91st Street station (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)

The 91st Street station prior to opening in 1904

Planning for a subway line in New York City dates to 1864.[3]^: 21 However, development of what would become the city's first subway line did not start until 1894, when the New York State Legislature passed the Rapid Transit Act.[3]^{: 139–140} The subway plans were drawn up by a team of engineers led by William Barclay Parsons, the Rapid Transit Commission's chief engineer. It called for a subway line from New York City Hall in lower Manhattan to the Upper West Side, where two branches would lead north into the Bronx.[4]^: 3 A plan was formally adopted in 1897,[3]^: 148 and all legal conflicts concerning the route alignment were resolved near the end of 1899.[3]^: 161 The Rapid Transit Construction Company, organized by John B. McDonald and funded by August Belmont Jr., signed the initial Contract 1 with the Rapid Transit Commission in February 1900,[5] under which it would construct the subway and maintain a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line.[3]^: 165 In 1901, the firm of Heins & LaFarge was hired to design the underground stations.[4]^: 4 Belmont incorporated the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) in April 1902 to operate the subway.[3]^: 182

The 91st Street station was constructed as part of the IRT's West Side Line (now the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line) from 82nd Street to 104th Street, for which work had begun on August 22, 1900. Work for that section had been awarded to William Bradley.[5] By late 1903, the subway was nearly complete, but the IRT Powerhouse and the system's electrical substations were still under construction, delaying the system's opening.[3]^: 186[6] The 91st Street station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway from City Hall to 145th Street on the West Side Branch.[2][3]^: 186

Street grading of 91st Street

After the first subway line was completed in 1908,[7] the station was served by local trains along both the West Side (now the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line to Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street) and East Side (now the Lenox Avenue Line). West Side local trains had their southern terminus at City Hall during rush hours and South Ferry at other times, and had their northern terminus at 242nd Street. East Side local trains ran from City Hall to Lenox Avenue (145th Street).[8]

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 $47.1 million in 2022) spent on platform lengthening, $500,000 (equivalent to $15.7 million in 2022) was spent on building additional entrances and exits. It was anticipated that these improvements would increase capacity by 25 percent.[10]^: 15 Platforms at local stations, such as the 91st Street station, were lengthened by between 20 and 30 feet (6.1 and 9.1 m). Both platforms were extended to the north and south.[10]^: 111 Six-car local trains began operating in October 1910.[9]^: 168 The Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line opened south of Times Square–42nd Street in 1918, and the original line was divided into an "H"-shaped system. The original subway north of Times Square thus became part of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, and all local trains were sent to South Ferry.[11]

In December 1922, the Transit Commission approved a $3 million project to lengthen platforms at 14 local stations along the original IRT line, including 91st Street and five other stations on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. Platform lengths at these stations would be increased from 225 to 436 feet (69 to 133 m).[12][13] The commission postponed the platform-lengthening project in September 1923, at which point the cost had risen to $5.6 million.[14][15]

The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940.[16][17] The station's decline commenced in the late 1940s when platforms on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line from 103rd Street to 238th Street were lengthened to 514 feet (157 m) to allow trains of ten 51.4-foot-long (15.7 m) cars to stop at these stations; previously, platforms could only accommodate six-car local trains. The platform extensions were opened in stages through 1948.[18][19] 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.[20] The Broadway route to 242nd Street became known as the 1 and the Lenox Avenue route as the 3.[21]

A new service pattern was implemented on the line during peak hours in the late 1950s, removing a rush-hour service bottleneck north of 96th Street by rerouting local trains up the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line to Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street and express trains to the Bronx or 145th Street via the IRT Lenox Avenue Line. On February 6, 1959, all Broadway trains became locals, and all Lenox Avenue trains became expresses, eliminating the need to switch tracks.[22][23][24] The rush-hour service could not be implemented until the platform extensions at stations on the line were completed. The original IRT stations north of Times Square could only fit five- or six-car trains. By 1958, the platform extensions at the local stations were nearly completed, but there were more problems with the platform extensions at the two express stations, 72nd Street and 96th Street. At 72nd Street, the track layout was simply changed, but at 96th Street, the local tracks and the outside walls had to be moved. A new mezzanine with stairways to the street was built between West 93rd Street and West 94th Street. The 86th Street and 96th Street stations had their platforms extended in order to accommodate 10-car trains. The 91st Street station could not have its platforms extended because they would already be too close to the other two stations. It was closed on February 2, 1959.[25][26][27] Advertisements from 1959 persisted for several years before the station walls were graffitied over.[27]