H ouse and Garden 
AT I'HE BLEECKER STREET STATION 
The ornament is of Grueby faience in a highly-glared blue upon a white 
background 
a city a person locates himself by the names 
or numbers of the streets alone. Rather is 
it the buildings, or other striking landmarks, 
which alone catch the eye and bring the 
passenger from his seat 
in time to alight at the 
proper moment from sur¬ 
face or elevated car. In 
the latter, the opportu¬ 
nity for noting one’s pro¬ 
gress is easier than in the 
former for no other rea¬ 
son than that these build¬ 
ings, parks, or other dis¬ 
tinctive landmarks can 
be the more easily seen. 
But how is the traveler 
underground to be pro¬ 
vided with such aids ? 
Only by a difference in 
the design of the stations 
and the method of placing 
signs upon them. 
b or this task the Rapid 
I ran sit Commission in¬ 
vited the assistance of the 
architects, Messrs. Heins & La Large ; and 
those stations already finished give a fair idea 
of the scheme which the architects have fol¬ 
lowed in devising appropriate and distinguish¬ 
ing signs and ornamentation. The wall con¬ 
struction of the Subway, already mentioned, 
gives place at the stations to plain masonry 
retaining-walls, set back at varying distances 
from the tracks in which intervening spaces 
are the platforms. The principal enrich¬ 
ment of the stations lies in the work applied 
to these walls, for the pavements are of plain 
cement and the only other ornament to be 
seen is the paneling of the plastered ceiling 
by means of ornamental bands in low relief, 
having slight variations in detail for the dif¬ 
ferent stations and suited to either the flat 
roof or curved vault of the excavation. At 
a number of points some difficulties have 
been met with in decorating the walls, owing 
to the moisture back of them and the finding 
of a permanent means of cementing that part 
of the ornament which consists of applied 
mosaic and tiles. At the time of going to 
press with this magazine, however, five of 
the stations have been completed and others 
are being finished almost daily. 
Beginning at the City Hall Loop, which 
is the present southern terminus (the exten¬ 
sion to the Battery having been but recently 
started), and following the course of the 
STATION AT TWENTY-EIGHTH STREET 
THE 
The Sign panel, cartouches and cornice are of Grueby faience in dull blue and buff, the letters being 
white. The walls are relienjed by two shades oj ‘ ‘ glass tile ” and mosaic 
97 
