The subway station control house on the island at 72nd Street and Broadway is one of only three left in all of New York City. Designed by Heins & LaFarge, it was built in 1904 (the same year as the Ansonia) and is a Registered Historic Place. It is also one of the few New York stations with mosaic tapestries on the wall.

Although New York modeled its subway on the London Underground, the control houses followed Budapest (Hungary) style, which was modeled on exotic summer houses called "kushks" found in the gardens of ancient Persia and Turkey. The name was Americanized; here they were called kiosks.

Also designed by Heins & LaFarge, the Bowling Green IRT control house near the southern end of Broadway was built in 1905. Like its twin at 72nd Street, it is a reminder of the glory days of New York's first subway, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, and a time when important stations like this one were marked with brick and stone control houses.

Bowling Green itself is New York's oldest public park, going back to the era of British occupation. Broadway begins here and continues, as Route 9, all the way to the Canadian border where it joins that country's network of provincial roads.

Although these kiosks are considered architectural treasures today, they were scorned when built. ''A miserable monstrosity,'' wrote The New York Times in a 1904 editorial about our 72nd Street station. 

The entrance to the IND 72nd Street station at Central Park West outside the Dakota is unique in New York's subway system, with its singular lampposts, bearded face and dragon ornamentation, and verdigris'ed SUBWAY sign.