Named after 116th Street, whose West African stretch is called Little Senegal.
116th Street is one of the fifteen wide crosstown streets of the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811. Around the station, between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Eighth Avenue, the street is lined with West African stores and restaurants; this community has been called Little Senegal or Le Petit Sénégal. Further west, at Broadway, is the main entrance of Columbia University.