West side of the station, with white windscreens; the station exit is visible in the background
The station was built as part of the Contract 1 system erected from 1904–1908, connecting Lower Manhattan to the Bronx. Originally the northern terminus was intended to be Bailey Avenue and 230th Street, a block southeast of the current station at 231st Street. After the completion of the Harlem River Ship Canal at the end of the 19th century, the line was rerouted to a new terminus at 242nd Street. Like many of the other terminal stations in the outer boroughs, it was located near a park.[4]
Heins & LaFarge, who had already designed the Cathedral of St. John the Divine near Columbia University and the Astor Court at the Bronx Zoo, were commissioned to design the stations. In the early 1890s, the city's transit commissioners had recommended that subway stations be painted and decorated in order to make the experience of using the system pleasant. They took further inspiration from the contemporary City Beautiful movement, which called for beautiful public architecture in the hope that it would inspire citizens to act virtuously.[4]
Their use of the Victorian Gothicarchitectural style reflected its popularity at that time for train stations. The six elevated stations they built in that style on the Contract 1 are extensively decorated on their exterior surfaces, complementing the corresponding tilework and mosaics in the underground stations. 242nd Street, which opened on August 1, 1908,[5][6] is the only elevated terminal station left in that style from Contract 1.[4]
Within a few years of the station's opening, ridership on the line north of 157th Street increased sharply. In 1913, 3.1 million tickets were sold at the Van Cortlandt Park station. Undeveloped lots along Broadway to the city's northern limit were quickly bought by builders hoping to profit from the boom in luxury houses, which could reach the subway through streetcar lines as well. At that time, it was expected that the line would be extended to 262nd Street.[7] The Horace Mann School was built to serve this population.[8]
Later years
To address overcrowding, in 1909, the New York Public Service Commission proposed lengthening the platforms at stations along the original IRT subway.[9]: 168 As part of a modification to the IRT's construction contracts made on January 18, 1910, the company was to lengthen station platforms to accommodate ten-car express and six-car local trains. In addition to $1.5 million (equivalent to $49.1 million in 2023) spent on platform lengthening, $500,000 (equivalent to $16.4 million in 2023) was spent on building additional entrances and exits. It was anticipated that these improvements would increase capacity by 25 percent.[10]: 15 The side platforms at the 242nd Street station were extended 62 feet (19 m) to the south.[10]: 114 Six-car local trains began operating in October 1910,[9]: 168 and ten-car express trains began running on the West Side Line on January 24, 1911.[9]: 168 [11]
In 1947, Jack Kerouac passed through the station, then a busy trolley hub, at the end of the first leg of his escape from the city in what became On the Road. His goal was to reach U.S. Route 6 at the Bear Mountain Bridge and use it as a route along which to go West to Denver. The attempt failed when he found very little traffic on Route 6 to hitch rides from, and he returned to the city to take a bus instead.[12]
The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940.[13][14] The IRT routes were given numbered designations in 1948 with the introduction of "R-type" rolling stock, which contained rollsigns with numbered designations for each service.[15] The route to 242nd Street became known as the 1.[16] In 1959, all 1 trains became local.[17]
A request for proposals was put out on May 18, 2023 for the contract for a project bundle to make 13 stations accessible, including 242nd Street.[19] A contract for one elevator at the station was awarded in December 2023.[20] Construction on the elevator was begun in late September, 2024, and is anticipated to be completed and opened in 2025.
Fare control, station agent, MetroCard and OMNY machines
Ground
Street level
Exit/entrance
The station is served by the 1 at all times.[21] It is the northern terminus of the 1 train; the next stop to the south is 238th Street.[22] There are three components to the station: the platforms, a control house perpendicular to the tracks at the north end, and a crew quarters building spanning the platform at the south end. From the northeast corner an overpass crosses the through-traffic lanes of Broadway. Two stairs descend in either direction from its end, matching the two stairs that descend to the sidewalk from the west of the control house.[4]
Just south of the station, the line widens to three tracks, which is the configuration up to just before Dyckman Street.
Location
The station is located 29 feet (8.8 m) above the west side of the street, where parking is located on either side of where West 242nd Street intersects from the west. On that side of the street are commercial buildings, including a large parking garage on the southwest corner; the east side has the track, football field, tennis courts, swimming pools and other athletic facilities of Van Cortlandt Park. Also in the park nearby, to the northeast, is the Van Cortlandt House Museum, a National Historic Landmark. The 240th Street Yard is beyond the parking garage to the southwest, next to the campus of Manhattan University, a few blocks west of the station.
Platforms
Track 1, with the island platform on the left and a side platform on the right
There is one island platform and two side platforms. The station was formerly set up as a Spanish solution with alighting passengers using the side platforms and boarding passengers using the island platform. Now, only the center island platform is open to the public for boarding and disembarking from trains.[23] They are floored in concrete and sheltered with a wooden roof covered in standing-seam metal supported by trussed steel T-frames on the side platforms and timber in the center. Rounded rafter tails project from the eaves. The sides, except for the open southernmost section, have had metal windscreen added.[4]
Under the canopies are modern fluorescent lights. On the eastern platform, the original iron railings support original lights, with dish-shaped downlights on a curved stem. At the south end is the only scrolled station sign remaining anywhere in the subway system. The western platform has its original railing and modern lights.[4]
Control house
Control house
The control house is the dominant architectural feature of the station. The copper-clad timber frame exterior is painted in a vertical, batten seam pattern. It is topped with a low hipped roof clad in sheet metal and pierced by two ventilating dormer windows on the east and west side. A fleur-de-lis–patterned group of finials at the peak.[4]
On the north facade, narrow casement windows are echoed by recessed panels below. The groups of five in the section on either side of the projecting central bay window are flanked by blind openings. The bay is supported by corbeledbrackets and topped with a fan gable above the overhanging eaves at the roofline. Its tripartite narrow windows are surrounded by recessed panels with inset circles on the sides and above.[4]
At both sides are steel frameparapets with wooden decks. These connect the western stairs and overpass to the control house. The stairs combine structural steel and decorative cast iron. Their supports are braced steel Tuscan columns. Gabled standing-seam metal canopies with box fluorescent lighting over the stairs are on narrow supports with slightly flutedcapitals. At street level are gabled entries whose support columns are decorated with a geometric pattern similar to that on the control house's projecting bay window. C-shaped brackets support the original signage, now painted over.[4]
Old signal building and crew quarters
The steel-framed overpass is an architecturally sympathetic addition. Railings are a more restrained version of the original railings found on the platform. It is floored in wood plank and roofed with slats covered by standing seam metal. At its west end is a covered veranda leading into the control house.[4]
On the inside, the control house is floored in wood plank as well. The walls are finished in a mix of solid and tongue and groove wood paneling. Tall riveted steel arches support the ceiling. The main waiting area has niches where modern heaters have replaced the original pot-bellied stoves. There is a modern steel and glass token booth and turnstile bank, along with MetroCard vending machines. Former restrooms have been converted into utility and storage rooms.[4]
Crew quarters
The crew quarters building is located at the south end of the platforms. It is a one-story building sided in corrugated metal with a flat roof, elevated over the tracks and platforms at that end. The siding has been given the appearance of clapboard and painted gray. A belt course corresponding to the top of the windows has been painted red, the color of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue trunk line, on both side elevations; it is augmented with a series of blocks in the same color descending towards the tracks on the north end.[4]
At the south end, a series of projecting nested bays descends to an entrance to track level. To its south is an old signal house also sided in metal. The crew quarters can also be entered from the center platform. Its interior is given over to employee-related functions and is not open to the public.
Exits
At the north end of the station, past fare control, there are four stairs that lead down to Broadway. Two go to the west side of Broadway, and two go to the east side.[24]
^ abcHood, Clifton (1978). "The Impact of the IRT in New York City"(PDF). Historic American Engineering Record. pp. 146–207 (PDF pp. 147–208). Retrieved December 20, 2020. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^"Transit Unification Completed As City Takes Over I. R. T. Lines: Systems Come Under Single Control After Efforts Begun in 1921; Mayor Is Jubilant at City Hall Ceremony Recalling 1904 Celebration". New York Herald Tribune. June 13, 1940. p. 25. ProQuest1248134780.
^Friedlander, Alex; Lonto, Arthur; Raudenbush, Henry (April 1960). "A Summary of Services on the IRT Division, NYCTA"(PDF). New York Division Bulletin. 3 (1). Electric Railroaders' Association: 2. Archived from the original(PDF) on September 14, 2020. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
Note: Service variations, station closures, and reroutes are not reflected here. Stations with asterisks have no regular peak, reverse peak, or midday service on that route. See linked articles for more information.
Stations and line segments in italics are closed, demolished, or planned (temporary closures are marked with asterisks). Track connections to other lines' terminals are displayed in brackets. Struck through passenger track connections are closed or unused in regular service.
