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

Construction of the line segment that includes the Astor Place station started on September 12 of the same year.

The original station interior is a New York City designated landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[6]: 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.

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

[5]: 4  Belmont incorporated the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) in April 1902 to operate the subway.

[7] In the vicinity of the Astor Place station, the subway was to run under Lafayette Street,[8][9]: 17  a new thoroughfare constructed between 1897[10] and 1905.

[6]: 186 [13] As late as October 26, 1904, the day before the subway was scheduled to open, the wall on the southbound platform next to the Wanamaker's store was incomplete.

East Side local trains ran from City Hall to Lenox Avenue (145th Street).

By 1914, the Rapid Transit Commissioners had determined that the spur was unlikely to be built soon, so permission to build the Ninth Street tunnel was denied.

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

[23]: 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.

[32] When the fire was being extinguished, some water pooled in the basement and into a subterranean river parallel to the tracks,[33][34] a likely tributary of Minetta Creek.

[36] In November 1959, the Warshaw Construction Company received a contract to remove fifteen entrance/exit kiosks on IRT lines, including two at the Astor Place station.

[39] In April 1960, work began on a $3,509,000 project (equivalent to $36.1 million in 2023) to lengthen platforms at seven of these stations to accommodate ten-car trains.

[42] This led residents to create the Committee for Astor Place to raise money for restoration of the station.

[43]: 81  In 1981, the MTA announced the creation of its Culture Stations program to install public art in the subway.

The Culture Stations program was started to deter graffiti, and was inspired by legislation in the New York City Council that mandated that 1% of the cost of constructing public buildings be used for art.

Four stations, namely Astor Place, Eastern Parkway–Brooklyn Museum, 66th Street–Lincoln Center, and Fifth Avenue/53rd Street, were selected for the program due to their proximity to cultural institutions.

[50] The scope of the project included the restoration of the platform's glazed ceramic beaver plaques; refurbishing the 1950s platform extensions with a design similar to the original station; cleaning the ceiling; and adding new lighting, noise-abatement material, and brown floor tiles.

[43]: 82–83  A new piece of porcelain steel artwork by Cooper Union alumnus Milton Glaser was installed and a cast-iron copy of one of the station's original kiosks was built.

[59]: 33  Both platforms are slightly curved,[4]: 5–6  since the station itself is placed on an S-curve between Lafayette Street and Fourth Avenue.

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

[4]: 4  The underpass that formerly connected the platforms opened along with the rest of the station in 1904, making Astor Place one of the few locations in the original IRT where passengers could transfer between directions for free.

In the original portion of the station, each pilaster is topped by yellow faience plaques depicting beavers, surrounded by green scrolled and foliate motifs.

The beaver plaques are a reference to John Jacob Astor, whose fortune had been derived from the beaver-pelt trade.

[69] The street staircase on the southbound side contains modern steel railings like those seen at most New York City Subway stations.

[72] The Alamo, a cube sculpture in the traffic island above the northbound platform, is a popular visitor attraction in the area.