The rise and fall of New York City’s street and public park comfort stations

It’s a piece of street furniture from another era—grimy granite blocks, white brick, and Romanesque faux doorways that give the little structure a connection to Classical architecture. But what exactly is this locked and rundown building in the middle of Broadway between 96th and 97th Streets? A close look reveals faded letters above each door that say “men” and “women.” It was once a comfort station—a very Victorian term for a public restroom—in the small park that threads the Upper West Side known as the Broadway Malls. This park comfort station isn’t the only one that seemingly has been abandoned to pigeons. The comfort station in the photo below sits inside a similar mall on the Lower East Side’s Allen Street. Made of red brick and with the same Romanesque arches, it likely started its life as safe and functional. In more recent decades it’s been abused, defaced, and apparently permanently closed. And hiding in plain site opposite the Metro-North train station on 125th Street in…