New York, NY – The New York City Transit Authority’s East 180th Street Station has just undergone a $65 million restoration and upgrade that reestablishes the 100-year-old complex as a major Bronx landmark. This station was originally meant to be the flagship for the emerging New York Westchester and Boston Railway Company and its transformation returns it to its original glory. Lee Harris Pomeroy Architects with Weidlinger Associates, structural engineers, assisted the Transit Authority in achieving it.
A series of fabulously ornate stations was built along the line at East 180th Street, Morris Park, Pelham Parkway, Gun Hill Road, Baychester Avenue, and Dyre Avenue, at a time when other railroad lines settled for simple sheds for their stations.The master plan failed. Given the choice of higher fares for a one-seat ride to Grand Central, or lower fares for a transfer to the IRT in the Bronx, most commuters chose the former. The line continued to lose money until it finally closed down on December 31st, 1937. The NYW&B was doomed by the bankruptcy of its patron, the New Haven. The portion in the Bronx became part of the New York City Transit System and the Administration Building eventually became the East 180th Street subway station.
