The Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street station is the northern terminal station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 242nd Street and Broadway (US Route 9) in the Bronx, it is served by the 1 train at all times. It is adjacent to Van Cortlandt Park to the east, Manhattan College, and the 240th Street Yard of the subway system, along with the affluent neighborhoods of Fieldston and Riverdale to the west. It was built from a design by subway architects Heins and Lafarge. Today it is the only remaining Victorian Gothic elevated terminal station on the subway, and contains the subway's only remaining scrolled station sign among its decorative flourishes. In 2005, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. History Construction and opening The station was built as part of the Contract 1 system erected from 1904–1908, connecting Lower Manhattan to the Bronx. Originally the northern terminus was intended to be Bailey Avenue and 230th Street, a block southeast of the current station at 231st Street. After the completion of the Harlem River Ship Canal at the end of the 19th century, the line was rerouted to a new terminus at 242nd Street. Like many of the other terminal stations in the outer boroughs, it was located near a park. Heins and LaFarge, who had already designed the Cathedral of St. John the Divine near Columbia University and the Astor Court at the Bronx Zoo, were commissioned to design the stations. In the early 1890s, the city's transit commissioners had recommended that subway stations be painted and decorated in order to make the experience of using the system pleasant. They took further inspiration from the contemporary City Beautiful movement, which called for beautiful public architecture in the hope that it would inspire citizens to act virtuously. Their use of the Victorian Gothic architectural style reflected its popularity at that time for train stations. The six elevated stations they built in that style on the Contract 1 are extensively decorated on their exterior surfaces, complementing the corresponding tilework and mosaics in the underground stations. 242nd Street, which opened on August 1, 1908, is the only elevated terminal station left in that style from Contract 1. Within a few years of the station's opening, ridership on the line north of 157th Street increased sharply. In 1913, 3.1 million tickets