There are some historical markers around Roxbury Crossing Station that have a lot of old photographs. More than I've been able to find online. But pictures certainly exist. Here are some old Boston and Providence stations at what are now Roxbury Crossing and Green Street Stations.
I have similarly been stymied in my efforts to find pictures of this. Even pictures of the old Forest Hills station, seem to be taken from angles that avoid showing the main line rail embankment. Interestingly, there is at least one place where the embankment wall remains to this day:
After the Bussey Bridge Disaster in 1887 there was enough widespread panic about the condition of numerous flimsy-construction bridges that the Boston & Providence RR (and later NYNH&H) for awhile made an ostentatious show of doing overbuilt stone railroad structures to restore public confidence in them. Most of the grade separations of the NEC through the old embankment were done by them in the immediate post-Bussey era and reflected those 'optics'.
I think I remember seeing that a lot of the embankment walls are still up adjacent to Terrace st.I have similarly been stymied in my efforts to find pictures of this. Even pictures of the old Forest Hills station, seem to be taken from angles that avoid showing the main line rail embankment. Interestingly, there is at least one place where the embankment wall remains to this day:
Around 1961 and 62 when I was in 6th and 7th grade, I would ride my bike from North Cambridge where I lived, up to Medford to watch the I-93 construction. Around Roosevelt Circle were several single family homes, fairly large ones, raised up from their foundations and resting on temporary beams to make room for the new highway. These homes were moved up the hill to vacant lots east of Roosevelt Circle. Pretty fascinating for a kid to see, and seeing the I-93 construction project from start to finish really got me interested in becoming a civil engineer.
I totally agree re not dividing the parcels up.
Incredibly depressing when you realize:A couple of additional images / resources.
As an aside for anyone interested, the Boston Globe actually has a whole slew of articles between 1890 and 1895 covering the topic of eliminating the Roxbury Crossing grade tracks prior to the actual undertaking of construction, including numerous proposals (some realized, some not) accompanied with cost estimates and figures from the City Council, municipal officials, and Old Colony / New Haven representatives. If you believe the Globe, the immediate catalyst for the debate was three fatal accidents that occurred over three weeks in May and June of 1890. A lovely quote on the topic comes from a public hearing on Roxbury Crossing reported on June 11 of that year:
"Why, our crossing has seen more men killed by trains in the last three years than the whole German army has killed. It is nothing more or less than a human slaughterhouse."
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Roxbury Station Depot (either during initial construction in 1887-1888 or its elevation in 1897)
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Tracks at Roxbury Crossing, 1905 (main focus is on BERy carhouse, but there's good detail of the Tremont Street span on the right)
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Roxbury Crossing from Tremont Street, 1919 (note the "Uneeda Biscuit" billboard that was also present in the previous photograph fourteen years earlier)
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Roxbury Crossing from Tremont Street, 1948
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Globe Article, August 20, 1896
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Globe Article, March 24, 1897
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Globe Article, May 10, 1897
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Railroad Gazette Article, June 14, 1895
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The suburbanization of parts of Boston that happened in the 1950s thru 80s.
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