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The name game, played to a T
Boston Public Library mounts campaign to relabel Copley Station
By Matt Viser, Globe Staff | July 12, 2007
For the better part of the century, since Boston's Green Line subway began running through the Back Bay, its Dartmouth Street stop has been called Copley Station, after the square where it lets out passengers.
And for a long time, it has irritated those who run Boston's historic public library, which is next door to the station. They feel the institution has been slighted by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which has emblazoned the names of other prominent destinations on subway stop entrances. Now, they are campaigning to have the stop renamed Boston Public Library, sensing an opportunity to push their case as the MBTA renovates the station.
"It's almost 100 years overdue," said Bernard Margolis, president of the library system. "If you go through the listing of T stops, you can see all of the important institutions, from the Symphony to the MFA to the Aquarium. We want people to know where we are, and we're proud to be at the site of one of the earliest T stops."
Mayor Thomas M. Menino is backing the library, and so are a number of state legislators, who are sponsoring a bill that would force the MBTA to add the library to the station's name. The MBTA, however, has rebuffed the plans, citing the cost of replacing the maps in every station, subway car, and pamphlet in the system. Plus, officials say, they just don't do such things willy-nilly.
"Who will come to us next and want the station next to them renamed?" said Joe Pesaturo, spokesman for the MBTA, who added that several historic churches nearby could just as easily demand their names be included. "It's not to be taken lightly when you change the name of a station that has had the same name for decades, if not a century."
Pesaturo said that about a year ago the MBTA devoted five months of labor and paid nearly $10,000 to update the 637 maps mounted on the walls of the system's subway stations. If the MBTA changed the name of Copley Station, he said, it would also have to replace about 100 additional maps that detail the branches on the Green Line.
"All of our money is going toward maintaining basic services and paying down the enormous debt burden," Pesaturo said. "We have very limited resources, and we have higher priorities right now."
Library officials have told the MBTA they would be happy with a name change on the signs marking the station itself and suggested that maps be updated later. But T officials declined, saying all signs and maps should be uniform.
The MBTA has no written policy on naming its subway stops, but newer stations, such as the Silver Line's Courthouse and World Trade Center terminals, have been named for prominent buildings nearby.
Library officials have raised the name change issue for at least the past five years, but the MBTA has continued to argue against it.
"Last time they said it would be too costly, and of course we asked how much," Margolis said.
Other T stops have been changed to reflect names of new institutions, including the Hynes Convention Center stop, which was changed from War Memorial Auditorium in 1970. Several have dual names, such as Kendall/MIT, Charles/MGH, and JFK/UMass.
Still, T officials say changing the name of the Copley stop would open a flood gate. "The MBTA's primary concern about the request is that this would be precedent-setting and that institutions and organizations throughout the MBTA service area will be approaching us to have their name placed on stations," Pesaturo said.
In January, two Boston legislators filed a measure, first reported by the Boston Courant and the Back Bay Sun, that would force the MBTA to rename the stop as either Copley/Boston Public Library Station or, to save space, Copley/BPL Station.
"The Boston Public Library is one of the most important libraries in our country," said state Representative Marty Walz, a Democrat from the Back Bay, who filed the bill with Representative Byron Rushing, a Democrat from the South End and assistant House majority leader. "It seems very fitting that we give it special recognition."
"It's really easy to know where you're going on the T if you're going to the airport," Walz added. "If you're going to Suffolk Downs, you know right where to go. If you're going to the Aquarium, you know right where to go."
Last year, the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay fought a court battle with the MBTA, alleging that the T was violating historical preservation laws by adding elevators to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. {ed - unbelievable!}
The courts ruled in favor of the MBTA.
