Text size:

Subway station closed forever?

By Matthew Sweeney | msweeney@am-ny.com

April 25, 2008

The entrance to the MTA subway station on the corner of 52nd and 8th Ave never officially opened to the public after it was created in 1986. The station would have given access to the C, E and the K lines. Straphangers looking to catch the C or E lines must use the 50th St. at 8th Ave entrance. (RJ Mickelson / April 24, 2008)

Paid for with private funds in 1986 -- when the misbegotten K train still ran -- the subway entrance at Eighth Avenue and 52nd Street has been gated and locked for nearly two decades.

It's been shut for so long New York City Transit on Thursday could not remember when or why it ordered the gates locked. Transit officials also couldn't say whether it will ever be open again.

"It's kind of ridiculous," said real estate developer Adam Rose, who built the stairwell entrance to what is now the uptown C and E train platform. "The day after it opened, they closed it."

Rose's memory is not entirely accurate. For a brief period the entrance was open at off hours. But even then, it was not always open when it was supposed to be, said Andrew Albert, chairman of the NYC Transit Riders Council. According to Albert, the entrance was permanently closed after a woman was stabbed in the stairway in 1991.

The forgotten entrance is one of the many public-private funding agreements that Transit has used to win amenities from real estate developers who build over the subway system. In return, developers usually are permitted to build larger, more profitable structures.

The deals have benefited riders, but not in every case. At Union Square station, the chronically broken escalators show that the developer is not keeping its end of the bargain because it doesn't properly maintain them.

But the deal for the northern entrance to the 50th Street station seems an instance in which Transit had dropped its side of the bargain. Rose Associates built the stairs, but transit has stopped the public from using them.

People who live near the station said the shuttered stairwell has long been an eyesore and a mystery, and they want an explanation.

"I always wondered about it," said Emilie DeSuza, who lives on 54th Street. "The only ones who use it are the pigeons."

In 1986, Rose Associates built The Ellington, a 216-unit luxury rental building at 260 W. 52nd St., in a neighborhood that was still rough around the edges. As part of the agreement with Transit, Rose said he was required by to build the entrance.

Rose remembered how demanding the MTA was in its specifications for the stairwell entrance. The agency nitpicked over details down to the proper shade of color, he said, "down to the inch. ... We did everything that was asked of us."

On Jan. 5, 1991, the roll down gate was open when Linda Belle, who worked nearby as a secretary, entered and found a locked turnstile at the bottom of the stairs. Two men robbed and stabbed her. According to a Newsday report from the time, "a sign at the subway entrance said the token gate was supposed to be open at the time Belle entered."

Today, parts of the floor, stairway railings, and roll down gate are caked in bird droppings. A dusty sign on one side reads "CLOSED," but gives no explanation. At the top of the stairs, bolted to the wall hangs the sun-bleached neighborhood map listing the local trains, including the K train.

"It looks ugly and it's filthy," said Grace Howell, who works in a bank next to the entrance. "The MTA should clean it up."

Rose said that once a year the management opens the gate to clean out the trash that collects in the stairwell to keep up appearances.