NYC mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to hold private swearing in at Old City Hall subway station

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani — saying the subway system is the lifeblood of New York City — announced Monday he will take the oath of office in a private ceremony at midnight Jan. 1 at the Old City Hall station in Manhattan, 

The mayor-elect's team said last week that Mamdani would first be administered the midnight oath by state Attorney General Letitia James in a private ceremony, then would be administered the oath by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a public ceremony before 4,000 ticketed guests at City Hall Plaza on New Year's Day.

The latter will include what the Mamdani team is calling "a public block party" for thousands of New Yorkers, with dedicated viewing areas along Broadway's Canyon of Heroes in lower Manhattan.

Mamdani, in a statement released Monday, said: "When Old City Hall station first opened in 1904 — one of New York's original subway stations — it was a physical monument to a city that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working people's lives. That ambition need not be a memory confined only to our past, nor must it be isolated only to the tunnels beneath City Hall: It will be the purpose of the administration fortunate enough to serve New Yorkers from the building above."

The statement continued: "When I take my oath from the station at the dawn of the new year, I will do so humbled by the opportunity to lead millions of New Yorkers into a new era of opportunity, and honored to carry forward our city's legacy of greatness."

The station, one of the original subway stations in New York City, was decommissioned 80 years ago — on Dec. 31, 1945 — because its tight radius made it unsuitable and unsafe for modern train cars.

While the track remains active as a turnaround loop for the 6 train, access to the station and its platform is now available only through special appointment or via tours offered by the New York Transit Museum.

According to the Transit Museum website: "Only New York Transit Museum members have the exclusive opportunity to step inside this landmark through guided tours, and discover its elegant chandeliers, leaded skylights, vaulted tile ceiling and sweeping structural curves."

The tour, which lasts about 90 minutes, begins aboveground with a presentation of the history of Alfred Beach’s pneumatic tube and the development of the subway system, then heads underground to explore the station — designed by renowned architects George Heins and Christopher LaFarge.

The station is a designated New York City landmark. It also is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.