"Dirty Old Boston"

393b40 said:
When was Danehy Park built? That was all a dump back before the 70s right?
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Danehy Park was built in the early 1980s in conjunction with the Red Line extension to Alewife. I personally knew Mr. Danehy. He ran a drugstore on Mass Ave in North Cambridge near the T car barns. Clay soil excavated from the Red Line tunnel construction (from Harvard to Alewife) was used to cap the city dump and create Danehy Park. I grew up in the Jefferson Park housing project directly across the Fitchburg Division tracks from the city dump in the 1950s and 60s. The City dump was regularly used as a convenient dumping spot for toxic chemical waste from Dewey and Almy (later WR Grace) and some others. The city used to park a fire engine every weekend at the dump most of the year because the kids from the projects (where I lived) would go over and set fires in the dump. Both my parents died fairly young (ages 59 and 63), probably from the toxic smoke. Jerry's Pit, where I swam as a kid, also had toxic waste pumped right into it from the adjacent Dewey and Almy chemical plant. So, large parts of the area are a brownfield (ground polluted area). but I seem to have done alright health wise. I'm almost 74 and in great shape.
 
“Newton Highlands 2023 vs 1915.”

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https://www.facebook.com/groups/697703333608128/permalink/6832888616756205/?mibextid=S66gvF

Is this accurate? I dont see a rail line here on the historical railway map.

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?layers=06b2e0f640b945f39361ae99c24918bb

Edit: after reading the comments under the picture apparently it’s the Boston and Worcester street railway. I had no idea rt. 9 had a trolley on it that ran from Boston to Worcester. Pretty crazy how extensive the street car network was.

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_and_Worcester_Street_Railway
 
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stick n move said:
“Newton Highlands 2023 vs 1915.”

View attachment 42374
View attachment 42375

https://www.facebook.com/groups/697703333608128/permalink/6832888616756205/?mibextid=S66gvF

Is this accurate? I dont see a rail line here on the historical railway map.

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?layers=06b2e0f640b945f39361ae99c24918bb

Edit: after reading the comments under the picture apparently it’s the Boston and Worcester street railway. I had no idea rt. 9 had a trolley on it that ran from Boston to Worcester. Pretty crazy how extensive the street car network was.

1280px-Boston_and_Worcester.png

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_and_Worcester_Street_Railway
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Nice find! Also impressive, the bridge over Rt 9 is the same bridge. That is how old the T infrastructure is!
 
"Running time between the terminal was two hours and fifteen minutes; this was slower than Boston and Albany Railroad trains, but the B&W cost 40 cents versus the railroad's one-dollar fare. Service operated every half-hour, with short turn cars providing fifteen-minute frequency east of Framingham"

1903: 2 hours 15 minutes travel time from Boston to Worcester, every 30 minutes. Cost 40 cents
2023: 1 hour 30 minutes travel time from Boston to Worcester, every 60 minutes but does not stop everywhere . Cost $13.25
 
There's a bit of an archeological dig going on in Kendall (9/21). They are doing street removal/excavation of a segment of Main st., toward Central Sq. I am not sure whether this is part of the street renovation/bike lane installation project, or if it's just a more localized repair. Either way, it is revealing cobblestone street with rails embedded in it. This is a surprise to me, as I would have thought the cut-and-cover installation of the subway beneath this street (present-day Red Line, installed in the 19-teens) would have eliminated such evidence. Was there ever a stretch of time when the subway ran below and street level trolleys continued to run above along this same stretch? Or is it just that the tunnel doesn't span the full width of the street at this particular spot, preserving such evidence? Maybe someone knows...

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Yes - the tracks between Kendall Square and Mass Ave on Main Street remained in use by revenue* streetcars until June 7, 1930, and intact for non-revenue moves until the late 1930s. It was part of the first horsecar line in the area - the Cambridge Horse Railroad, opened March 26, 1856; it was also one of the first lines in the area to be electrified.

* It's possible that night cars used the tracks after 1930. They aren't as well documented as normal daytime service (which itself is spottily documented until 1940.)
 
The EGE said:
Yes - the tracks between Kendall Square and Mass Ave on Main Street remained in use by revenue* streetcars until June 7, 1930, and intact for non-revenue moves until the late 1930s. It was part of the first horsecar line in the area - the Cambridge Horse Railroad, opened March 26, 1856; it was also one of the first lines in the area to be electrified.

* It's possible that night cars used the tracks after 1930. They aren't as well documented as normal daytime service (which itself is spottily documented until 1940.)
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Thanks EGE; fascinating. I wouldn't have guessed that they'd have laid tracks back down on top of the street above the RL tunnel after it was built, but I guess they did. Need to remember that until the mid-20thc, Kendall was still a super busy commercial area, so it must have made sense at the time. In any case, what's left of this, it appears, will soon be gone.
 
bigpicture7 said:
Thanks EGE; fascinating. I wouldn't have guessed that they'd have laid tracks back down on top of the street above the RL tunnel after it was built, but I guess they did. Need to remember that until the mid-20thc, Kendall was still a super busy commercial area, so it must have made sense at the time. In any case, what's left of this, it appears, will soon be gone.
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Today (9/25) they pulled out all the old rail ties. Pretty incredible to think that these century-old wooden railroad ties were sitting under the street in Kendall this whole time. I know it's fairly common to pave over old tracks, but it's hard for me to imagine that this configuration lingered so untouched for so long on top of the Red Line tunnel:

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In the CA video above, notice how "white" 1 Financial looks. The building could certainly use a cleaning today.
 
I like both stages. The way they built out the block in stages, as the company grew, is something you don’t see today.
 
RandomWalk said:
I like both stages. The way they built out the block in stages, as the company grew, is something you don’t see today.
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…Unless you talk about MGH. You can see every one of Boston’s boom years in the pastiche of exteriors attached to the plex… from Founders to Yawkey and everything in between. And yes. I consider MGH a company.
 
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