Text & Photos – Theodore W. Scull
On opening day October 27, 1904, the first Interborough Rapid Transit subway left City Hall and sped 9.1 miles uptown via Grand Central and newly renamed Times Square (formerly Longacre) to 145th Street on the Upper West Side. The system then expanded rapidly into four of the five boroughs. Decorative ceramic tile and mosaic art was very much of a feature of the IRT, formed initially as a private company. Below are the existing examples that reflect the city’s maritime heritage.
1) Probably the most elaborate plaques are the four depicting Robert Fulton’s North River Steamboat of Clermont located in the Fulton Street #4 & 5 station at the north end of the southbound platform. They were designed by Rookwood Pottery of Cincinnati and date from 1905.
2) The Broadway Local #1 ends at the South Ferry loop, and the sailing vessel depicted here (1905) is one of a set of 15 along the wall of the curved station platform, its association being the early sailing vessels that departed from nearby landings. SF refers to the former South Ferry to Brooklyn.
3) A rendition of Christopher Columbus’ Santa Maria at the Columbus Circle station from 1904. The bow juts out in high bas relief.
4) This most colorful plaque dates from 1919 and is located in the Clark Street, Brooklyn Heights station of the #2 & 3 with its entrance in the arcade of the St. George Hotel. The vertical format allows the depiction of Brooklyn Heights above and the East River dock activity below.
These three splendid demilune plaques originally came from the Marine Grill of the McAlpin Hotel located near Macys and Penn Station. Each set had six different depictions of vessels connected to the Port of New York. When the grill was demolished one set eventually made its way south to two Broadway-Nassau & Fulton Street station passages connecting the A & C, J & M, 2 & 3 and 4 & 5 trains. 1) The oldest vessel depicted here is the sail-assisted sidewheeler Clermont, Robert Fulton’s first practical steamboat.
2) The twin funneled ship belongs to the Fall River Line in a night time scene showing the majestic sidewheeler leaving New York for her overnight run to Newport and Fall River, where passengers made onward boat train connections to Boston.
3) The four-stack liner is Cunard Line’s Mauretania, the world’s fastest passenger liner, being assisted here by a small fleet of tugs. One of the two sets of three demilunes is not easy to locate in complex maze of ramps and corridors.
N.B. There are many other depictions in the subway system, particularly in the former IRT stations, while others have been lost during remodeling and enlarging stations. Most shown here are now New York City landmarks. The maritime depictions can be visited on one fare using the former IRT 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 lines.