TWENTY-EIGHTH STREET Station was one of the first to be completed. In fact, at one point, it was at least two stations in one, as the lower photo indicates. Having been finished before most of the others (Bleecker Street and 59 Street were also finished early), its walls were used by the architects Heins and LaFarge to test various wall treatments and name panels. The photo here, and an enlarged area of it below, show an "86TH ST." name panel on the station's walls above the man standing near the pillar; all these extra name panels are obviously no longer visible, though whether they were moved to their correct stations, removed and discarded, or merely covered over is unknown.

THERE IS TODAY an interesting name panel at this station that does have the proper station name. It is a mosaic rendering of the original "28 TWENTY-EIGHTH STREET" name panels, probably made to replace one that had been damaged, perhaps when the platforms were extended. An underpass between the uptown and downtown platforms was added when the station was extended, but it is now closed off.