Jefferson Street Station, Brooklyn L Train

The mosaic tile adorning the walls of the Jefferson Street station date back to 1928.  The style is Arts and Crafts and our fellow subway rider will find this particular pattern in each station along the Canarsie (L) Line.

I find the use of Arts and Crafts tile throughout the subway of particular interest because it was created in resistance to industrialization; the mechanization of work, the loss of beauty in the unpredictable irregularity which only the human touch can bring, and in so doing, imbue such objects with personality, with humanity.  This is the dark side of industrialization, where vast numbers are at risk of reduction to mere cogs in the wheel of progress.  The warmth of the workshop replaced by the impersonal factory (or in today's world the fluorescent lit cubicle); people condemned to dull, hard days of labor devoid of meaning or purpose.  And yet, it was the tile made by the craftsman, not the assembly line, that was chosen to decorate the next step in the march of industrialization:  mass transit.