Liberty Avenue station

New York City Subway station in Brooklyn

The Liberty Avenue station is a local station on the IND Fulton Street Line of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of Liberty and Pennsylvania Avenues in East New York, Brooklyn. It is served by the C train at all times except nights, when the A train takes over service. Construction on the Liberty Avenue station started in 1938 as part of a four station extension of the Fulton Street subway along Pitkin Avenue. Work was delayed by funding problems due to World War II, even though the stations were mostly complete. Construction resumed on the extension of the Fulton Street Line in November 1946, and this part of the Fulton Street Line opened in 1948.

Liberty Avenue was part of a four station extension of the Fulton Street subway along Pitkin Avenue, past its original planned terminus at Broadway Junction. Ridgeway proposed extending the line via Liberty Avenue to connect with the Fulton Street Elevated at Grant Avenue as part of the IND Second System plan of 1929. The route of the line through East New York was established in May 1930, with the line turning off Fulton Street at Truxton Street, before running via Norman Place and under private property before traveling underneath Liberty Avenue to 80th Street where it would connect to the elevated line. The line would extend from the then under construction Broadway–East New York station along Pennsylvania Avenue, Pitkin Avenue, Linden Boulevard and Eastern Parkway to 106th Street in southern Queens. This route was formally adopted by the BOT on January 4, 1938, and by the Board of Estimate on January 20, 1938. On April 22, 1938, the BOT held a public hearing on the proposed terms of the contract to construct Route 110, Section 7, the section of the line along Pennsylvania Avenue between Fulton Street and Bradford Street, which included the Liberty Avenue station. On May 31, 1938, the BOT invited contractors to bid on this section, and on the Route 110, Section 8, which ran along Pitkin Avenue from Bradford Street to Ashford Street. On July 21, 1938, the BOT awarded the contract to construct these two sections to the George H. Flynn Corporation for $5,220,392.

The portion continuing from east of Rockaway Avenue along Pennsylvania and Pitkin Avenues to Crystal Street, including the Liberty Avenue station, began construction later in 1938. With the completion of tunneling by December 1942, work halted on the subway extension: the Broadway−East New York station was complete but not in operation due to lack of signal equipment, and the remaining stations to Euclid Avenue were unfinished shells. At the time, work on the section that included the Liberty Avenue station was more than 99% complete, but vital equipment had yet to be installed, precluding its opening. Construction resumed on the extension of the Fulton Street Line in November 1946, following the conclusion of the war and the allocation of funds obtained by Mayor William O'Dwyer. The cost of the extension was about $46.5 million. Because Liberty Avenue and three other stations were completed later than the rest of the line, they received different design features than other IND stations, including different wall tiles and fluorescent lighting. It later became the replacement for the elevated BMT Fulton Street Line's Pennsylvania Avenue station, which closed on April 26, 1956 when the connection to the eastern Fulton elevated was opened.

This underground station has two side platforms and four tracks. The C train stops here at all times except late nights, while the A serves the station at night and uses the center express tracks to bypass the station during daytime hours. The station is between Van Siclen Avenue to the east (railroad south) and Broadway Junction to the west (railroad north). On alternating columns separating the local and express tracks there are signs that read "LIBERTY AVE" in black on white. Both platform walls have a periwinkle trim line with a dark periwinkle border and mosaic name tablets reading "LIBERTY AVE." in white sans serif lettering on a dark periwinkle background and periwinkle border. Small tile captions reading "LIBERTY" in white lettering on dark periwinkle run under the trim line, and directional signs in the same style point towards the exit and are present under some of the name tablets.

The exit is in the center with two stairways from each platform to a mezzanine above the platforms. The exits from the mezzanine lead to all four corners of Liberty and Pennsylvania Avenues. The B20 and B83 bus routes stop outside the station. Since the station was completed a decade later than most stations on the Fulton Street Line, the station has a different tiling scheme and the mezzanine is much narrower, and is only above the center of the station. In the mezzanine there are old signs that indicate "TO BORO HALL AND MANHATTAN" and "TO RICHMOND HILL AND LEFFERTS BLVD". There are also alcoves marked with the text "PUBLIC TELEPHONE", as phone booths were originally installed in the station; Free crossovers can be made between directions in the mezzanine. At the southern end of the mezzanine, a fence separates the paid and free areas of the station, with a bank of three turnstiles. The station's token booth is directly opposite the turnstile bank.

In 2018, the station had 839,241 boardings, making it the 374th most used station in the station system. This amounted to an average of 2,754 passengers per weekday.