NYC subway hides ventilation shaft and emergency exit behind 1847 Brooklyn townhouse façade

At first glance, 58 Joralemon Street looks like another historic Brooklyn Heights brownstone on a quiet, tree-lined street. Its dark windows and Greek Revival facade blend into the neighbourhood, but the building is not an ordinary home. It conceals a subway ventilation shaft and emergency exit stairway serving the tunnels beneath the East River. Smart Cities Dive reports that the original rowhouse was built in 1847 and converted as part of a subway vent fan plan in 1908.The building is one of New York’s most unusual examples of infrastructure hidden in plain sight. More than a century after the subway company bought and gutted it, the facade continues to protect a piece of transit engineering that helps keep the tunnels below safe for passengers. Read more details about it here, as per the report:A home turned into transit infrastructureIn 1907, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company purchased the 1847 townhouse at 58 Joralemon Street. Rather than demolishing it completely, the company gutted the interior and converted it into a ventilation structure for the subway tunnels running beneath the East River.The conversion was part of a broader plan to supply fresh air to the subway system...