The historic old City Hall subway station, a decommissioned train stop that sits below New York City’s seat of government, will play host to Zohran Mamdani’s swearing-in as the Big Apple’s new mayor at midnight on Jan. 1, his transition team announced on Monday.
Mamdani, who was in part elected on a pledge to make city buses fare-free, will take the oath of office in the ornate century-plus year-old subway station just as the calendar turns to the new year. The private event, which will be open exclusively to Mamdani’s family and select members of the press, will see him officially sworn into office by close ally State Attorney General Letitia James.
The democratic socialist Mamdani, in a statement, drew a parallel between the station’s impressive early 20th-century design and the promise of his dawning mayoralty. He said the station is a “physical monument to a city that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working peoples’ lives.”
“That ambition need not be a memory confined only to our past, nor must it be isolated only to the tunnels beneath City Hall: it will be the purpose of the administration fortunate enough to serve New Yorkers from the building above,” he added.
Dora Pekec, a spokesperson for Mamdani’s transition, declined to say how he would be arriving at the event, whether through a station entrance in the City Hall parking lot or on a special train. When asked the same question, the MTA referred amNewYork to Mamdani’s transition team.
amNewYork asked the NYPD what kind of police presence the event, which will take place amid the New Year’s Eve ball drop in Times Square, will require and is awaiting a response.
The small swearing-in ceremony at the old City Hall station will precede a far larger public swearing-in ceremony for Mamdani on the City Hall steps on Thursday afternoon. That event, which will have 4,000 ticketed guests, will come after a “public block party” on the streets adjacent to City Hall — a celebration his team says could draw tens of thousands of revelers.
The original City Hall station opened in 1904 as one of the city’s first 28 subway stops and the downtown terminus of the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT). It was also where the city’s first-ever subway ride departed from that year.
The station’s track is still in use today as a turnaround for the 6 train when it switches from the downtown to uptown tracks at the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall station. While straphangers are no longer able to use the station as they once did, they can still grab a glimpse of it by staying aboard a 6 train after its last stop at Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall and peering through the right-side windows.
The station was designed by architects George Heins and Christopher LaFarge and features colored mosaic tiles crafted by engineer Rafael Guastavino, according to the New York Transit Museum. In addition to the tiles, the station features brass chandeliers, vaulted ceilings, skylights, and a curved platform.
But the station was lightly used compared to other IRT stops, particularly the nearby Brooklyn Bridge station, according to a published report. It was decommissioned on New Year’s Eve in 1945, primarily because newer, longer trains were unable to safely alight with the station’s curved platform.
The Transit Museum offers three tours of the old City Hall station each year to members who purchase tickets. Tour participants must also pass a required background check to gain entry.
