The station opened on July 10, 1905, along with the 149th Street–Grand Concourse station and the connection with the IRT Lenox Avenue Line in Manhattan. Free transfers were provided between the subway and the existing 149th Street elevated station of the IRT Third Avenue Line, which opened in 1887. The convergence of the two rapid transit lines, the surface trolley lines along Third Avenue and 149th Street, and the ensuing commercial development led to the coining of the name "the Hub" for the intersection in the early 20th century.