[22] Before the IND station opened, Bickford's leased a store within a two-story building that housed one of the subway's entrances.

[24][26][27] One real-estate expert wrote that the station was "the only place in Queens where the interchange between the elevated and the subway system can be made at a common point".

[33] It also inspired plans for an unbuilt shopping mall nearby,[34] and real-estate investors speculated that sales and rentals of real estate on Roosevelt Avenue would increase significantly.

[36] The station was the Queens Boulevard Line's terminus from 1933 until an extension east to Union Turnpike opened on December 31, 1936.

[45][46] In 1940, Victor Moore, a notable Broadway performer and Freeport resident,[47][48] asked the New York City Board of Estimate for permission to build a $375,000 bus terminal in his name near the station.

[49][50] Moore acquired all remaining lots on the block in February 1941[51][52] and began construction on the terminal that June,[53][54] obtaining a $250,000 mortgage for the project.

[47][57] It served as a hub for the operations of Triboro Coach,[58][59] allowing subway passengers to transfer to and from buses for distant neighborhoods and for LaGuardia Airport.

[60] As part of the unification of the New York City Subway system, free transfers between the BMT/IRT and IND stations commenced on July 1, 1948; initially, passengers were issued paper tickets.

[64][65] In 1956, the New York City Transit Authority announced that it would open a request for proposal for additional escalators between the IRT and IND stations.

[66] At the time, the station had six exits,[a] but only one token booth in the IND mezzanine, which led to severe congestion during rush hours.

[74] The station remained a transfer hub for passengers traveling to LaGuardia Airport, which had no direct subway service.

[79] The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) acquired the Victor Moore Arcade in March 1999, paying Gumowitz $9.5 million.

[80] Later that year, the MTA began buying out 25 merchants' leases within the arcade in preparation for a $90 million renovation of the station complex.

[81] The MTA planned to install four elevators, rebuild staircases, and erect the station's main entrance on the arcade's site.

[91] The Queens Boulevard Line platforms were refurbished by construction firm Skanska[92] at a total cost of $132 million.

[93][94] The renovation also involved adding 8,600 square feet (800 m2) of retail space,[95] expanding the upper mezzanine on either side of 74th Street,[96] and installing elevators.

[98] As part of the renovation, the MTA had removed the complex's payphones in April 2005,[99] prompting state senator John Sabini to request that the phones be restored.

[104][105] As part of a $11,2 million project, the MTA replaced two of the escalators connecting the IND and IRT mezzanines between July 2014 and early 2015.

At the edges of the Flushing Line landing, stairs go towards a room where in the right, a narrow stairwell (originally an escalator passageway, but currently under construction) goes towards the Basement.

The artwork consisted of trapezoid-shaped laminated glass panels located on the upper part of the building's eastern facade.

[115][116] At 73rd Street and Broadway, on the north side of Roosevelt Avenue, a set of stairs from each of the IRT Flushing Line platforms lead down to a landing below the elevated structure.

[113] There is a connection to the Queens Boulevard Line mezzanine via three long, narrow escalators, where there are exits from the below-ground fare control points.

[120] The outer track walls have a midnight blue trim line with a black border and 2-by-10-tile white-on-black tile captions reading "ROOSEVELT" in Helvetica at regular intervals.

[118] Along the ramp leading to the southeastern fare control, there is an unused and uncompleted Roosevelt Avenue terminal station for the IND Second System directly above the Manhattan-bound platform.

East of the station lies a long, dark section of a 3-block-long tunnel[46][128][130][131] with provisions for a crossover[128][132] and a ramp down to the Manhattan-bound local track of the active mainline below.

There is a diverging bellmouth next to the Jamaica-bound local track several hundred feet north of the station just at the location where the three upstairs trackways are crossing over.

[136] At the end of the unused tunnel there is an emergency exit[137] that opens out to the south side of Broadway across the street from Elmhurst Hospital Center.

The four-track subway running south was a plan for a line along the Long Island Rail Road right-of-way to Garfield Avenue and 65th Place.

[103] The original two-story bus terminal and arcade, located at the triangle formed by Broadway, Roosevelt Avenue, and 75th Street,[47][141] featured a shopping area.

[47] The terminal, designed in the Streamline Moderne[19] or Art Deco style, featured bus-boarding slips at ground level and offices on the second story.