910, and shows the 1908 Heins and LaFarge subway kiosk on the left, and behind the elevated tracks, with the arched entryways, the original LIRR terminal, which opened in 1907. The Elevated train was the 5th Avenue Line, which came up from the Myrtle Avenue El, up Hudson Avenue, stopped here, at the junction of Atlantic and Flatbush, and then continued along 5th Avenue to 3rd Ave. and 65th St. It was torn down in 1941, done in by the underground subway system, in this case, the N/R line, which runs along 4th Ave to Bay Ridge. The LIRR station was torn down in 1988, and replaced by nothing for almost 30 years. Now, in 2011, we still have the subway kiosk, now part of an architectural art installation, and a new LIRR Terminal, which opened in 2010, as well as the Atlantic Terminal Mall, which opened in 2004.
(Photo: Shorpy.com)
(Photo: Google maps)
The Kiosk would not make a good entryway anymore because there is no real space for the turnstiles.
When the station was first built, there was only the IRT Atlantic Station (current 2,3,4,5) platforms. The kiosk led down to a fare control area than then led to the local downtown platform or to an underpass for the other platforms.
When the BMT Pacific Street station was built (B,D,R), there was a narrow passage connecting the two, but it was not free. Therefore, the kiosk leading down to a fare control area still made sense.
Once the connection was made free, the kiosk was close because there was not a good way to have people coming down from the street pay but let others use the passage for free.
The whole station was re-done a few years back and the passageways were widened, but it would have required a lot more excavation to have enough space for the fare control area while still keeping an open passageway for people transferring.
They had to jack up that stone kiosk high enough to slip huge beams under it so that they could transport it a few blocks up Flatbush Ave.
For those history/railroad buffs out there please check out this guy’s web page. Fantastic photos and documentation on the LIRR. Plenty of 70’s stuff!
http://arrts-arrchives.com/FAT1Rext.html
They should replace Daffy’s with a GAP or Banana so more white people will shop there
What was otherwise a fairly grand transit terminal is now the ugliest mall in the Americas.
this is the best thing you have posted in quite awhile
I still don’t understand why the kiosk couldn’t be a stairway entry into the subway. It would be convenient to have one on that side of Flatbush and not have to walk through the LIRR terminal.
Ahhh… that makes sense. Thanks.
the kiosk is just a skylight for the concourse below. It was the best the TA design team could come up with. They are rather hapless but its better than nothing.
It looked so much better back then. The mall is such an architectural snooze.