Summary: The 79th Street IRT subway station is modest in many ways. It is a local station, with just two platforms. It was originally small, measuring only 200 feet long by 55 feet wide. When it opened, its entrances and exits were marked with the standard castiron and glass kiosks given to most stations, while just seven blocks to the south the express station at 72nd Street received one of only six large control houses to be built in the system.But this does not mean that 79th Street is a secondtier station. In fact, the opposite is true. At 79th Street, architects Heins amp LaFarge presented some of their most beautiful and unique station details. Roman brick, faience, mosaic tablets, and marble details remain intact today, contrasting with the modern treatment given to the walls on the platform extensions added in the mid20th century.The wall decoration features the standard 1904 station combination of mosaic and faience elements. Every fifteen feet, beautiful fluted pilasters have been created using tan and red mosaic tiles. At eye level in these pilasters, the number 79 sits in white tile surrounded by green tile and floral designs. The tan and red mosaic tiles continue to the top of the wall. There, sits an elaborate cream colored plaque. In the plaque, two cornucopias surround a decorative pattern featuring two rosettes. This cornucopia pattern was a popular 19th century symbol of New York Citys commercial prosperity. Heins amp LaFarge used it at other stations too, including 137th StreetCity College and Borough Hall.Across the tops of the walls, continuing between these faience plaques, are elaborate ceramic treatments, using an egg and dart design combined with a beaded molding. Interspersed between the mosaic pilasters are faience plaques, again featuring cornucopias but this time with the station number, 79, in the center. These plaques were produced by the Rookwood Pottery Company of Cincinnati, Ohio. The company also produced faience for the South Ferry, 23rd, 86th, 91st, Fulton, and Wall Street stations.Lower on the walls, in the wainscot section made of roman brick, are small bronze weep hole grilles. These beautiful objects actually serve a very important purpose. They allow water to escape from the station walls, thus protecting the ceramic tiles from popping off.By the time the 79th Street station opened, the Upper West Side was a bustling residential and commercial neighborhood. New Yorks first grand apartment building, The Dakota, opened on 72nd Street twenty years earlier, ushering in a wave of apartment building construction. In the early 20th century, theaters and restaurants opened, catering to local residents and their guests who came to the neighborhood on the newly completed subway.
