Construction and opening Planning for a
subway line in
New York City dates to 1864, The subway plans were drawn up by a team of engineers led by
William Barclay Parsons, the Rapid Transit Commission's chief engineer. It called for a subway line from
New York City Hall in
lower Manhattan to the
Upper West Side, where two branches would lead north into
the Bronx. under which it would construct the subway and maintain a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line. Construction on the section between 104th Street and 125th Street had already begun prior to the design change, requiring that a portion of the work be undone. By late 1903, the subway was nearly complete, but the
IRT Powerhouse and the system's
electrical substations were still under construction, delaying the system's opening. As late as October 26, 1904, the day before the subway was scheduled to open, the walls and ceilings were incomplete. The 116th Street station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway from
City Hall to
145th Street on the West Side Branch. the station was served by West Side local and express trains. Express trains began at
South Ferry in Manhattan or
Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, and ended at
242nd Street in the Bronx. Local trains ran from City Hall to 242nd Street during rush hours, continuing south from City Hall to South Ferry at other times. In 1918, the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line opened south of
Times Square–42nd Street, and the original line was divided into an H-shaped system. The original subway north of Times Square thus became part of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. Local trains were sent to
South Ferry, while express trains used the new
Clark Street Tunnel to Brooklyn. To address overcrowding, in 1909, the
New York Public Service Commission proposed lengthening the platforms at stations along the original IRT subway. As part of a modification to the IRT's construction contracts made on January 18, 1910, the company was to lengthen station platforms to accommodate ten-car express and six-car local trains. In addition to $1.5 million (equivalent to $ million in ) spent on platform lengthening, $500,000 (equivalent to $ million in ) was spent on building additional entrances and exits. It was anticipated that these improvements would increase capacity by 25 percent. The northbound platform at the 116th Street station was extended to the south, Subsequently, the station could accommodate six-car local trains, but ten-car trains could not open some of their doors. An entrance kiosk for the new staircase was taken from the
23rd Street and Fourth Avenue station and was installed in July 1913. The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. Platforms at IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line stations between and , including those at 116th Street, were lengthened to between 1946 and 1948, allowing full ten-car express trains to stop at these stations. with an estimated cost of $3.891 million. The platform extensions at these stations were opened in stages. On April 6, 1948, the platform extension at 116th Street opened. Simultaneously, the IRT routes were given numbered designations with the introduction of
"R-type" rolling stock, which contained
rollsigns with numbered designations for each service. The route to 242nd Street became known as the
1. In 1959, all 1 trains became local. Columbia University first requested the demolition of the station's original entrance in Broadway's median in 1954, ahead of the
Columbia University Bicentennial. The kiosk was seen as a safety hazard, with two deaths and several accidents occurring at the kiosk from 1962 to 1964. Sixty-eight hundred students and faculty members signed a petition to remove the kiosk in February 1964. On March 13, 1964, the New York City Board of Estimate voted to allocate $600,000 () to demolish the entrance and replace it with two new sidewalk entrances as part of the 1964–1965 City budget. The New York City Department of Highways had requested that funds be allocated to this project at the request of Columbia University. The
New York City Transit Authority had not yet drawn up plans for the project. Bids for the kiosk's demolition were initially scheduled to be solicited in July 1964. That October, a NYCTA spokesperson announced that the demolition of the entrance would be delayed until the following spring. Work on the project had been expected to commence in December 1964. The NYCTA was expected to complete the design of the project in early 1965, after which the project could be put out for bids. On November 2, 1966, the
New York City Planning Commission voted to grant an additional $300,000 () for the project after the cost of the project was revised. The money for the project was reallocated within the Highway Department's budget. It was estimated that following necessary approvals from the New York City Board of Estimate, bids on the project would be let on December 16, and work on the project would begin by the end of January 1967. Work on the project was set to be done in 22 months. In 1965, Columbia University and Barnard College had announced that they would each spend $5,000 () to decorate the new entrances to fit in with their campuses. Work on the project was completed in 1968. In April 1988, the NYCTA unveiled plans to speed up service on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line through the implementation of a
skip-stop service: the
9 train. When skip-stop service began on August 21, 1989, it was only implemented north of
137th Street–City College on weekdays, and 116th Street was served by both the 1 and the 9. In October 1988, the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced that the newsstand on the station's downtown platform would be removed as part of a citywide program to beautify stations and improve passenger flow. The agency began this program in late 1987. The owner of the newsstand was unsure of whether he would rebuild the stand as the cost of rebuilding it might have outweighed the benefits of reopening it. This newsstand was chosen for rebuilding as it was only away from a staircase.
21st century In June 2002, the MTA announced that ten subway stations citywide, including 103rd Street,
110th Street, 116th Street, 125th Street, and
231st Street on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, would receive renovations. As part of the project, fare control areas would be redesigned, flooring, and electrical and communication systems would be upgraded, and new lighting, public address systems and stairways would be installed. In addition, since 110th Street, 116th Street, and 125th Street had landmark status, historical elements would be replaced or restored, including wall tiles. At the ends of the station platforms at 103rd Street, 110th Street, and 116th Street, a small section of station wall, which would look identical to the existing station walls, would be added to provide space for scrubber rooms. Work on the ten citywide renovation projects was estimated to cost almost $146 million, and was scheduled to start later that year, and be completed in April 2004, in time for the 100th anniversary of the station's opening, and the 250th anniversary of Columbia University. Columbia University contributed $1 million () to the station renovation project after the MTA said it would have to put off the renovation projects in Manhattan due to funding issues. The university had also reached agreements to cover part of the costs of the station renovations at 103rd Street, 110th Street, and 125th Street. As a condition of the funding allocation for the station renovation, the university wanted work on the project to be expedited. Residents of Morningside Heights approved of the renovation plans, but were concerned that the expedited repairs would come at the cost of damaging the stations' historic elements. The MTA was expected to decide whether preservation or speed would be prioritized in the station renovation projects by the end of 2002. The MTA had planned to install a small bronze subway track and train to be inlaid within the station walls surrounded by sepia-toned photographs of the neighborhood at 116th Street. In December 2002,
Manhattan Community Board 7 voted in favor of the plan to include artwork from the MTA's
Arts for Transit program at the 103rd Street station, which was not landmarked. Community Board 7 voted against the plan to include new artwork at the landmarked 110th Street and 116th Street stations, and the MTA dropped plans for the artwork at these stations. The original interiors were listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 2004. ==Station layout==