The West Side Branch of the first subway was extended northward to a temporary terminus of 221st Street and Broadway on March 12, 1906 with the first open station at Dyckman Street, as the stations at 168th Street, 181st Street, and 191st Street were not yet completed. This extension was served by shuttle trains operating between 157th Street and 221st Street until May 30, 1906 when express trains began running through to 221st Street. In 1948, platforms on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line from 103rd Street to 238th Street were lengthened to to allow full ten-car express trains to stop at this station. Previously, the station could only hold six-car local trains. The platform extensions were opened in stages. On July 9, 1948, the platform extensions at stations between 207th Street and 238th Street were opened for use at the cost of $423,000. In 1969, the station's wooden platforms were replaced with concrete ones. The station was renovated by an in-house crew of New York City Transit Authority employees in 1990.
Station layout
This elevated station has two side platforms and three tracks with the center track not used in revenue service. Both platforms have beige windscreens and dark canopies, which were replaced as part of a renovation project in 2012, in the center and black steel waist-high fences at either ends. The station name plates are in the standard black with white lettering. The 1991 artwork here is called Elevated Nature I-IV by Wopo Holup. It consists of two concrete panels with wooden frames on the southbound platform's station house. Each panel consists of eight squares depicting tree limbs. This artwork is also located at four other stations on this line. The station is near the northern end of the 207th Street Yard, which includes the 215th Street Signal Shop, and the MTA Buses Kingsbridge Depot which is just slightly north of this station. It is also four blocks along 218th Street from Inwood Hill Park and, also on 218th Street, provides access to Columbia University's Baker Field athletic complex, as well as the Allen Hospital, a satellite facility of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. North of the station, the line crosses the Broadway Bridge over the Harlem River Ship Canal into the mainland of New York.
Exits
Both platforms have one wooden adjacent station house in the center. However, only the southbound one is used for passenger service. Three doors from the platform lead to a small waiting area, where a turnstile bank provides entrance/exit from the station. Outside fare control, there is a token booth and two staircases going down to either western corners of Tenth Avenue and 215th Street. The station house on the northbound platform is used for employees only. One exit-only turnstile at platform level leads to a staircase that goes down to the northeast corner of 215th Street and Tenth Avenue while a High Entry/Exit Turnstile, also at platform level, leads to a staircase going down to the southeast corner.
Ridership
In 2018, the station had 553,050 boardings, making it the 402nd most used station in the 424-station system. This amounted to an average of 1,787 passengers per weekday. In terms of annual passenger ridership and in terms of weekday daily ridership, this is the least used station in Manhattan.
