Book Review: Boston's Depots and Terminals

When I set out to cover the old train depots of Boston on this blog, I didn't know that there was a book that covered the same subject.  I recently came across a reference to it online, and was able to access it from within my suburban library network. It is exactly what you'd expect - photos, prints, maps, schedules and posters, along with short histories of each line. There are quite a few images you won't find online, appendices, and a bibliography. Definitely worth a look for anyone interested in 19th (and 20th) century Boston and in the railroads that served it.

Lost Train Stations: North Station - I and II

North and Union Stations, early 1890s.


The original North Station, Causeway street. The old Boston and Lowell depot with its Mansard roofs remains to the left of the new buildings.

Heres' a later view, showing a walkway from the elevated line.

It's taken a while, but I've finally returned to discuss North Union and North Stations. The original station, shown above, combined the old Lowell station with two adjoining buildings to serve traffic from north of Boston and that coming through the Hoosac Tunnel through western Massachusetts. It was built by adding new structures to the existing 1878 Lowell depot in 1893. By this time, most traffic was under the control of the Boston and Maine line. Just as South Station combined traffic that once was served by independent depots, the new North station was a union of formerly independently operating depots in one facility.



Aerial view of the new North Station, with Boston Garden. Also note the elevated tracks in the foreground (BPL).

In 1927-28, the entire edifice was torn down and replaced with a new North Station. Both an elevated line and streetcars connected with the new location, and Boston Garden was built on top of the station. The Hotel Manger was added adjacent to the station in 1930, and was later renamed the Madison.

Here's a Disney-fied version of North Station, free of actual city streets.

And finally, a more realistic view, featuring the Hotel Manger, later re-named the Madison. Note the elevated line leading to Charlestown.

Lost Train Stations: Fitchburg Railroad

Fitchburg Depot, Causeway street (photo from Wikipedia).



Fitchburg Depot, Causeway street, on the right, 1883.

(Edited to add information 1/9/13)


The Fitchburg Railroad was founded in 1842. The line originally terminated in Charlestown, but moved across to Boston in 1848. The line crossed the mouth of the Charles river to Charlestown and northwest to Fitchburg, and was later extended west through northern Massachusetts, with branches running to Vermont and New York. Part of the line ran through the Hoosac Tunnel. The Hoosac went 4.75 miles through the Hoosac range. The work took 20 years at a cost of $21,000,000, at a time when a dollar was a dollar. At the time it was the second longest tunnel in the world, and remains the longest in the United States east of the Rockies.

The Boston depot shown above was built, quite appropriately,  from Fitchburg granite, and was known a Crocker's Folly (Alvah Crocker being the president of the company) and later the Great Stone Castle.  When the line moved to the north union station, the space was used by the company for offices, There was a fire in 1925, and by 1928 the structure had been demolished.

The Boston and Maine line bought the Fitchburg Railroad in 1900.




Jenny Lind Tower (Truro Historical Society).

Here's a fun story/fact. Famous Swedish singer Jenny Lind performed in the Fitchburg depot when she visited Boston. The show was oversold, and in order to satisfy unhappy ticket holders left outside, Jenny sang from one of the turrets. When the depot was torn down, a wealthy fan had the turret removed block by block and rebuilt near Highland Light in Truro MA.

Great story, but apparently not quite accurate. Lind did perform in the second floor auditorium (then the largest in New England) in 1850, and contemporary newspaper reports describe fans rushing the stage (does that sound familiar?). However, there was no mention of Lind singing from the turret. the depot was not torn down until 1927, and the lawyer who bought and moved the turret was not born until seventeen years after the concert.


 Resource:  Boston's Depots and Terminals, Richard C. Barrett. 

Lost Train Stations: Old Colony

Old Colony Depot, Kneeland street.


Old Colony Depot, Kneeland street, on the right, 1883.


While Boston's earliest railroad lines were laid out in the 1830s, it wasn't until 1844 that the Old Colony line was built between Boston and Plymouth. The line quickly expanded to serve southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with criss-crossing lines serving Cape Cod to Provincetown and Woods Hole, the southeast coast to New Bedford and Fall River, as well as Newport and Providence in Rhode Island. After many mergers and the resulting expansion, the company was bought out by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, which gained an effective monopoly on rail service in southern New England.

Lost Train Stations: Eastern Railroad

Eastern Railroad Depot, East Boston, 1852 (BPL).


The second Eastern Railroad Depot on Causeway street is at the far right in this cropped photograph. The Boston and Lowell depot is the larger building in the foreground.



Eastern Railroad Depot, Causeway street (second from left, beside the larger Boston and Lowell depot) 1883.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a photograph of the original Eastern Railroad Depot in East Boston. The Eastern, like all the early railroads, was built out of multiple mergers. While competing with the Boston and Maine as a Boston to Portland line, the Eastern followed the coast closer than the B&M line did. The Eastern was founded in 1836, running north through Salem, Lynn and Newburyport. The same track is still used by the MBTA for its Newburyport/Rockport line.

Unlike the Boston and Maine, the Eastern did not originally have a depot in Boston proper. The first depot, shown in the top map, was in East Boston, on a wharf beside that of the Cunard line. From there, ferries would carry passengers across to Boston. Right around the time that map was made (1852), the Eastern laid a connector line in to Boston, and built the Causeway street depot. Around 1884, the Eastern was leased by the Boston and Maine, and ceased to exist as an independent company.

In 1893, the new North Station (also called Union Station) would open on Causeway street, replacing the four older stations shown on the last map above. That depot would in turn be replaced by a new North Station, which would later be replaced by the existing facility. The two earlier North Stations will be the subject of another entry.

Lost Train Stations: Boston Revere and Lynn Railroad

Advertisements from an 1878 Directory (thanks to Peter M. for sharing).



Boston Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad route, 1897 (BPL).




Boston Revere and Lynne depot, 1884. The depot is the small yellow (wood-frame) building on a wharf at the lower center of the map. The tracks were depressed, going under Marginal street as they came off the wharf.


Here's a railroad line you may not have heard of, unless you live between Boston and Lynn. The Boston Revere and Lynn line ran from East Boston to Lynn along the north shore. The line began operation in 1875, and ran until 1940. The line actually ran from Rowe's Wharf on the Boston waterfront, where a ferry would take passengers across the harbor to the company's East Boston railroad depot. From there, the line ran on narrow gauge tracks to Revere Beach and on to Lynn, with a loop line through Winthrop.


How cool is this? The Boston Revere Beach and Lynn locomotive #6. Made by Mason Bogie - great name.



The line was very successful. The seashore north of Boston attracted daytrippers, with so many passengers carried that the company was able to afford to electrify the line in 1928. The line was powered like streetcars, with an overhead pole connecting to the power line. Unfortunately for the company, this happened just as the automobile began attracting large numbers of travelers from trains. By 1940, the line would shut down. The track bed through Revere would later be used for the MBTA Blue Line. Some of the track bed that ran north through East Boston was taken for Logan airport, and the current Blue Line track meets the old railroad line north of the airport.

Some of the rolling stock was sold and remains in use by the East Broad Top Railroad in Pennsylvania, a heritage railroad.



Boston Revere and Lynn depot, 1901. Here, there's a new, wider depot.



Boston Revere Beach and Lynn depot, 1922. This map shows the immigration center (pink, for red brick) to the right of the depot, beyond three dry docks.

Lost Train Stations: Boston and Lowell

Boston and Lowell Railroad station 1852 (BPL).



First Boston and Lowell Railroad station, 1852, BPL (click for larger image).


(Edited to add information, 1/10/13)


The first Boston and Lowell depot sat alone on the waterfront, well back from Causeway street, seen here at the lower right corner of the map. The depot is at the top center of the map above. The footprint of the depot in the map doesn't jibe with the print of the building above, which appears to be L-shaped, but there you go.

The company was chartered in 1830, but the track was not finished until 1835. It followed the general path of the Middlesex canal that had preceded it, and was used to haul the same freight between Boston and the Lowell mills. The first runs stopped only at Lowell and Boston; it took petitions from people living along the route to get the company to build stations along the way.



New Boston and Lowell station, Causeway street (BPL).


New Boston and Lowell station, opposite view (BPL).


The two photographs above show the second station, which sat on Causeway street with the Eastern and Fitchburg line depots. The old depot was kept and used for freight. All on the lines had both passenger and freight depots, though I've been focusing on the passenger facilities in this series. I don't have a date for these photographs, but the Second Empire style of the roofing suggests the early 1870s. The map below shows the new depot in place in 1883.


Boston and Lowell station, Causeway street, 1883. Note in the upper left, the old terminal is now a freight depot. During the 1880s, the Boston and Lowell would be leased by the Boston and Maine, and cease to be an independent company.

Resource: Boston's Depots and Terminals, Richard C. Barrett.

Lost Train Stations: Boston & New York Central

Boston and New York Central line entering Boston through the harbor, 1866.


The Boston and New York Central line is shown coming north through Dorchester, across the South Bay and South Boston, and running on a curved trestle to the foot of Summer street, 1866 (BPL).



The Boston and New York Central railroad was formed in 1853 by a merger of three existing lines. This has been a little more difficult railroad to research than most. If I understand correctly, it connected to New York through Connecticut. I'm fairly sure that this track became today's Fairmont line, which turns west through Mattapan and runs along the Neponset river to Readville. I wonder what it was like riding that trestle through the harbor during a Nor'easter. Did they hold up the train in South Boston?

Lost Train Stations: Boston and Worcester/Boston and Albany

Route of Boston and Worcester Railroad into Boston, 1852 (BPL).


Boston and Worcester station, Beach street, 1852 (BPL).



Boston and Worcester station, Beach street, 1852 (BPL).

The Boston and Albany railroad line started as the Boston and Worcester in 1932. The line approached Boston through Brookline, and cut across the Back Bay on a trestle bridge, intersecting the Boston and Providence line at one point (the present site of the Back Bay train station). It continued northeast towards the harbor, turning north to reach the terminal on Beach street.



Boston and Albany station, Kneeland street (BPL Flickr group). Note the railroad tracks crossing Kneeland street in the lower right of the photograph.


Boston and Albany station, south side of Kneeland street, 1895. The railroad tracks noted in the photo above crossed Kneeland street to reach a freight house that sat on the site of the old Boston and Worcester passenger station shown in the top photo and associated map.


After two consolidating mergers of western lines, which were common during the early rail-building era, the company became the Boston and Albany in 1870. According to maps, the Boston and Worcester terminal at Beach street was still being used, but by 1883 the new Boston and Albany passenger station shown above is in place, and the old terminal across Kneeland street is being used as a freight terminal. In 1899, the new South Station would consolidate rail terminals in the southeast part of Boston proper and replace the stand-alone Boston and Albany terminal.

Lost Train Stations: Boston and Maine, Depot Number One

Boston and Maine station, Haymarket square, 1866.

The Boston and Maine railroad ran from Boston to Portland, and over the years, through expansion and consolidation, would cover New Hampshire and stretch across northern Massachusetts to New York and extend south to Springfield. The photograph above shows the station that sat on Haymarket square. This was the only rail line from north of Boston that ever extended so far into the city.

Boston and Maine RR station (marked in red), Haymarket square, 1852.

This map fragment shows the location of the station. Please notice the triangle (the Bullfinch Triangle) formed by Merrimack, Causeway and Charlestown streets. Causeway street was built along the line of the old dam across the North End cove. Merrimack and Charlestown streets approximate the curving path of the original shore of the cove, and the land within the triangle thus formed was all made land, built with fill taken from Beacon Hill. On the far side of Causeway street, we see other railroad stations (to be discussed later), wharfs and docks, and other streets laid out on filled land.

The railroad tracks ran between Canal and Haverhill streets from Causeway street to the station. The tracks were laid out on top of the filled canal - appropriately - that had been built through the Bullfinch Triangle to Haymarket square. Before the building of the railroads, the Middlesex Canal had carried freight south from the Merrimack river to the port of Boston. The canal through the filled land of the old cove was considered an extension of the Middlesex. With the coming of the railroads, the canal was no longer profitable or necessary, so the Boston extension could be replaced by the trains.

In time, the Haymarket station would be replaced by a new one on Causeway street, which I'll look at later.

Lost Train Stations: Boston and Providence RR

Boston, 1853 (BPL)


This is the start of a series I'll be doing on the lost train stations of Boston. The general layout of Boston's railroad lines today is much similar to what we see in the 1853 map shown above. Here we see the very beginning of the great Back Bay fill project. The Public Garden has been extended into the Charles river estuary over land that had formerly been used as rope walks (rope-maker's buildings). The two dotted lines that cross near the word BASIN are the Boston and Providence and Boston and Worcester lines, built on solid fill and on trestles across the shallow waters of the bay.

The Boston and Providence line came through Roxbury and across the bay to today's Park square (from the lower left corner of the map up towards the upper right). The company was chartered in 1831, and began running in 1834. Bostonians had long traveled by land to Providence before transferring to a ship for the trip to New York City, and this was true until a rail line connected Providence to New York. The sea route from Boston to New York City was a sailor's nightmare, with shoals off the outer Cape and Nantucket making the area a graveyard of ships. Thus, the Boston to Providence route served to cut the danger of such travel.

When originally built, the line ran north across the back bay waters, and in to the city just enough to build a station. As the Back Bay district was filled during the second half of the 19th Century, this left the station at Park square in the middle of the city, rather than at its edge.



Bird's Eye view of Boston and Providence station, Park Square, 1870  (BPL).

Here we see the old station at Park square, with the Public Garden and the new Boylston street filled with buildings. The original station, shown here, was removed and a new one built slightly to the south to allow the new Columbus avenue to reach Park square. This Park square location allowed commuters from south of the city to walk or take carriages to work, making suburban living possible for not just the retired well-to-do, but for active working men as well. And of course, their wives could visit Boston shops, and both could avail themselves of the cultural advantages of the city. It was the railroads that allowed the first great exodus from the cities, not the automobile.



The"new" Boston and Providence station, Park Square (BPL).


Boston and Providence station (BPL).

The photo and print above show a large Victorian station with a tower at Park square. This building was erected in 1874. The street cutting across the building at an acute angle is Columbus avenue.


The Park square station being torn down. (BPL).


Here we see the station after it had been replaced in 1899. The Providence line terminus had been moved to South Station. If you look at the map above, the spot where the two railroad lines crossed in the Back Bay was now filled and built upon, and was made home to the new Back Bay station. Here, the Providence line turned to join the old path of the Boston Albany line to the new South Station terminal. So when you stand in front of the Back Bay station today, you can imagine yourself in the middle of the shallow bay, standing on the trestle where the two lines once crossed.