Abandoned T tunnels

From the Mass Ave/Huntington Ave bridge project. In the words of a coworker:
Uncovered an old subway entrance today on Mass Ave. The tiles, stairs and light fixtures were all still there. They just poured over the top of the stairwell and buried it!
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Anyone know when they moved this station? I can't get over how narrow the stairwell is!

JKsbvFf.jpg
 
From what I've read about Symphony, the IB and OB platforms used to be connected by a tiny tunnel. This could possibly be related.

Where on Mass Ave is this?
 
datadyne007 said:
From what I've read about Symphony, the IB and OB platforms used to be connected by a tiny tunnel. This could possibly be related.

Where on Mass Ave is this?
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It's on the street right in front of the current IB Symphony entrance next to what used to be Utretch.
 
It's possible that was closed up when they built that monstrosity in the 1960s with the sunken plaza.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
It's possible that was closed up when they built that monstrosity in the 1960s with the sunken plaza.
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I believe that is correct. The entrance staircases to the inbound side used to be the same style as the existing outbound entrance stairways: narrow staircases facing both directions on Mass Ave., on each side of the street, leading to a passageway to the fare collection area at platform level.
 
Is it possible to reopen or at least set up to keep that option to be reopened in the future?
 
That doesn't look much more narrow than the entrances to the Arlington stop.. but there are four entrances for Arlington on each side of the street
 
They remind me of the MTA entrances in NYC which for some reason I really like.
 
NYC definitely understands the concept of "less is more" when it comes to subway headhouses.
 
KZ posted this shot in another thread but it reminded me of something I'd heard long ago about the Hynes Station. Hynes used to be a large transfer station (when it was called Massachusetts) and was scaled back when the Mass Pike was built. The trolley station still exists (seen here) and there is an unused entrance on Boylston (here) which is only open on Marathon Day... BUT I was told there was also an underpass under Mass Ave to the side where that crappy little bus shelter is. I didn't even think about how this was possible until I saw this pic from the other side:

hEGSDs6.jpg


Zooming in on Google Maps (here) shows something gated up. Could this be a stairway to the underpass? Can anyone swing by and check this out?
 
It's all still there. If you go down the main stairs there is a big steel door/wall on the right hand side, before you bear left to the FVMs and fare gates to access the passage. I was lucky enough to see an employee coming out of there once, but it was pitch black inside. And yes, that gated up entrance is the other side of the underpass. It's not the 70s anymore, they should really reopen it. What's really weird is that the gate USED to be covered according to some older pictures. I can't recall when they would have opened it back up, but they obviously did.
hynes_convention_center7.jpg


Another holdover is on the inbound (I THINK) side. If you look above the brick right at the base of the stairs there is a clock and a cinderblock infill that has fallen through. It's an old passage to the trolley-now-substation. Hynes used to be a pretty big deal. You can just see it in the upper left hand corner of this pic I found:
65a4dc73-89d1-419f-aaeb-b54a997f32c3_500.jpg


Edit: While looking for pics I just found this site that has a ton of pictures of the exterior of the old station I've never seen.
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Davem, that first picture you posted is on the inbound side. I was just in there today and was actually wondering why there was such a hole in the wall.
 
Hopefully if this ever gets built over they can reopen the entrance. Mass Ave is rather dangerous to cross.
 
Just scoured the area and I could find no signs of it whatsoever. Seems it's already been covered right back up?

JKsbvFf.jpg
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
Hopefully if this ever gets built over they can reopen the entrance. Mass Ave is rather dangerous to cross.
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This is getting built over, this is Parcel 12, which will be going up along with Parcel 15 next to the Hynes Convention Center. I think this is a Samuels/Weiner venture if I remember correctly.

Does anyone remember if reopening this will be part of the Parcel 12 project?
 
^^This is the project I was talking about:
http://www.archboston.org/community/showthread.php?t=2347&page=14

It doesn't look like reopening the tunnel under Mass Ave. is in the plans, unless I missed it. But it should be.

Parcel 13 was the proposal by Trinity that would have reactivated the Boylston St. entrance Van mentioned above. I think they (MassDOT) is looking at what needs to be done for the Boylston st. entrance before they put Parcel 13 out to bid again.
 
I think the T has really dropped the ball when it comes to asking developers to improve stations under new developments. The city could give them extra height or a tax break or something. Other cities do it well, why not Boston? Not that there are too many places where this could be accomplished (North Station is the best example) but Millennium Place is a prime example of a missed opportunity with the Chinatown station.
 
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