The 72nd 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.

The station's original head house and part of its interior are New York City designated landmarks and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The northern head house contains elevators, which make the station compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

[8]: 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.

[2][8]: 186  The opening of the first subway line, and particularly the 72nd Street station, helped contribute to the development of the Upper West Side.

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

[17]: 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.

[29] During the early 1950s, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA; now an agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA) considered converting the 59th Street–Columbus Circle station, a major transfer point to the IND Eighth Avenue Line, from a local stop to an express stop.

This would serve the anticipated rise of ridership at the stop resulting from the under-construction New York Coliseum and the expected redevelopment of the area.

[30] While the work was never completed, the firm Edwards, Kelcey and Beck was hired as Consulting Engineers in 1955 for the construction of the express station.

Turnstiles were moved to create separate fare control areas for northbound and southbound trains, eliminating free transfers between directions.

[53] In October 1992, he offered to provide another $1 million for the station's expansion in exchange for the New York City Planning Commission's approval of his project.

[55] To help fund the renovation, U.S. representative Jerry Nadler requested a $9.5 million grant from the federal government in 1994.

[56] MTA officials subsequently rejected the renovation as being infeasible, saying the expense of digging through the bedrock to widen the platforms would have increased the project's total cost to $200 million.

[59] In 1998, New York City Transit's vice president for capital improvements, Mysore Nagaraja, said that a renovation of the 72nd Street station would commence after more important projects were completed.

[60] The project was budgeted at $63 million,[61][62] and state assemblyman Scott Stringer successfully campaigned to have money allocated to the 72nd Street station's renovation.

[69] The closeout of the project was done fourteen months late due to a setback in the installation of street lighting and acceptance by the New York City Department of Transportation.

"[39] In October 1979, the LPC designated the space within the boundaries of the original station, excluding expansions made after 1904, as a city landmark.

[6] 72nd Street contains four tracks and two island platforms that allow for cross-platform interchanges between local and express trains heading in the same direction.

[6]: 3–4 [78]: 9 In the 72nd Street station, decorative elements are limited largely to the walls adjacent to the tracks, which are made of white glass tiles.

[7]: 9 [6]: 4  At 50-foot (15 m) intervals along the station walls, there are 5-by-8-foot (1.5 by 2.4 m) mosaic panels with blue, buff, and cream tiles in tapestry designs.

[78]: 8 [12]: 46 [5]: 2  The station house occupies an area of 50 by 37 feet (15 by 11 m) and is aligned parallel to Broadway to create a focal point on Sherman Square.

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

[84][4]: 4 [5]: 2–3  The doorways are centrally located on the north and south walls of the control house, topped by four terracotta finials and a rounded gable.

The south doorway contains four doors, above which is a pediment and an arched window made of glass and wrought iron.

[4]: 4 [5]: 2–3 [78]: 12 Inside the station house are artful wrought iron pillars, dating back to the days of the original subway system, as well as decorated ceiling beams.

As originally configured, the station house had separate turnstile banks and token booths for each side, which were subsequently combined into a single fare-control area.

[85] The Times cited widespread complaints from neighborhood residents, including a member of the Colonial Club on Amsterdam Avenue and 72nd Street, who likened the structure's original dark-brown color to "a mud fence".

[84] The West End Association had adopted a resolution in December 1904, declaring the station house "not only an offense to the eye, but a very serious danger to life and limb", and recommending that it be demolished.