Elmhurst Avenue Subway Station (IND)
Why it's listed
Elmhurst Avenue Subway Station lies beneath Broadway in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens. It opened on December 31, 1936, as part of the city-built Independent Subway System and serves the Queens Boulevard Line. The station has a platform level and a wide upper mezzanine, with multiple street entrances typical of IND design. Interior walls are covered in square white ceramic tile, with a blue tile band, black-and-white mosaic name tablets and geometric Art Deco ventilation grates. Robert Ridgeway served as chief engineer and Aaron Raisman as design engineer. The station is significant for its role in linking Long Island City, Elmhurst and Jamaica, which opened rural parts of Queens to urban growth and made Manhattan workplaces more accessible. It is also valued as a well-preserved example of 1930s Art Deco simplicity, designed for maintenance and efficiency, and it retains a high degree of original material and craftsmanship.
Significance in brief: The station is significant for transportation, community planning and development, and social history, because the Queens Boulevard Line linked Queens settlements and opened rural areas to urbanization. It is also significant for engineering and architecture as a well-preserved example of simple 1930s Art Deco design with a high degree of integrity.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 05000672, listed July 6, 2005. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | Beneath Broadway at 82nd St. and 45th Ave. and Elmhurst Ave., Queens |
|---|---|
| County | Queens |
| Listed | July 6, 2005 |
| Reference number | 05000672 |
| Resource type | Structure |
| Period of significance | 1936 |
| Architect / builder | Raisman, Aaron (design engineer); Ridgeway, Robert (chief engineer); Snow, Jesse B. (chief engineer) |
| Architectural style | Modern Movement: Art Deco |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Transportation, Architecture, Engineering, Community Planning and Development, Social History |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Still in use as a subway station, with original tile, signage and railings largely retained alongside some replacement railings, lamps and tile. |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Coordinates | 40.74249, -73.88175 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
For an income-producing building, listing (individually or as a contributing building in a district) is the gateway to the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit on qualified rehabilitation costs, often stackable with state credits. Work claiming the credit must follow the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and be approved in advance.
Listing does not restrict a private owner acting without federal money or permits; where federal funding or licensing is involved, Section 106 review applies.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 05000672.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q2200193
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.