135th Street (IRT Lenox Avenue Line)

135th Street is a station on the IRT Lenox Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 135th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem, it is served by the 2 and 3 trains at all times.

This underground station, opened on November 23, 1904, has three tracks and two side platforms. The northbound local track merges with the center track just north of the station and the center track merges with the southbound track just south of the station. The center track was last used by late night 3 shuttle trains from Harlem – 148th Street when they terminated here until 1995, when service was replaced by shuttle buses. Overnight 3 service was restored on July 27, 2008, but now terminates at Times Square – 42nd Street.

Both platform mosaics have three different kinds of trim line and name tablets. Each platform has one same-level entrance at the center containing a turnstile bank, token booth, and two stairs to the streets, the northbound side to the east side of Lenox Avenue and the southbound side to the west. Each fare control area also has one elevator from the street installed in mid 2008 that make this station fully ADA-accessible.

North of the station, a diamond crossover allows trains to switch between the two tracks. At the 142nd Street Junction, the 2 train provides service to the Bronx via the IRT White Plains Road Line while the 3 continues on the IRT Lenox Avenue Line to 145th Street and Harlem – 148th Street.

The 1995 artwork here is called Harlem Timeline by Willie Birch. It features mosaics of notable Harlem residents on the station platforms. The one on the southbound side includes Adam Clayton Powell, Joe Louis, the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, Charlie Parker, Clara Ward, and Louis Armstrong while one on the northbound side includes the Harlem Globetrotters, the NAACP, Abyssian Baptist Church, Cotton Club, and Randall's Island football team.