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Greenwich Substation ยท 253 West 13th Street
Greenwich Substation
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Greenwich Power Sub-Station at 13th Street and Greenwich: 8th Avenue Line (IND)

Roll of negative documents conditions of the Greenwich Power Sub-Station for the Eighth Avenue Line (IND). Shows loading dock and door of sub-station, decor around door, brick walls, sidewalk, intersection of West 13th Street and Greenwich Avenue, billboard advertisement painted on one side and parking lot.

1972

Greenwich Substation

Greenwich Power Sub-Station at 13th Street and Greenwich: 8th Avenue Line (IND)

Roll of negative documents conditions of the Greenwich Power Sub-Station for the Eighth Avenue Line (IND). Shows loading dock and door of sub-station, decor around door, brick walls, sidewalk, intersection of West 13th Street and Greenwich Avenue, billboard advertisement painted on one side and parking lot.

IMAGE DATE1972
FromNew York Transit Museum logoNew York Transit Museum

23 West 13th Street, c. 1994

Substation 235, located at 23 West 13th Street on at the intersection of Greenwich Avenue and Horatio Street. The structure was built in 1932 during the construction of the IND Eighth Avenue Line, a project that lasted from 1932 until 1940. A substation is fed power from a central station that is converted from high voltage alternating current (AC) into low voltage direct current (DC) to power the subway. This substation and others constructed for the IND line were the first to be non-manually operated.

Greenwich Substation was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 as a unique piece of New York City's transit history. The masonry structure's footprint, a chamfered rectangle, reflects the infill lot's geometric condition at this bustling intersection. The facade is adorned with limestone, brick, and aluminum; its loading dock doors are framed by Art Deco motifs and sunburst patterns, not uncommon of substations and telephone buildings of the era. The human-scaled entrance is decorated more modestly and located at the level of the sidewalk.

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