The Murray Hill station was originally built by the
Flushing and North Side Railroad April 1889 as a grade level station. The station's opening helped spur new, rapid growth within the community.
20th century The original station was razed in 1912, when the Port Washington Branch was depressed below grade in this area during a grade crossing elimination project throughout the
Broadway & Murray Hill sections of Flushing, which took place between 1912 and 1914, as the area was experiencing rapid growth. As part of this project, which was executed by the
New York Public Service Commission and saw initial controversy after locals expressed concerns over damages to properties, new high-level platforms were constructed in the open cut, the
grade crossings were replaced by overpasses to carry the roads over the depressed tracks, and the original station house was demolished and was replaced in July 1914 with one built on a bridge built over the tracks. In 1964, the 1914-built station house was torn down and was not replaced, thus making Murray Hill an unstaffed station; Murray Hill continues to operate as an unstaffed station, without a station house. In 1978, the Flushing Savings Bank, which was headquartered nearby on
Northern Boulevard, proposed capping the station and tracks with a public plaza between Barton Avenue and 149th street, in an attempt to revitalize the area and reverse the decline; the surrounding storefronts would also be redesigned in the continental architectural style. Minor renovations to the station took place between 1991 and 1993. The elevators were originally slated for completion in 2019, but were delayed to mid-2020 due to delays in the delivery of the elevator cabs. ==Station layout==