Park Place station (BMT Franklin Avenue Line)

For the IRT station in Manhattan, see Park Place (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line). For other uses, see Park Place.

The Park Place station is a station on the BMT Franklin Avenue Line of the New York City Subway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Served by the Franklin Avenue Shuttle at all times, it is the only solitary station in the subway system to be served solely by a shuttle service without any connections to non-shuttle services. It is also the only single-track station in the subway system that is not a terminal station.

Park Place
New York City Subway station (rapid transit)
Station entrance from Park Place
Station statistics
Address	Park Place & Franklin Avenue Brooklyn, New York
Borough	Brooklyn
Locale	Crown Heights
Coordinates	40.674357°N 73.957858°W / 40.674357; -73.957858
Division	B (BMT)[1]
Line	BMT Franklin Avenue Line BMT Brighton Line (Until 1920)
Services	S  (all times)
Transit	NYCT Bus: B45, B48, B49, B65
Structure	Embankment
Platforms	1 side platform
Tracks	1
Other information
Opened	June 19, 1899
Rebuilt	April 4, 1905; 119 years ago (1905-04-04) (elevated railway) October 18, 1999; 24 years ago (1999-10-18) (shuttle refurbishment)
Accessible	ADA-accessible
Opposite- direction transfer	Yes
Former/other names	Butler Street Sterling Place
Traffic
2023	348,208[2]  6.5%
Rank	409 out of 423[2]
Services Preceding station New York City Subway Following station Franklin Avenue Terminus Franklin Avenue Botanic Garden toward Prospect Park
Non-revenue services and lines Preceding station New York City Subway Following station Dean Street demolished no service
Location Show map of New York City Subway Show map of New York City Show map of New York
Track layout Legend to Franklin Avenue Bidirectional track to Botanic Garden
Street map
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times

History

View from the station, with the Arts for Transit installation on the railings

The station is located at the point where the tracks of the original Brooklyn, Flatbush & Coney Island Railway left the street surface and began running in an open-cut right-of-way on its route to Brighton Beach and Coney Island.^[3][4] The Kings County Elevated Railway (KCER) had begun serving the line in 1896.^[5]

A station was established at this spot on June 19, 1899 to provide local residents access to KCER trains. This station consisted of two simple compacted earth platforms at the side of each track running south of Park Place.

During 1905–1906, this portion of the line was rebuilt as a raised elevated railway and embankment structure,^[3] and a new station was built at this location, with a single floor-level island platform and a station house between the tracks. The new station was located with the station house over Park Place and the platform extending north from that point.

In April 1993, the New York State Legislature agreed to give the MTA $9.6 billion for capital improvements. Some of the funds would be used to renovate nearly one hundred New York City Subway stations,^[6][7] including Park Place.^[8] The station had deteriorated over the years as the New York City Transit Authority considered whether to abandon or rehabilitate the station and the line. Community support in the Bedford–Stuyvesant and Crown Heights communities persuaded the city to rebuild the line. The station closed in 1998,^[9] was completely rebuilt, and reopened in 1999.^[10]

Station layout

Train information sign above the platform

P Platform Level	Side platform, doors will open on the left or right
	Single track	← toward Prospect Park (Botanic Garden) → toward Franklin Avenue (Terminus) → →(Demolished: Dean Street)
G Street Level	Exit/ Entrance, station house Ramp from Prospect Place west of Franklin Avenue; service in both directions on single track

The rebuilt 1999 station consists of a single side platform and a single track serving trains traveling in both directions.^[11] The new, wider, station platform was built partly over the former southbound track. The large station house is built in a style reminiscent of station houses built in the World War I era on the BMT Brighton Line such as Parkside Avenue and a number of stations on the BMT Sea Beach Line.^[10]

Exit

The station has a turnstile bank, token booth, a short staircase on the south side going down to the north side of Park Place, and a long ADA-accessible ramp and staircase going to the south side of Prospect Place on the north side of the station house.^[12][10]

References

1. "Glossary". Second Avenue Subway Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) (PDF). Vol. 1. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. March 4, 2003. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
2. "Annual Subway Ridership (2018–2023)". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2023. Retrieved April 20, 2024.
3. Walsh, Kevin (October 4, 1998). "The lore of the FRANKLIN AVENUE SHUTTLE". forgotten-ny.com. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
4. Anderson, Bob. "Joint LIRR / BRT Elevated/Rapid Transit Service". www.lirrhistory.com. Archived from the original on July 6, 2000. Retrieved June 21, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
5. "UNION OF BROOKLYN ROADS.; Kings County Elevated Leases Part of Brooklyn and Brighton Beach". The New York Times. February 6, 1896. Retrieved March 30, 2018.
6. Benenson, Joel (April 1, 1993). "Albany deal to save the $1.25 fare". New York Daily News. p. 1059. Archived from the original on April 28, 2023. Retrieved April 28, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
7. Faison, Seth (April 3, 1993). "$9.6 Billion Package for M.T.A. Is Crucial to its Rebuilding Plans". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 28, 2023. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
8. "Stop the Fussing". Newsday. May 28, 1993. p. 56. Archived from the original on May 3, 2023. Retrieved April 28, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
9. Blair, Jayson (July 25, 1998). "18-Month Renovation for Brooklyn Shuttle". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
10. "The lore of the FRANKLIN AVENUE SHUTTLE - Forgotten New York". forgotten-ny.com. October 4, 1998. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
11. Dougherty, Peter (2006) [2002]. Tracks of the New York City Subway 2006 (3rd ed.). Dougherty. OCLC 49777633 – via Google Books.
12. "MTA Neighborhood Maps: Crown Heights" (PDF). mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2015. Retrieved January 1, 2017.

External links

• nycsubway.org – BMT Franklin: Park Place
• Station Reporter — Franklin Shuttle
• The Subway Nut — Park Place Pictures Archived June 30, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
• MTA's Arts For Transit — Park Place (BMT Franklin Avenue Line)
• Station house entrance as seen from Park Place
• Park Place entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Prospect Place entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Platform from Google Maps Street View