Houston Street
Northbound 1 train departing
Station statistics
Address	WestHouston Street &Varick Street New York, New York
Borough	Manhattan
Locale	Greenwich Village,West Village,Hudson Square
Coordinates	40°43′43″N74°00′19″W / 40.7286°N 74.0053°W /40.7286; -74.0053
Division	A (IRT)[1]
Line	IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line
Services	1  (all times) ​  2  (late nights)
Transit	NYCT Bus:M20,M21,SIM7,SIM9,SIM33
Structure	Underground
Platforms	2side platforms
Tracks	4
Other information
Opened	July 1, 1918; 107 years ago (1918-07-01)
Traffic
2024	3,067,997[2]  11.6%
Rank	106 out of 423[2]
Services Preceding station New York City Subway Following station Christopher Street–Stonewall 1  ​2  towardVan Cortlandt Park–242nd Street Local Canal Street 1  ​2  towardSouth Ferry does not stop here
Location Show map of New York City Subway Show map of New York City Show map of New York
Track layout Legend toChristopher Street toCanal Street
Street map
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times Stops late nights only Stops late nights and weekends

TheHouston Street station is a localstation on theIRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of theNew York City Subway. Located atWest Houston andVarick Streets in theGreenwich Village andHudson Square neighborhoods ofManhattan, it is served by the1 train at all times and by the2 train during late nights.

The station was built by theInterborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as part of theDual Contracts withNew York City, and opened on July 1, 1918. The station had its platforms extended in the 1960s, and was renovated in 1994.

TheDual Contracts, which were signed on March 19, 1913, were contracts for the construction and/or rehabilitation and operation of rapid transit lines in theCity of New York. The contracts were "dual" in that they were signed between the City and two separate private companies (theInterborough Rapid Transit Company and theBrooklyn Rapid Transit Company), all working together to make the construction of the Dual Contracts possible. The Dual Contracts promised the construction of several lines in Brooklyn. As part of Contract 4, the IRT agreed to build a branch of the original subway line south down Seventh Avenue, Varick Street, and West Broadway to serve the West Side of Manhattan.^[3][4][5]

The construction of this line, in conjunction with the construction of theLexington Avenue Line, would change the operations of the IRT system. Instead of having trains go via Broadway, turning onto 42nd Street, before finally turning onto Park Avenue, there would be two trunk lines connected by the42nd Street Shuttle. The system would be changed from looking like a "Z" system on a map to an "H" system. One trunk would run via the new Lexington Avenue Line down Park Avenue, and the other trunk would run via the new Seventh Avenue Line up Broadway. In order for the line to continue down Varick Street and West Broadway, these streets needed to be widened, and two new streets were built, the Seventh Avenue Extension and the Varick Street Extension.^[6] It was predicted that the subway extension would lead to the growth of the Lower West Side, and to neighborhoods such asChelsea andGreenwich Village.^[7][8]

Houston Street opened as part of an extension of the line from34th Street–Penn Station toSouth Ferry on July 1, 1918.^[9][10] Initially, the station was served by a shuttle running fromTimes Square to South Ferry.^[9][11] The new "H" system was implemented on August 1, 1918, joining the two halves of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and sending all West Side trains south from Times Square.^[12] An immediate result of the switch was the need to transfer using the 42nd Street Shuttle in order to retrace the original layout. The completion of the "H" system doubled the capacity of the IRT system.^[7]

The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940.^[13][14] On August 9, 1964, theNew York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) announced the letting of a $7.6 million (equivalent to $77,051,931 in 2024) contract to lengthen platforms at stations on the Broadway—Seventh Avenue Line fromRector Street to34th Street–Penn Station, including Houston Street, and stations fromCentral Park North–110th Street to145th Street on the Lenox Avenue Line to allow express trains to be lengthened from nine-car trains to ten-car trains, and to lengthen locals from eight-car trains to ten-car trains. With the completion of this project, the NYCTA project to lengthen IRT stations to accommodate ten-car trains would be complete.^[15]

This station was renovated in 1994 by in-house forces.^{[citation needed]}

Ground	Street level	Exit/entrance
Platform level	Side platform
	Northbound local	← towardVan Cortlandt Park–242nd Street(Christopher Street–Stonewall) ← towardWakefield–241st Street late nights(Christopher Street–Stonewall)
	Northbound express	← do not stop here
	Southbound express	→ do not stop here →
	Southbound local	→ towardSouth Ferry(Canal Street) → → towardFlatbush Avenue–Brooklyn College late nights(Canal Street) →
	Side platform

This underground station has twoside platforms and four tracks. The station is served by the1 at all times^[16] and by the2 during late nights;^[17] the center express tracks are used by the 2 and 3 trains during daytime hours.^[17][18] The station is betweenChristopher Street–Sheridan Square to the north andCanal Street to the south.^[19]

In a fashion similar to the former91st Street on the same line and33rd Street on the Lexington Avenue Line, the two center tracks appears to descend within the confines of the station. As a result, the express tracks are at a lower elevation than the local tracks in the northern half of the station.^{[citation needed]}

Both platforms have goldenmosaic trim lines with blue and green borders and "H" tablets on a light blue background at regular intervals. The large name tablets read "HOUSTON ST." in gold font on a dark blue background and gold border. There are also directional tablets in the same style. Yellow I-beam columns run along both platforms at regular intervals with alternating ones having the standard black station name plate with whiteHelvetica lettering.^{[citation needed]}

The station's artwork, installed during a 1994 in-house renovation, is entitledPlatform Diving by Deborah Brown.^[20][21] It consists of murals on both platforms depicting sea creatures in an underwater subway system.^[20]

Allfare control areas in this station are at platform level and there are no crossovers or crossunders. On both sides, aturnstile bank leads to a two staircases going up to West Houston and Varick Streets, either western corners on theSouth Ferry-bound side and either eastern corners onthe Bronx-bound side. Only the Bronx-bound side has a token booth; the South Ferry-bound side is unstaffed.^[22]

Both platforms have an unstaffed secondary fare control area towards their south ends. Twohigh entry/exit turnstiles and one exit-only turnstile leads to two staircases going up to Varick and King Streets, either western corners on the South Ferry-bound side and either eastern corners on the Bronx-bound side.^[22]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toHouston Street (IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line).

• nycsubway.org –IRT West Side Line: Houston Street

• IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line stations
• New York City Subway stations in Manhattan
• Railway stations in the United States opened in 1918
• 1918 establishments in New York City
• Greenwich Village
• West Village
• Hudson Square

• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use American English from January 2025
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Use mdy dates from February 2024
• Coordinates on Wikidata
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from July 2021
• Articles with unsourced statements from September 2024
• Commons category link is on Wikidata
• Pages using the Kartographer extension