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The Woodhaven Boulevard station is a local station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
, consisting of four tracks. Located in Elmhurst,
Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, it is served by the M train on weekdays, the R train at all times except nights, and the E train at night. The station serves the adjacent
Queens Center Mall Queens Center Mall is an urban shopping mall in Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, on Queens Boulevard between 57th Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard. Queens Center Mall is the largest mall in Queens. It is currently owned and managed by The Macerich ...
, as well as numerous bus lines. Woodhaven Boulevard was opened on December 31, 1936, as Woodhaven Boulevard–Slattery Plaza. At the time, the station was part of the
Independent Subway System The Independent Subway System (IND or ISS), formerly known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System (ICOSS) or the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad (ICORTR), was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of th ...
. The plaza was demolished in the 1950s, but the name tablets displaying the station's original name were kept. In the 1980s, the Woodhaven Boulevard station was renamed after
Queens Center Queens Center Mall is an urban shopping mall in Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, on Queens Boulevard between 57th Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard. Queens Center Mall is the largest mall in Queens. It is currently owned and managed by The Macerich ...
, an adjacent
shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...
. The station was renovated in the 1990s.


History


Construction and opening

The Queens Boulevard Line was one of the first built by the city-owned
Independent Subway System The Independent Subway System (IND or ISS), formerly known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System (ICOSS) or the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad (ICORTR), was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of th ...
(IND), and was planned to stretch between the
IND Eighth Avenue Line The IND Eighth Avenue Line is a rapid transit line in New York City, United States, and is part of the B Division of the New York City Subway. Opened in 1932, it was the first line of the Independent Subway System (IND), and the ''Eighth Avenu ...
in Manhattan and 178th Street and Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens, with a stop at Woodhaven Boulevard.See: * * Board of Transportation of the City of New York Engineering Department, Proposed Additional Rapid Transit Lines And Proposed Vehicular Tunnel, dated August 23, 1929 The line was first proposed in 1925. Construction of the line was approved by the
New York City Board of Estimate The New York City Board of Estimate was a governmental body in New York City responsible for numerous areas of municipal policy and decisions, including the city budget, land-use, contracts, franchises, and water rates. Under the amendments effec ...
on October 4, 1928. The line was constructed using the
cut-and-cover A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube constr ...
tunneling method, and to allow pedestrians to cross, temporary bridges were built over the trenches. The first section of the line opened on August 19, 1933 from the connection to the Eighth Avenue Line at 50th Street to
Roosevelt Avenue Roosevelt Avenue and Greenpoint Avenue are main thoroughfares in the New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. Roosevelt Avenue begins at 48th Street and Queens Boulevard in the neighborhood of Sunnyside. West of Queens Boulevard, the roa ...
in Jackson Heights. Later that year, a $23 million loan was approved to finance the remainder of the line, along with other IND lines. The remainder of the line was built by the
Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recove ...
. In 1934 and 1935, construction of the extension to Jamaica was suspended for 15 months and was halted by strikes. Construction was further delayed due to a strike in 1935, instigated by electricians opposing wages paid by the General Railway Signal Company. During the station's construction, the main road of Queens Boulevard was depressed into underpasses at the intersections with Woodhaven Boulevard and Horace Harding Boulevard (also known as Nassau Boulevard). The easternmost underpass now carries Queens Boulevard below the
Long Island Expressway Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mensur ...
(LIE), which replaced Horace Harding Boulevard. In August 1936, tracks were installed all the way to 178th Street, and the stations to Union Turnpike were completed. On December 31, 1936, the IND Queens Boulevard Line was extended by eight stops, and , from its previous terminus at
Roosevelt Avenue Roosevelt Avenue and Greenpoint Avenue are main thoroughfares in the New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. Roosevelt Avenue begins at 48th Street and Queens Boulevard in the neighborhood of Sunnyside. West of Queens Boulevard, the roa ...
to Union Turnpike. As a result of the extension, areas in Elmhurst were accessible by subway.


Later years

The station was originally named "Woodhaven Blvd–Slattery Plaza", after Slattery Plaza, the area where four main Queens thoroughfares (Eliot Avenue and Horace Harding, Woodhaven, and Queens Boulevards) intersected. The plaza, which no longer exists, featured several "mom-and-pop"
small business Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have fewer employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to ap ...
es. The plaza and subway station were named after Colonel John R. Slattery, former
New York City Board of Transportation The New York City Board of Transportation or the Board of Transportation of the City of New York (NYCBOT or BOT) was a city transit commission and operator in New York City, consisting of three members appointed by the mayor. It was created in ...
chief engineer who died in 1932 while supervising the construction of the
IND Eighth Avenue Line The IND Eighth Avenue Line is a rapid transit line in New York City, United States, and is part of the B Division of the New York City Subway. Opened in 1932, it was the first line of the Independent Subway System (IND), and the ''Eighth Avenu ...
. The construction of the LIE along the Horace Harding corridor in the 1950s resulted in the demolition of Slattery Plaza, although the name tablets retained the original name even after the plaza's demolition.


Renovation

Queens Center Queens Center Mall is an urban shopping mall in Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, on Queens Boulevard between 57th Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard. Queens Center Mall is the largest mall in Queens. It is currently owned and managed by The Macerich ...
Mall first opened in 1973, but the name convention on subway maps was not in use until the mid-to-late 1980s. The station became dilapidated by the 1980s due to lack of maintenance over the years, and in 1981, the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...
(MTA) listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system. The station was also heavily used, serving 15,000 passengers per weekday by 1993. In April 1991, the entrance at the north side of Queens Boulevard near an overpass of the Long Island Expressway was closed, along with fifteen other entrances across the subway system to reduce crime. In June 1992, subway riders held a protest rally, demanding the reopening of the entrance. In 1993, the Woodhaven Boulevard station began a three-year renovation project as part of a general refurbishment of seventy New York City Subway stations. The refurbishment added a new token booth, new signage and platform edge strips, replaced platform tiles, staircase components, and lighting, and restored the station's restrooms. Four new turnstiles were added at the east end of the station, a new east-end staircase was added to the north side of Queens Boulevard and the west-end staircase was widened. A new public address system was added to the station, the west end token booth was moved closer to the turnstiles and turnstiles equipped for the Automated Fare Collection system were installed. The project was expected to be completed in September 1996. After the renovation, the station retained the now out-of-date "Woodhaven Blvd–Slattery Plaza" name tablets. In 2019, as part of an initiative to increase the accessibility of the New York City Subway system, the MTA announced that it would install elevators at the Woodhaven Boulevard station as part of the MTA's 2020–2024 Capital Program. In November 2022, the MTA announced that it would award a $965 million contract for the installation of 21 elevators across eight stations, including Woodhaven Boulevard. A joint venture of ASTM and Halmar International would construct the elevators under a public-private partnership.


Station layout

Built as a local station, the station was constructed with bellmouth provisions to allow conversion into an express station. A close observation of both ends of this station reveals that the tunnel wall extends outward to allow space for the two
side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...
s to be replaced with
island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...
s, with the local tracks taking the side platforms' place. The station would have accommodated a major system expansion, with additional service coming from the Roosevelt Avenue Terminal station and the former LIRR Rockaway Line. Requests to convert the station were also put forward by the local community shortly after the station opened, due to heavy bus traffic feeding into the station and overcrowding at the
Roosevelt Avenue Roosevelt Avenue and Greenpoint Avenue are main thoroughfares in the New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. Roosevelt Avenue begins at 48th Street and Queens Boulevard in the neighborhood of Sunnyside. West of Queens Boulevard, the roa ...
express stop. The name tablets on this station still retain the original name of Woodhaven Boulevard–Slattery Plaza. The
tilework Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...
in this station consists of blue bands with a black border, similar to the tilework found at the Elmhurst Avenue stop, two stations west. The station's full-length
mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian language, Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft ...
allows crossover from any of the station's four staircases from each platform, with a total of eight staircases from the mezzanine to platform level. There is no direct indoor access to the Queens Center Mall's entrance at the northwest corner of Queens Boulevard and 59th Avenue from the mezzanine. The 1996 artwork here is called ''In Memory of The Lost Battalion'' by Pablo Tauler. It uses nine support beams in the station's mezzanine wrapped in different materials— including glass, iron, and
stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...
—to honor the soldiers who served in the
77th Infantry Division 77th Division or 75th Infantry Division may refer to: * 77th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht), Germany * 77th Infantry Division of Khurasan, Iran * 77th Division (Imperial Japanese Army) * 77th Division (People's Republic of China) * 77th Division ( ...
during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.


Exits

The full-time side at the west end of the mezzanine has three street stairs. One leads to the northeast corner of
Queens Boulevard Queens Boulevard is a major thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Queens connecting Midtown Manhattan, via the Queensboro Bridge, to Jamaica. It is long and forms part of New York State Route 25. Queens Boulevard runs northwest to so ...
and 59th Avenue, the closest to the mall. The other two staircases are through a long passageway to both southern corners of Queens Boulevard and Woodhaven Boulevard, acting as a
pedestrian underpass A subway, also known as an underpass, is a grade-separated pedestrian crossing which crosses underneath a road or railway in order to entirely separate pedestrians and cyclists from motor traffic or trains respectively. Terminology In the Un ...
outside of
fare control In rail transport, the paid area is a dedicated "inner" zone in a railway station or metro station, accessible via turnstiles or other barriers, to get into which, visitors or passengers require a valid ticket, checked smartcard or a pass. A sys ...
.* * These staircases date back to the station's original opening. There is an entrance to the southeast corner of Woodhaven and Queens Boulevards that, as a result of the construction of the
Long Island Expressway Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mensur ...
in the mid-1950s, leads only to two entrance ramps to the expressway, with no continuous sidewalk leading to the entrance. The part-time portion at the former Horace Harding Boulevard on the east end has a closed and removed booth and one street stair to the north side of Queens Boulevard at 92nd Street. This entrance abuts two expressway ramps and leads to the former Horace Harding Boulevard, now replaced by the LIE exit ramp. This exit still has a directional mosaic pointing to it, listing the exit as 60th Avenue and 92nd Street on the north side of Queens Boulevard. The construction of the Long Island Expressway removed this intersection. This is also a staircase that dates to the station's opening. There is a closed exit to the south side of Queens Boulevard underneath the Long Island Expressway, between the ramp to the eastbound expressway and Eliot Avenue. It is covered with a trapdoor.


Bus service

The station and the nearby
Queens Center Mall Queens Center Mall is an urban shopping mall in Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, on Queens Boulevard between 57th Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard. Queens Center Mall is the largest mall in Queens. It is currently owned and managed by The Macerich ...
are served by nine local
MTA Regional Bus Operations MTA Regional Bus Operations (RBO) is the surface transit division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It was created in 2008 to consolidate all bus operations in New York City operated by the MTA. , MTA Regional Bus Operations ru ...
routes and two express bus routes. Three of the four
Woodhaven Boulevard Woodhaven Boulevard and Cross Bay Boulevard (formerly Jamaica Bay Boulevard) are two parts of a major boulevard in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Queens. Woodhaven Boulevard runs roughly north–south in the central p ...
bus lines (Q11, Q21, Q52 SBS) terminate at the station, with the Q53 SBS bus continuing westward towards the Woodside – 61st Street Station. Except for the Q88,
Rego Park Rego Park is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City. Rego Park is bordered to the north by Elmhurst and Corona, to the east and south by Forest Hills, and to the west by Middle Village. Rego Park's boundaries include Queens ...
-bound Q59,
Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
-bound Q60, and
Corona Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to: * Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star * Corona (beer), a Mexican beer * Corona, informal term for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 di ...
-bound Q38, all northbound buses stop at the mall entrance, while all southbound buses as well as the QM10 and QM11 express buses stop at Hoffman Drive adjacent to Hoffman Park. The Q88 terminates at 92nd Street, in between the two halves of the mall.


Notes


References


External links

* * Station Reporter â€
R Train
* Station Reporter â€

* MTA's Arts For Transit â€

* The Subway Nut — ttp://www.subwaynut.com/ind/woodhavenr/index.php Woodhaven Boulevard Pictures
Woodhaven Boulevard entrance from Google Maps Street View

Horace Harding Boulevard (Long Island Expressway) entrance from Google Maps Street View

Platforms from Google Maps Street View

Mezzanine from Google Maps Street View
{{NYCS stations navbox by line, queens=yes IND Queens Boulevard Line stations 1936 establishments in New York City New York City Subway stations in Queens, New York New York City Subway stations located underground Railway stations in the United States opened in 1936 Elmhurst, Queens