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Historic Brooklyn F Train stop to get facelift

By Matthew Sweeney, amNewYork Staff Writer | msweeney@am-ny.com

May 8, 2008

The Art Deco F station at Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street in Park Slope will soon be given an overdue facelift that includes a new copper roof and an aluminum panel exterior.

Work on the station, which is among more than three dozen on the National Register of Historic places, is expected to begin by the fall.

"The weathering over the years has taken its toll," said David Foell, NYC Transit design manager.

The station was built in 1933, and it looks like it hasn't been fixed much since then. One of the station's most dramatic features - an arched bank of windows looking from the platform to the avenue below - has long been covered plywood and advertisements.

The rehab work will restore the windows and bring more natural light into the station. Also, the exterior -- now covered in layers of paint and billboards -- will be decorated with aluminum panels.

The work is part of NYC Transit's estimated $100 million overall repairs to the Culver Viaduct - the highest elevated section in the system and part of the F line.

The F line that runs out to Coney Island is named after Andrew Culver (1832-1906), who first tried to build a direct rail connection between Downtown Brooklyn and Coney Island, according to the Website, nycsubway.org. Democratic Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez, whose district includes the station, said it was a welcome repair.

"For too long, too many Brooklyn residents have gone off to Manhattan to state-of-the-art stations only to return to dilapidated and sometimes unsafe conditions at home," Gonzalez said.