Boston Elevated Railway reciept from 1900

Greetings all~

This is my first posting, so be gentle My Dad worked for the T as long as I remember, until he retired in 1983 ish. He LOVED anything and everything about trains! Eventually he went so far as making an entire barn his hobby room! There were tracks for his LGB everwhere! Sadly he passed almost 6 years ago. My Mom just passed this year. That left us~ thier children~ with the task of cleaning things out. We came across a stack of "Boston Elevated Railway Company" reciepts for purchase of capital stock, dated 1900. I have been trying to find out more information but am having a hard time. I know my Dad went dumpster~diving for them when his building was being renovated, maybe around 1980. there is a reference to a commissioners order dated July 26,1897. Is there anyone out there that can help me? When was the first elevated railway constructed in the US? What is the cash value of something like this.

I don't know if you already have or not, but I would suggest that you talk to the Boston Street Railway Association (BSRA), and they would connect you with the right person to help you out with the collection you have.

Other sources would be the Seashore Trolley Museum, and the State Transportation Library of Massachusetts might be an other one, but I would start with the BSRA to see if they can help.

http://www.thebsra.org/

http://www.trolleymuseum.org/

http://www.eot.state.ma.us/transportationlibrary/


I hope this helps.

Hi JD- Welcome aboard ! I'm sure that your Dad is proud that you're looking into his collection. I'm guessing that he worked at the Arborway ? 1897 was a big year for transit in Boston. It was the year that the Boston Elevated Railway Company leased the property of the West End Street Railway Company with a lease extending to 1922. It was also the year that the Tremont Street Subway opened, the first permanent subway in the United States. The certificate receipts that you possess that are prior to this time must be at the time that the BERy was getting established. BERy didn't build elevated structures for areas outside of metropolitan Boston. The only structures that they built were for their cars to run on. The first one of these, the Main Line, from Sullivan Square in Charlestown to Dudley Square in Roxbury was started in 1899 and completed in 1901 (with extensions to follow).
As mentioned, BSRA is the best source of information regarding BERy's history. It has a large assortment of books regarding it which are available for purchase over the internet. You might want to consider joining as well. Meetings are generally held on the first Saturday of the month at 7:30 PM at the Grand Lodge of Masons at Boylston/Tremont in town. If you get there, see Gerry O'Regan. I'll bet that he'll give you info on your item. I'm not too good with paper but he knows that stuff every which way. Nobody's likely to give you a value for it, however, as values change depending on many variables plus this is not a profit based hobby.
I urge you to also scan this MBTA heading on RR.Net as the MBTA is what BERy became. On the "Quiz" thread, we have fun asking each other questions which often have to do with BERy. If you guess correctly, valuable prizes are awarded ! (just kidding.) Anyway, have fun and jump right in !