[4] The station contains a pair of tracks and an island platform and is located at ground level (although at a lower elevation than the adjacent streets).

A parking structure for the adjacent Frederick Douglass Academy is located above the station, forming a roof above the platform and tracks.

The station was intended to replace 145th Street, the next stop south, as the northern terminal of the Lenox Avenue Line.

The station's location and tracks were originally part of the Lenox Avenue Yard opened in 1904, where 3 trains are currently stored.

[10] In 1957, a station at 150th Street within the Lenox Yard was proposed to better serve the local area (including the nearby Harlem River Houses).

[11] The station, and the Bronx extension, had been requested by local citizens since the 1940s due to unreliable bus and surface trolley service.

[23] In December 2019, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced that this station would become ADA-accessible as part of the agency's 2020–2024 Capital Program.

[29] When this station opened, it supplanted 145th Street, the next stop south, as the northern terminal of the IRT Lenox Avenue Line.

[4] From the single island platform, a double-wide stairway leads up to a set of doors that separate the street-level station-house at Adam Clayton Powell Jr.