It opened on March 3, 1917, as part of an extension of the IRT White Plains Road Line from East 177th Street–East Tremont Avenue to East 219th Street–White Plains Road, providing the Bronx communities of Williamsbridge and Wakefield with access to rapid transit service.

Service on the new portion of the line was operated as a four-car shuttle from 177th Street due to the power conditions at the time.

Both platforms have beige windscreens and red canopies with green outlines, frames, and support columns in the center and black, waist-high steel fences at either ends with lampposts at regular intervals.

It consists of stained glass panels on the platform windscreens featuring scenes from various works of literature written by four authors, Sholom Aleichem, James Baldwin, Nicholasa Mohr, and Edgar Allan Poe, all of whom have lived in or wrote about the Bronx.

Outside fare control, two staircases go down to the northwest and southeast corners of Burke Avenue and White Plains Road.