Secret Brooklyn Heights Subway Exit Pt. II: The Pictures

By on April 13, 2010 5:39 pm in Architecture, Brooklyn Heights, Commercial Real Estate, Fun

entranceThere’s been great buzz among the blogs today about the secret subway tunnel supposedly located on unassuming Joralemon St. Curbed did some more digging and seemed to confirm what many locals had suspected, that the “brownstone” at 58 Joralemon is really an elaborate subway entrance.

I walked over to check out the scene and took a few photos. Hindsight and blackened-out windows do indeed make the brownstone look laughably fake—the housing equivalent of an FBI van called “Joe’s Florist.” Though with the MTA’s financial woes, I can’t imagine many would be thrilled if they used their budget to decorate a fake house. Still, I was surprised when I peered through the metal doors labeled “Exit #1″ and saw what looked like the 4/5 station peering back.

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You can’t say that they took terrible pains to hide the place, though. The pipe in front about says it all.

PropertyShark lists the owners as the MTA. I hope if they do decide to decorate, they furnish it well. In the meantime, the Brooklyn Eagle says there are several such entrances in Brooklyn Heights—does anyone know of more?

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  • MadeInBrooklyn

    There’s another two entrances on Furman Street, which back in the ’80s a lot of neighborhood kids would get into and hang out.

  • NinPro

    It’s an emergency exit from the tunnel that doubles as a fan plant, and was designed to blend in with the historic district. It’s not actually connected to any station. Most emergency exits simply dump you on the sidewalk from a ground hatch.

  • LSK

    I noticed the building when the door was open and the backside said “EXIT”. Moments later a MTA worker walked out and confirmed my suspicion that the building was a subway exit in disguise…. Not so secret he explained, google it, its all over the internet. He thought the building had been taken by eminent domain when the IRT originally constructed, and explained the interior had been completely removed to make way for two 16′ fans and the emergency stairs.

  • lifer

    I loved the entrances on Furman street, great for practicing graffiti, as well as hanging out.

  • CFB

    The house next door was on the BHA House & Garden tour a few years ago; the owners have a lease to use the shell’s back yard as part of their own.

  • my2cents

    Maybe oven/food maestro/aficionada was actually a secret subway entrance too.