Dean Street (BMT Franklin Avenue Line)

Dean Street
Former New York City Subway rapid transit station

Looking at the northeast corner of the bridge over Dean Street where the former BMT Franklin Avenue Line station was located.
Station statistics
Address Dean Street & Franklin Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11238
Borough Brooklyn
Locale Bedford-Stuyvesant
Coordinates 40°40′40″N 73°57′23″W / 40.6778°N 73.9565°W / 40.6778; -73.9565Coordinates: 40°40′40″N 73°57′23″W / 40.6778°N 73.9565°W / 40.6778; -73.9565
Line BMT Franklin Avenue Line
Services None (demolished)
Structure Elevated
Platforms 2 side platforms
Tracks 2 while open, 1 at location today
Other information
Opened Initial: August 15, 1896 (1896-08-15)[1][2]
Reopening: October 28, 1901 (1901-10-28)[3]
Closed First closing: Circa 1899 (1899)
Final closing: September 10, 1995 (1995-09-10)[4]
Former/other names Bergen Street
Station succession
Next north Franklin Avenue
Next south Park Place

Dean Street was a New York City Subway station on the BMT Franklin Avenue Line. Located on Dean Street west of Franklin Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, it was serviced by the Franklin Avenue Shuttle.

History

Dean Street station had the unusual distinction of being opened and closed twice in its history, though the line it served continues in operation.

The Kings County Elevated Railway was connected to the Brighton Beach Line in 1896 by means of a ramp and short elevated line from a point south of the latter railroad's terminal at Atlantic and Franklin Avenues in Brooklyn. The local property owners were promised a station on the elevated structure near the old Bedford Terminal, and one was established by 1897 at Dean Street, nearly adjacent to the former terminal, which was closed. The station was not well patronized and the elevated company closed it in 1899.[1] An uproar ensued, including appeals to the State Railroad Commission. On October 28, 1901, Dean Street was opened for the second time.[3]

The station continued to be poorly patronized, as it was only a few hundred feet from the Franklin Avenue station, which was located at the busy intersection of Fulton Street and Franklin Avenue. Nevertheless, Dean Street was upgraded to handle six-car subway trains with the rest of the Franklin Avenue Line in 1924.

However, through the 1970s and 1980s, the Dean Street station deteriorated with other stations on the line. In 1985, the station had only 133 paying daily riders on a typical weekday in 1985 not counting farebeaters, making it one of the least used stations in the system.[5]

In 1995, the New York City Transit Authority closed the station permanently. The TA cited low patronage (the lowest on the subway system), its decrepit condition, and its proximity to Franklin Avenue station. At the time of its closing, Dean Street and Franklin Avenue were the two closest stations on the system, located just three blocks from each other at their closest points. It was charged that many who used Dean Street station jumped the turnstiles, a major problem at the time, lowering the passenger count even further.[4]

Remnants

The line that once served the Dean Street station, the BMT Franklin Avenue Line, still operates as the Franklin Avenue Shuttle. The elevated portion of the line was completely rebuilt in the late 1990s, reopening in 1999. Nothing visible remains of the former station, except for an oddly placed lamppost at street level.[6][7]

References

  1. 1 2 ‹The template Cite BDE is being considered for deletion.› "New Route to Coney Island". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. August 14, 1896. p. 12.
  2. ↑ ‹The template Cite BDE is being considered for deletion.› "First Trains to Brighton". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. August 14, 1896. p. 7.
  3. 1 2 "Dean Street Station Opened". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. October 28, 1901. Retrieved November 5, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 Perez-Pena, Richard (September 11, 1995). "A Subway Station Is Shuttered, the First in 33 Years". The New York Times. Retrieved March 21, 2010.
  5. ↑ Levine, Richard (1986-11-05). "COLUMN ONE: TRANSPORT". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
  6. ↑ Lamppost on Google Maps Street View; the lamppost on the right is shorter than the one on the left, and was used to illuminate a former stairway to the station.
  7. ↑ "The lore of the Franklin Avenue Shuttle". Forgotten New York. 1998-10-01. Today, virtually nothing remains of the old Dean Street station, with the exception of the unusual placement of a streetlamp over the sidewalk on Dean Street west of Franklin. The streetlamp illuminated the bottom of the staircase leading from the old elevated platform.
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