City Hall subway station, New York by Detroit Photographic Company

City Hall station was the glistening crown jewel of New York City's IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit Company) subway, Gotham’s first system of rapid train transit. City Hall subway station, New York is an image taken at some point between the station’s opening on October 27th, 1904 and the end of 1906 by the Detroit Photographic Company (also known as the Detroit Publishing Company). That they would lovingly document the site is no surprise–the company thoroughly chronicled the breakneck speed at which New York City experienced growth and change during the turn of the century. Plus, the City Hall station’s stunning Romanesque Revival-style architecture, opulent brass chandeliers, glittering decorative glass tiles, and grand skylights begged to be photographed.

The station, unmistakably designed by Rafael Guastavino, is defined by a particular type of curved, vaulted ceiling patented by the architect and modeled after techniques popularized in the Catalonian region of Spain. Soaring multi-colored tiles dance in connecting curves high above the station floor, giving the space a dynamism that echoes the optimism felt in the city in response to its rapid development. With the Big Apple’s population boom, however, trains had to become longer…and because the City Hall station couldn’t be redesigned to accommodate the new 10-car trains, it was decommissioned on December 31st, 1945.

Now part of the New York City Transit Museum, the station has become a tourist destination. NYC’s current system, the MTA (the Metropolitan Transit Authority), leaves a lot to be desired in terms aesthetic appeal despite the robust efforts of its MTA Arts & Design Agency. One would be hard pressed to find a New Yorker who didn’t wish that the City Hall station was the norm instead of a museum relic. City Hall subway station, New York is a beautiful document of the industriousness that this city is absolutely capable of, and a love letter to the connection between beautiful architecture and civic pride.

+ Limited-edition, exclusive to 20x200
+ Museum quality: archival inks, 100% cotton rag paper unless noted
+ Handcrafted custom-framing is available

Our quoted dimensions are for the size of paper containing the images, not the printed image itself. We do not alter the aspect ratio, nor do we crop or resize the artists’ originals. All of our prints have a minimum border of .5 inches and maximum of 2.5” to allow for framing.

Moab Lasal Exhibition Lustre

8"x10" | Edition of 10
11"x14" | Edition of 200
16"x20" | Edition of 50

Detroit Photographic Company, also known as Detroit Publishing Company and Detroit Photochrom Company, was one of the world's major image publishers from 1895 to 1924, and the first and only entity in the United States to license the Photochrom process. Once the Detroit Photographic Company got its hands on the approach, the company was able to mass market photographic prints, postcards, and other materials.

Photolithography, and more specifically Photochrom, the process by which this image was made, involves hand-painting parts of a black and white photographic negative, then transferring that image onto a lithographic plate using colored gels. This then produced a colored print. The photographer would either rely on imagination or, more often, take detailed notes about the colors they felt were important to represent in a given image when undertaking the detailed process.

During its some 30 years of business, Detroit Photographic Co. amassed an archive of over 40,000 negatives. Everything from postcards to panoramas to fine art prints were created and sold by mail order, door to door salesmen, and in retail locations: American history was both made and preserved.

Sign up for our newsletter to get first access to new editions, catch the freshest commentary + features, and snag a special discount.

City Hall subway station, New York

Detroit Photographic Company

Join our mailing list for 15% off