Operation of the first subway began on October 27, 1904, with the opening of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway from City Hall to 145th Street on the West Side Branch including the 66th Street station. On November 29, 1962, a new entrance at the station opened, leading to the lobby of the Philharmonic Hall of Lincoln Center. The entrance led from the downtown platform of the station, but also provided access to the uptown platform by an underpass at the station's south end. This entrance was built as part of a $10.2 million underground complex by the New York City Parks Department for the Philharmonic Hall. The project was partially funded by a Federal grant, and the work was contracted out to Slattery Construction Company.
Station layout
This underground station has two side platforms and four tracks. The two express tracks are used by the 2 train during daytime hours and the 3 train at all times. The walls at the platform level were renovated in 2004 and are decorated with mosaics designed by New York artist Nancy Spero. Elevators to street level provide ADA-accessibility. There is also a crossunder between the uptown and downtown side platforms at the extreme south end of the station; however, it is not ADA-accessible, and there is no free ADA-accessible transfer between directions.
The station provides access to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts just to the south, with Alice Tully Hall just to the west. All of the Lincoln Center venues are connected by underground concourses near the southern end of the station. Dante Park, upstairs at the south end, is named for the poet Dante Alighieri, whose statue is found there. Richard Tucker Park is nearby, at the north end of Lincoln Square. A number of schools are nearby as well, including the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and some small schools located in the former Martin Luther King Jr. High School building. This station also provides access to:
ABC Television Center East studios, and its affiliate WABC-TV