NEW YORK—The city’s subway system is aging. Brooklyn’s Avenue H Station House was built in 1906. The MTA had decided to tear it down and replace it, but the community banded together seeking restoration for its sagging roof and other worn out features—and they got it.
The station is part of a multiple station renovation project along the B, Q line going toward Coney Island from Manhattan. About a dozen blocks south of Prospect Park, Avenue H Station House was landmarked in 2004—almost a century after it was built.
In 1906, real estate firm T.B. Ackerson Company built an office above a set of rail lines with bare, peeled logs as posts, a wrap-around porch, and a chimney. The firm had decided to build 150 homes in the area around Avenue H. The decision turned out lucrative—all the homes sold before construction was finished.
A 60-page pamphlet “emphasized Ackerson’s superiority over the typical ‘land boomer, or lot exploiter’ of the era,” states a Landmarks Commission report. Ackerson transformed the entire neighborhood, from woodlands to part of the city, in about a year.
“It really was a prime location because you were getting a very, very nice home, right near a railway, which gave you good transportation, good commute,” said Judith Kunoff, chief architect for the MTA.
After the homes sold the company vacated its office.
In August 1907, Brooklyn, Flatbush & Coney Island Railroad bought the office. The company owned the Brighton Beach railway line, and the building became the station house for Avenue H. The line, now known as the B, Q, had been electrified, and went all the way from Coney Island over the Brooklyn Bridge to Park Row in Manhattan.
The station house is now owned by the MTA and serves more than 790,000 passengers annually.
Community Unites
In 2002, the building was on the verge of being torn down. A sagging roof, roughed-up wood flooring, and chipped plaster were some of the reasons the MTA thought rebuilding the station was a good idea. The community, however, disagreed.
Community Board 14, several elected officials, and the Brooklyn borough historian at the time wanted the original building to remain. And in 2004, Avenue H Station House, 802 E. 16th St., Brooklyn, was landmarked.
The interior was not part of the land marking, Kunoff said. The wood flooring was torn out and replaced with concrete. Finished wood has been installed around the ceiling, for a more modern look that will last a while. The lower portion of the chimney was encased with brick. A square tie-rod hangs above the chimney, hung vertically from steel beams at the apex of the slanted ceiling, with steel beams hooked horizontally to the walls.
The contractor who worked on the project, which started in 2009 and ended less than six months ago, feared the whole building would collapse. The tie-rod ensures that won’t happen.
“While it’s certainly not historic, it allowed us to really preserve the building itself,” Kunoff said.
Outside the station are porches on two sides for rocking chairs of different sizes. Installation of the chairs is slated for September, Kunoff said.
The tour led by Kunoff on Sunday afternoon was a public program from the New York Transit Museum.
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