Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States The 72nd Street Subway Kiosk, or Control House, which occupies a prominent site at the intersection of Broadway and 72nd Street, is one of only three such structures surviving in the city. Built to serve New York City's first subway system, it was opened near the end of 1904. Designated by the architectural firm of Heins & LaFarge in the Flemish Renaissance style, the control house is a distinctive and important architectural feature on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and a significant reminder of the early subway system. Proposals for an underground rapid transit system to alleviate traffic congestion in New York had been put forward as early as the 1860s. In 1864 the Metropolitan Railway Company was incorporated; the intent was to build an underground railroad. Because of political opposition and the competition for franchise rights, the scheme was not successful. Instead elevated steam railroads were built beginning in 1868. The New York State Legislature created a Rapid Transit Commission in 1891 to explore the possibility of a subway system. To meet the problem of construction costs, the City of New York was authorized in the Rapid Transit Act of 1894 to issue bonds and enter into a contract with a private corporation to build and operate an underground railroad. Although several years of delay and litigation followed, a contract was finally let by the City on October 11, 1899, to the Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company, formed by John B. McDonald with the financial backing of banker August P. Belmont, Jr. Belmont created the Inter-borough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) in 1902 to lease the subway from the City and to operate it for fifty years. The 1899 contract called for the construction of a subway system according to the route and plan that had been devised by William Barclay Parsons (1859-1932), Chief Engineer of the Rapid Transit Commission, in 1895 and revised in 1897. This route began with a loop under City Hall, went up the east side of Manhattan along Lafayette Street and Fourth Avenue to Grand Central Station at 42nd Street, then went west to Times Square and turned north along Broadway to 96th Street; there it branched into two lines, leading to the Bronx. Construction began in March 1900. A second contract extended the route south from City Hall into Brooklyn where it terminated at the Long Island Railroad Terminal at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues. Work was begun on this section of the route in 1902. While the system and the station plans were determined by the engineers of the Rapid Transit Commission working under Parsons, a consulting architect was sought to design the decoration of the underground stations, the control houses, and the kiosks of the subway, and a search committee was appointed in 1901. The firms of Carrere & Hastings and Robert Gibson were considered, but on March 7, 1901, the firm of Heins & LaFarge was selected. George L. Heins (1860-1907) and Christopher Grant LaFarge (1862-1938) both received their architectural' training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the supervision of French-bom and -trained Eugene Letang. LaFarge, the son of the noted painter John LaFarge, then worked in the architectural office of Henry Hobson Richardson, while Heins acquired experience in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The two formed a partnership in 1886, which continued until Heins' death in 1907. They are best remembered for their ecclesiastical architecture, especially the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. Winning the competition for the cathedral design in 1891, they served as architects for the first phase of construction. Among their other major church designs are the Fourth Presbyterian Church and Parsonage at West End Avenue and 93rd Street in New York and St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Washington, D.C. They also designed residences for prominent people in New York and Washington. In 1899 the firm began to design buildings for the New York Zoological Gardens in the Bronx. There were no obvious prototypes for such buildings, so the architects chose modified classical designs, ornamented with appropriate animal motifs. Perhaps through the influence of August Belmont, Jr., for whom the firm had designed a chapel in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the architects received the subway contract in 1901. They were faced with a problem similar to that in the Zoological Gardens — devising an architecture for which there was no obvious historical prototype. The architects were able to exercise the greatest architectural judgment and initiative in the design of the control houses, often familiarly referred to as kiosks. Control houses were designed by Heins & LaFarge for six of the stations: 72nd Street, 103rd Street, 116th Street, Mott Avenue (now 149th Street and the Grand Concourse), Bowling Green, and Atlantic Avenue. They may have been in

Financial District, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States The underground interior of the IRT subway system is among the most important aspects of the New York City subway system.1 In rec-ongnition of the historic and artistic significance of the IRT system, portions of 12 of the original 45 underground stations built under Contracts 1 and 2 of the IRT system are being designated an Interior Landmark. Designed by the architectural firm of He ins & LaFarge in conjunction with Chief Engineer William Barclay Parsons, these stations vividly represent the artistic character of the IRT system, now celebrating its Diamond Jubilee. The subway system of New York is only 75 years old, but proposals for an underground rapid transit system to alleviate traffic congestion in New York had been put forward as early as the 1860s. In 1864 the Metropolitan Railway Company was incorporated; the intent was to build an underground railway. Because of political opposition and the competition for franchise rights, the scheme was not successful. Between 1868 and 1870 Alfred Ely Beach (1826-96), inventor and editor of Scientific American, secretly constructed a subway to be operated by pneumatic power beneath Broadway between Murray and Warren Streets. While it proved a popular novelty, Beach's subway ultimately failed due to the opposition of Boss Tweed and lack of financing to expand the subway tunnel. Instead of underground system, elevated steam railroads were built, beginning in 1868, which quickly spanned important sections of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The New York State Legislature created a Rapid Transit Commission in 1891 to explore the possibility of a subway system. To meet the problem of construction costs, the City of New York was authorized in the Rapid Transit Act of 1894 to issue bonds and enter into contract with a private corporation to build and operate an underground railroad. Although several years of delay and litigation followed, a contract was finally let by the City on October 11, 1899, to the Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company, formed by John B. McDonald with the financial backing of banker August P. Belmont, Jr. Belmont created the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) in 1902 to lease the subway from the City and to operate it for fifty years. The 1899 contract called for the construction of a subway system according to the route and plan that had been devised by William Barclay Parsons (1859-1932). Parsons, who had received his engineering training at Columbia University, had begun his career with the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad and had written several books on railroad problems. In 1891 Parsons had been appointed deputy chief engineer of the Rapid Transit Commission and in 1894 he had been named Chief Engineer. Parsons devised a subway route in 1895 which was revised in 1897. It began with a loop under City Hall, went up the east side of Manhattan along Lafayette Street and Fourth Avenue to Grand Central Station at 42nd Street, then went west to Times Square and turned north along.Broadway to 96th Street; there it branched into two lines leading to the Bronx. Construction began in March 1900. A second contract extended the route south from City Hall into Brooklyn where it terminated at the Long Island Railroad Terminal at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues. Work was begun on this section of the route in 1902. The construction methods and station plans were determined by the engineers of the Rapid Transit Commission working under Parsons, but a consulting architect was sought to design the decoration of the underground stations, the control houses, and the kiosks of the subway, and a search committee was appointed in 1901. The firms of Carrere & Hastings and Robert Gibson were considered, but on March 7, 1901, the firm of Heins & LaFarge was selected. George L. Heins (1860-1907) and Christopher Grant LaFarge (1862-1938) both received their architectural training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the supervision of French-born and -trained Eugene, Letang. LaFarge, the son of the noted painter John LaFarge, then worked in the architectural office of Henry Hobson Richardson, while Heins acquired experience in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The two formed an partnership in 1886, which continued until Heins' death in 1907. They are best remembered for their ecclesiastical architecture, especially the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. Winning the competition for the cathedral design in 1891, they served as architects for the first phase of construction. Among their other major church designs are the Fourth Presbyterian Church and Parsonage at West End Avenue and 9 3rd Street in New York and St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Washington D.C. They also designed residences for prominent people in New York and Washington. In 1899 the firm began to design buildings for the New York Zoological Gardens in the Bronx. There were