The 103rd Street station was constructed for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as part of the city's first subway line, which was approved in 1900.

[5]: 21  However, development of what would become the city's first subway line did not start until 1894, when the New York State Legislature passed the Rapid Transit Act.

It called for a subway line from New York City Hall in lower Manhattan to the Upper West Side, where two branches would lead north into the Bronx.

[5]: 161 The Rapid Transit Construction Company, organized by John B. McDonald and funded by August Belmont Jr., signed the initial Contract 1 with the Rapid Transit Commission in February 1900,[7] under which it would construct the subway and maintain a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line.

[6]: 4  Belmont incorporated the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) in April 1902 to operate the subway.

[5]: 186 [11] As late as October 26, 1904, the day before the subway was scheduled to open, the walls still had "many rough spots" according to The New York Times.

[14][15] After the first subway line was completed in 1908,[16] the station was served by West Side local and express trains.

Express trains began at South Ferry in Manhattan or Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, and ended at 242nd Street in the Bronx.

[18] To address overcrowding, in 1909, the New York Public Service Commission proposed lengthening the platforms at stations along the original IRT subway.

[19]: 168  As part of a modification to the IRT's construction contracts made on January 18, 1910, the company was to lengthen station platforms to accommodate ten-car express and six-car local trains.

[23] In conjunction with the platform lengthening, a new entrance was installed at the southeast corner of 104th Street and Broadway; it was completed in March 1912.

[23] A contract for the platform extensions at 103rd Street and eight other stations on the line was awarded to Spencer, White & Prentis Inc. in October 1946,[29] with an estimated cost of $3.891 million.

The 103rd Street station was left unprotected not because of a dearth of historic architecture, as with other structures that had been denied landmark status.

Rather, its exclusion was part of a compromise between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and the LPC, which limited the scope of the interior-landmark designation.

Historical elements at the four stations on the line in Manhattan would be replaced or restored, including their white wall tiles.

As a condition of the funding allocation for the station renovation at 103rd Street, the university wanted work on the project to be expedited.

Residents of Morningside Heights approved of the renovation plans, but were concerned that the expedited repairs would come at the cost of damaging the stations' historic elements.

The MTA was expected to decide whether preservation or speed would be prioritized in the station renovation projects by the end of the year.

[42] In December 2002, Manhattan Community Board 7 voted in favor of the plan to include artwork from the MTA's Arts for Transit program at the 103rd Street station, which was not landmarked.

Additional columns between the tracks, spaced every 5 feet (1.5 m), support the jack-arched concrete station roofs.

At the corners of the station house were limestone quoins, which supported a copper-and-terracotta gable roof facing west and east.

The doorways were centrally located on the north and south walls of the station house, topped by terracotta finials and a rounded gable.