Kew Gardens
Union Turnpike
Parsons Boulevard is the last express intermediate stop on the Queens Blvd subway here beneath Hillside Avenue. From this station's opening, (along with the local 169 Street) on April 24, 1937 until the 179 Street terminal opened in 1950 it was terminus station of many express trains since the local 169 Street that wasn't designed to be an intermediate stop and not a terminal station was quite dysfunctional at being the end of the line. Parsons Blvd is a typical IND express station with two fairly narrow island platforms for the four track line. These have maroon-red painted columns (that also exist on the mezzanine) and an orange trim line with a black border along the platform walls, and Parsons tiling, one tile underneath the trim.
Five staircases (2 are clustered by the main exit to Sutphin Blvd, the other 3 are spaced out across the rest of the station) from each platform lead up to the station's mezzanine that runs from the western end of the platforms to about a third of the way from the eastern end of the platforms. This mezzanine is mostly within fare control between the two exits but there is also an out of fare control passageway between the two exits via a narrow fenced off passageway on the southern side of the mezzanine. A small portion in the middle of the mezzanine (taking up about half it's width) was turned into space for the station department in 1999 but otherwise the mezzanine is fully intact.
At the eastern end of the mezzanine is the full time token booth where it faces the turnstiles near two staircases down to each platform and there are streetstairs out to the NW, SW and SE corners of Parsons Blvd and Hillside Avenue.
The western end of the mezzanine contains an unstaffed fare control area, with two High Entrance Turnstile plus an exit only one (and TVMs). Here their are short, separate passageways lead to streetstairs to the SE and SW corners Hillside Avenue and 153 St (this passageway has faded painted text for the change booth) and a single one on the northside of Hillside Ave since 153 St ends at a T Intersection.
Photos 1-4: February 9, 2004; 5: September 26, 2004; 6-14: June 2, 2008; 15-44: January 3, 2012; 45-51: November 1, 2012
Looking down towards the very end of the Jamaica-bound platform at Parsons Blvd.
Looking across the express tracks at Parsons Blvd.
Looking down the long mezzanine at Parsons Blvd.
A modern dot-matrix sign that is identical to the useless ones that only seem to say the date and time along the platforms flashes and beeps saying a Manhattan-bound train arriving at Parsons Blvd.
A rare close up view of the Parsons tiling and trim taken out the window of the R1-9s running in service due to the Subway Centennial.
A close up of the 'parsons' text on a column at Parsons Blvd.
Original, now very dirty, black lettering on a white background 'Parsons' signs are still intact along the columns between the express tracks.
The orange wall trim that's three tiles wide and the 1/2 tile black border with Parsons letting one full tile below it along the local track walls at Parsons Blvd.
Looking across to a conductors stop point for a 4 car R46 G train on the Jamaica-bound express track at Parsons Blvd.
A sign for a staircase up to the Mezzanine and the exit to Hillside Avenue/153 Street at Parsons Blvd.
A view down the mezzanine to the HEET exit to 153 Street at Parsons Blvd.
Another view down the mezzanine at Parsons Blvd where it gets narrower where it looks like rooms (the tile whiter then in the rest of the station) have been carved out of the mezzanine over the Manhattan-bound tracks at Parsons Blvd.
A staircase down 'To 179 Street' with the black fence that separates the corridor that leads between the two entrances to the station outside of fare control visible behind it.
Passengers disembark from a Jamaica-bound F train coming home during the evening rush.
Entering a portion of the large mezzanine
The one station token booth, the mezzanine is so wide it is just plopped in the middle of it
There is a fenced off storage area at the Parson's Blvd end of the mezzanine
An old adopt a station sign for the Hillcrest High School for cleaning I suppose, don't think this program still exists
Last Updated: December 21, 2021
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