New York City’s incoming mayor, Zohran Mamdani, chose a decommissioned subway station beneath City Hall as the site of his private swearing-in ceremony — a symbolic choice for a candidate who campaigned on pledges such as free public transit.
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The Democratic socialist took the oath of office around midnight on New Year’s Eve in the old City Hall subway station in Lower Manhattan, according to multiple news outlets, as a gesture meant to reflect the city’s history of serving working people and to signal his incoming administration’s priorities.
The subterranean site, which closed 80 years ago, is known for its architectural grandeur with chandeliers, glass skylights and tiled vaulted tunnels.
Mamdani told Streetsblog NYC, which first reported the news, that when the station first opened in 1904, “it was a physical monument to a city that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working peoples’ lives.”
“That ambition need not be a memory confined only to our past, nor must it be isolated only to the tunnels beneath City Hall: It will be the purpose of the administration fortunate enough to serve New Yorkers from the building above,” Mamdani said in the statement to Streetsblog.
The small, underground ceremony included Mamdani’s family and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who delivered the oath of office. A public inauguration and block party near City Hall were planned to follow.
James said on social media that she was honored to swear in Mamdani at the historic subway station: “Our subways connect us all, and they represent exactly what our next mayor is fighting for: a city every New Yorker can thrive in,” she wrote.
Trains first departed the City Hall station on Oct. 27, 1904, as the first stop on the city’s first subway line, extending as far as the Bronx, where Mamdani attended high school.
As train cars grew longer to accommodate the city’s increasing ridership, they became incompatible with the platform’s curved design, according to The New York Times. The city shut down the station in 1945, with service ending that New Year’s Eve.
Once hailed as “an underground cathedral” and “the Mona Lisa of subway stations,” the station was designed by George Heins and Christopher LaFarge with Guastavino vaulted ceilings, featuring large brass light fixtures, glass skylights, and green- and cream-colored tilework.
The public can view the historic tunnels from a train car on Manhattan’s 6 line, which loops through the terminal, or on a guided tour with the New York Transit Museum.
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