Museums and Plazas on the 2.

Today I continue on my adventures to each station on the 2 Line. I proceed further out into Brooklyn covering the stops from Bergen Street to Franklin Street. Bergen Street was more exciting outside the stop as a came across a cow for advertising purposes for a nearby store. Reminded me of where I grew up in rural Pennsylvania. Except there we have real cows. Onto the next stop Grand Army Plaza. I really enjoyed this stop because outside of it is the Grand Army Plaza hence the title of the stop of course. Inside the station there is artwork displayed which is called Wings for the IRT, The Irresistable Romance of Travel, Jane Greengold which was installed in 1993. The work is based on the winged women in the quadriga on the Soldiers and Sailor's Memorial Arch above the station, with an homage to the original IRT "winged train" logo. Source: nyc.gov.

In the middle of the plaza stands The Bailey Fountain which is approaching seventy five years, the fourth and longest lasting plaza fountain. It was built in 1932 by architect Edgerton Swarthout and sculptor Eugene Francis Savage. Named after Brooklyn-based financier and philanthropist Frank Bailey. It features an elaborate grouping of mythical figures.

The next stop on my journey Eastern Parkway - Brooklyn Museum. This is one of my favorite stops. There is plenty of artwork in the station associated with the museum. It is called Historic New York City Architectural Elements, Brooklyn Museum of Art Collections.

These architectural elements offer a sampling of ornamental forms that once decorated and still adorn many 19th- and early 20th-century buildings in New York City. The molded terra cotta keystones, plaques, lunettes, and borders on view have been salvaged from now-demolished structures throughout the metropolitan area. They were drawn from the Brooklyn Museum of Art's collection, where they have long served to increase public awareness and appreciation of Greater New York's architectural richness. Source: mta.info/Arts for Transit.

The outside of this station places you right in front of the Brooklyn Museum which is a beautiful artpiece all within itself. I have been to this museum numerous times and really enjoy it. It might be just one of my favorite museums. Today I couldn't go in because on Mondays it is closed. However, I proceeded to take photos outside.

Franklin Avenue stop was where I headed to next and compared to the last two stops this one was nothing to write home about so to speak. I took a few pictures but a very run of the mill station stop. At this point there happen to be some change in how the trains were running so I decided to stop my journey and head back home. Next time I will be finishing the Brooklyn end of the 2 train.

Two of us on the 2

Today I start out on the 2 train. I have a companion today, Maria, who is a great friend of mine. She lives out in Brooklyn so I decided to travel to some stops out in Brooklyn first. The first stop we go to is the Clark stop. This stop is located in downtown Brooklyn and has some artwork in it noticeably on the floor. The passageway from the stairs to the elevators has a marble terrazzo floor done by Ray Ring in 1987. He named it the Clark Street Passage. After you take the elevator to street level there is food stores and some places to eat inside the station and you discover that the hotel St. George is overhead. The area is pretty nice as it is downtown Brooklyn. The next stop is the Borough Hall stop. The stop is not that interesting but outside you will fine a hustling and bustling Brooklyn downtown right at the base of the New York Supreme Court building. It is a very busy square and not to mention that it was soo cold that day so standing above ground to take pictures was a quick event. Hoyt stop was next and it was really a beautiful station stop however the station looked like it was in two parts. One part being in a red color scheme and just looked very new and the other part looking older with pastel color scheme. It was weird that the station wasn't overdone fully. The last stop on this trip was the Nevins stop. This stop was a smaller station but had some artwork displayed. It is called Work & Nature by Anton van Dalen done in 1997. Porcelain enamel on steel frieze. This mosaic is 14 inches high by 83 feet long along both walls of the mezzanine. The work is in tones of soft blue, green and ochre like the original platform mosaics. It features stenciled silhouettes in black of a woman operating a sewing machine, a mother taking cvare of a child, a man planting a tree, an architect reading a blueprint, a female executive addresseing a meeting, and famous musician Furry Lewis. Source: mta.info. I only ended up visiting 4 stops today but plan to do a lot more the next time I venture out. It was great to have someone with me who may see things in a different light then I do as we travel through the subway stations.