{"nrhp_refnum":"04001018","name":"79th Street Subway Station (IRT)","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Jxt. of W. 79th St. and Broadway","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.783849178000025,"lon":-73.98001341499997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-09-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation","Architecture","Art","Engineering","Community Planning and Development","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An underground subway station on Broadway at West 79th Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side, completed in 1904 as part of the original Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) Contract 1 line.","why_significant":"The station is significant for transportation, community planning and development, and social history (Criterion A), and for engineering, architecture and art (Criterion C). It is one of the early IRT stations designed by engineer William Barclay Parsons with architects Heins & LaFarge. It retains original decorative faience, mosaic and plaster work, and it helped support residential growth on the Upper West Side.","narrative":"Beneath Broadway at West 79th Street, this subway station opened in 1904 as part of the first Interborough Rapid Transit line. Built by the cut-and-cover method, it is a side platform station about 200 feet long, framed with steel columns and girders, concrete walls and cast iron Tuscan columns along the platforms. William Barclay Parsons handled the engineering, while Heins & LaFarge designed the architecture and decoration, drawing on City Beautiful ideas. Surviving finishes include mosaic name tablets, faience cornices, Rookwood Pottery plaques bearing the number 79, Roman brick wainscoting, bronze vents and molded plaster ceilings. Much of the original wall cladding has been replaced with modern tile, though the downtown platform keeps more of its early decoration. The station was listed for its role in transportation and in the growth of the Upper West Side, and for its engineering, design and artistry.","period_of_significance":"1904","architect_builder":"Parsons, William Barclay (engineer); Heins, George L. and LaFarge, Christopher G. (architects)","architectural_style":"Late 19th & 20th Century Revivals/Beaux-Arts","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still in transportation use. Much of the original wall decoration has been replaced with modern tile, but original decoration remains in the control areas and behind gates on the platforms; some ceramic tiles are in poor condition and spalling.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:53.719496-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/04001018.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04001018/a499bea8eb-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04001018/a499bea8eb-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Gryffindor","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:79th_Street_IRT_Broadway%E2%80%93Seventh_Avenue_8.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Gryffindor</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:79th_Street_IRT_Broadway%E2%80%93Seventh_Avenue_8.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75313925","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/79th_Street_station_(IRT_Broadway%E2%80%93Seventh_Avenue_Line)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2524318"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/79th-street-subway-station-irt-04001018/"}