Located at the intersection of 137th Street and Broadway in Hamilton Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, it is served by the 1 train at all times.

The 137th 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.

[4]: 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.

[4]: 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,[6] under which it would construct the subway and maintain a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line.

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

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

[16]: 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.

[19] A contract for the platform extensions at 137th Street and eight other stations on the line was awarded to Spencer, White & Prentis Inc. in October 1946,[22] with an estimated cost of $3.891 million.

[30] Before Barack Obama became president of the United States, one of his first community organizing efforts after graduating from Columbia University was in conjunction with drawing attention to the poor condition of the station.

In 1984 or 1985, Obama, who was working for the New York Public Interest Research Group, was among the leaders of May Day efforts to bring attention to the subway system, particularly the station serving City College.

Obama traveled to stations to get people to sign letters addressed to local officials and the MTA.

[35] When skip-stop service started in 1989, it was only implemented north of 137th Street–City College on weekdays, and it was the northernmost local stop served by both the 1 and the 9.

[39][40] On January 2, 2007, film student Cameron Hollopeter suffered a seizure in the station and fell off the platform onto the tracks.

[45] In December 2022, the MTA announced that it would award a $146 million contract for the installation of eight elevators across four stations, including 137th Street.

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

The line is elevated at 125th Street, and then underground once again at 116th Street–Columbia University, allowing trains to maintain a relatively level grade while passing through highly uneven terrain.

The northbound platform has two staircases on the east side of Broadway at 137th Street adjacent to Montefiore Square, which is frequently passed through by City College of New York students leaving the station,[53] and the southbound platform has a token booth and two staircases, one to each western corner of Broadway and 137th Street.