Here’s how to tour the abandoned City Hall subway station
Photo © James and Karla Murray
You don’t have to be the mayor to tour the abandoned City Hall subway station, but you do have to be a member of the New York Transit Museum. After Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s midnight swearing-in at the old subway station in Lower Manhattan gave New Yorkers a peek at the historic underground space this week, the museum announced tickets will go on sale January 14 for upcoming tours, which are the only way to see the City Hall’s grand interiors (if you’re not the mayor). The landmarked station, the showpiece of the city’s first subway ride and which has been decommissioned since the 1940s, is known for its ornate vaulted Guastavino-tiled ceilings, chandeliers, and skylights hidden beneath the city streets.
Mamdani chose the abandoned station for his private midnight swearing-in as New York City’s 112th mayor, aiming to “capture the spirit of the city’s history of serving working people,” according to NPR.
“That ambition need not be a memory confined only to our past, nor must it be isolated only to the tunnels beneath City Hall,” Mamdani said in a statement to Streetsblog. “It will be the purpose of the administration fortunate enough to serve New Yorkers from the building above.”
The Transit Museum offers 90-minute tours of the station three times a year to members. Tours begin above ground, covering Alfred Beach’s Pneumatic Tube and the creation of New York City’s first subway system, before heading underground to explore the station designed by acclaimed architects George Heins and Christopher LaFarge, featuring stunning vaulted ceilings by Rafael Guastavino.
Other notable architectural features featured in the tour include the station’s glass skylights, brass chandeliers, and commemorative bronze plaques for the first subway ride.
Only museum members can sign up for tours. Tickets, which cost $50 each, will go on sale on Wednesday, January 14, at 10 a.m.
To buy tickets, you must first become a member of the New York Transit Museum. Individual memberships are $65, with discounted memberships for seniors and MTA employees. You can buy as many tickets are there are people covered by the membership.
Tickets go on sale three times per year, but there are several tours held throughout the year.
On October 27, 1904, the City Hall station opened its doors for the first time, coinciding with the official launch of New York City’s subway system. The Interborough Rapid Transit Subway (IRT), the city’s first subway line, ran from City Hall to 145th Street, with 28 stations and the slogan “City Hall to Harlem in 15 minutes,” as 6sqft previously reported.
The station closed on December 31, 1945, roughly 40 years after opening, because its curved tracks could no longer accommodate the longer train cars, which had recently expanded from five to 10 cars.
Heins and LaFarge, known for their work on the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, incorporated Spanish architect and builder Rafael Guastavino’s stunning vaulted tiled ceilings: “The expertly engineered and architecturally beautiful vaults were lightweight, fireproof, load-bearing, cost-efficient, and able to span large interior areas,” as 6sqft previously explained.
The only other way to see the City Hall station is by remaining on the downtown 6 train after it leaves the Brooklyn Bridge station, as it loops through City Hall before heading uptown.
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