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. The 110th 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.
Service changes and station renovations 20th century After the first subway line was completed in 1908, 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 110th 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. In 1925, the
New York City Board of Estimate ordered the removal of the three entrance kiosks at 110th Street for imperiling the safety of pedestrians and drivers by obstructing vision, and requested that the
New York City Board of Transportation henceforth build entrances adjacent to the building line, or preferably, in buildings. The project was completed in 1926. 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 110th 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 110th 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. In 1979, the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the space within the boundaries of the original station, excluding expansions made after 1904, as a city landmark. In April 1988, the
New York City Transit Authority (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 started in 1989, it was only implemented north of
137th Street–City College on weekdays, and 110th Street was served by both the 1 and the 9.
21st century In June 2002, the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (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. 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. In September 2002, Columbia University was in negotiations to provide funding for the renovation of the 110th Street station, following a similar agreement to cover a portion of the cost to renovate the 103rd Street station. As a condition of the funding allocation, 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. A plan to renovate the station quickly while maintaining its historic elements was already completed for the 110th Street station. The MTA was expected to decide whether preservation or speed would be prioritized in the station renovation projects by the end of the year. 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 110th 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. On February 4, 2003, Community Board 7 voted in favor of renovating the 103rd Street and 110th Street stations, but against the inclusion of any new artwork in the stations, going against the board's initial vote to support the installation of artwork at 103rd Street. The original interiors were listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 2004. In July 2025, the MTA announced that it would install elevators at 12 stations, including the Cathedral Parkway–110th Street station, as part of its 2025–2029 capital program. The elevators would make the station fully compliant with the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. ==Station layout==