Adams Square

[Yellowspoon]

Is there anything remaining of the tunnel from Scollay Square to Adams Square to Haymarket? By my estimate, the old Adams Square station was at what-is-now the southeast corner of City Hall.

A few years ago, I was in Government Center. At the south end of the northbound platform there was an open door that appeared to open into the old Scollay Square northbound station.

Adams Square was kind of an anomally in that it was only a northbound station. I can not recall any other transit station that is/was not paired with a station in the opposite direction. What was the reasoning for this some 112 years ago??

[3rdrail]

I can not recall any other transit station that is/was not paired with a station in the opposite direction. What was the reasoning for this some 112 years ago??

Court Street Station was a one-track/two-directional station. Cars entering the station were cleared through the use of a blue signal light. The system failed miserably with unsafe conditions prevailing and was discontinued with the station having it's floor removed with the East Boston Tunnel extension to Bowdoin Square.

[MBTA3247]

As far as I know all traces of Adams Square Station were demolished as part of the construction of Government Center. If anything does survive it is completely walled off from the existing subway.

[ThinkNarrow]

The URL that follows should take you to a copy of a map found in the Boston Transit Commission Nineteenth Annual Report (1913). Representation of Adams is somewhat obscured by the Washington Street tunnel (Orange Line) immediately under Adams. The map shows that Adams Station included a two-track tunnel to Scollay Square and a very tight turning loop that returned back to Haymarket Station. While it was possible for a trolley to go from Adams to Scollay via the aforementioned two-track tunnel, normal service was eastbound only through Adams (as another post has noted) and westbound traffic went directly from Haymarket to Scollay.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-11/ ... ematic.jpg

The aforementioned "very tight turning loop" appears in the photo linked to by the next URL. In this photo, regrettably taken through a construction fence, the darkened two-track tunnel to Scollay is at the left, The turning loop has already been partially filled, and a construction trailer rests on the fill. The concrete wall that formed the wall of the loop is at the right, complete with the refuge niches for track workers. To get your bearings, note the present Government Station brick entrance at top right. The ancient courthouse building behind it is no longer easily visible, as there is a modern brick/concrete building that curves in front of it. The tunnel to Scollay/Government Center is under Cornhill in this picture, but I believe that street is now gone and is part of a widened Court Street.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-11/ ... uction.jpg

Immediately to the left if this picture was a long underground walkway that went to the Milk-State-Devonshire Station. The walkway tunnel was only about two feet from the trolley tunnel. It is shown in the Adams Schematic as a shaded area.

[StevieC48]

When they added the vent fan in Goverment Ctr on the Lechmere side, they had it open and you could see the walls with the mosaic that said ADAMS SQ. It was demolished when they added the fan though.

[ferroequinarchaeologist]

Somewhere in these forums IIRC there is a reference to a small part of the old tunnel between Scollay and Adams being used for secure (i.e., bomb-proof) document storage under city hall.

To bore you further: I have actually boarded a train at Adams Square; my father used to work in the area and Adams Square was the closet stop for the return trip to North Station and his commuter train to Wakefield Junction - which also isn't there any more.

PBM

[3rdrail]

Here is an old Boston Transit Commission schematic of Adams Square Station. The area is drastically different today. Brattle and Cornhill Streets are just a memory. The two eastbound tracks on the left are coming in from Scollay Station, and on the right are northbound and southbound tracks to and from Haymarket. Cars could only loop if they were coming in from Haymarket. Cars coming in the station from Scollay Square could stop and then proceed to Haymarket, or bypass the station completely. So, as we can see, Yellowspoon is correct that Adams Square Station was a northbound station only.To give you a general acclamation, City Hall Plaza is above this area now. Too bad somebody didn't get down there with a professional movie camera to document this stuff when they bulldozed the tunnels to make room for City Hall 's foundations.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa26 ... tation.jpg

[Gerry6309]

City Hall now sits directly on top of the old station site. From what I have heard some of the station structure was used for the garage/storage area under the building. Supposedly part of the loop can be seen down there.

From what I heard from a different source, the tunnel under the former Cornhill St. is largely intact and used by the MBTA for storage and utilities. I know nothing of the section that was under Washington Street.

To get an idea of where the present subway runs, draw a line from the intersection of Washington and Hanover to the curve at Scollay. Note how sharp the curve at Brattle Loop becomes at this point. The opposing Government Center Loop begins northeast of Brattle St. and meets the westbound under Hanover just before the curve into the station. The Brattle Loop track leaving Government Center is slightly askew from the main track allowing for a longer platform than the original station. Brattle Loop had a seperate platform from Scollay and had its own entrance at Tremont Row and Brattle St., thus the name Brattle. An underpass connected the Brattle platform to the unpaid side of the Fare Control at Scollay which was at platform level about where the Dunkin Donuts is. A seperate underpass connected the paid side to Court St. It had its own fare control to collect the penny toll until that was abolished ca. 1912. Thus to get an East Boston car from the Brattle entrance you had to negotiate five flights of stairs and two fare controls.

Scollay, Adams and Haymarket all had ornate headhouses located on Islands in the middle of the street. Court had a less fancy entrance, also on an Island. The maze of tunnels below is the reason for the large empty expanse of City Hall Plaza. Union and Friend had a combined entrance opening onto both Washington and Union Sts., just north of Friend. Like todays entrance it was within a building. The present connecting passage at Haymarket is the original transfer between Union, Friend and Haymarket. The present Haymarket platform was the middle pair of tracks in the four track subway under Washington St. The original station is visible in the bulge just north of there.

[Otto Vondrak]

Here is an old Boston Transit Commission schematic of Adams Square Station.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa26 ... tation.jpg

Now that's a neat map. Thanks for sharing that.

[3rdrail]

City Hall now sits directly on top of the old station site. From what I have heard some of the station structure was used for the garage/storage area under the building. Supposedly part of the loop can be seen down there.

You are entirely correct, Gerry. That area has been so thoroughly eliminated for so long that sometimes even maps can fool you ! (Devonshire St. threw me for a loop, not realizing that it and Washington Street extended right into what is City Hall Plaza now in the Adams / Dock Square area back then.) I'll make the correction. Thanks.

http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=212

[Gerry6309]

Devonshire and Congress both began at Adams Sq. Washington began at Haymarket Sq. and was the through street in the area, The lowest number on Washington St. is No. 155 in the block starting at Cornhill St. The lowest number fronting on the actual street is No. 208, The Old State House. Devonshire starts at No. 43. Congress St., which now begins somewhere west of Haymarket Sq., reaches the huge No. 7 south of State St. (Because the ORIGINAL Merchants Bank Bldg on the Adams block had a State St. address.)

Just another example of how confusing Boston Geography can be. When Congress St. was extended to its current beginning it was New Congress St. from the beginning to Dock Sq. The "new" fell into disuse since there was only 1 possible address in those two blocks, and now none in the original first block.

[jonnhrr]

According to Clarke & Cummings book on the Termont St subway, the Adams Sq. loop was intended for use as a terminus by Lynn & Boston RR cars but was never actually used.

I only remember riding through Adams Sq. once as a child, then Government Center happened.

Jon

[Gerry6309]

According to Clarke & Cummings book on the Termont St subway, the Adams Sq. loop was intended for use as a terminus by Lynn & Boston RR cars but was never actually used.

I only remember riding through Adams Sq. once as a child, then Government Center happened.

Jon

The L & B had traditionally turned its surface cars at Adams Sq., so the Boston Transit Commission built a loop for them underground at that location. Reality was, however, based on connections, and Brattle loop had better connections than Adams Sq. did. Thus the L&B chose to route its cars to Brattle when the subway opened. Their successor, the Boston & Northern, bought semi-convertibles as bg as Boston's Type 2s and 14 bench opens. These cars were too big for the tight loop at Adams Sq. The Elevated found the loop a useful place to store work cars and that is the most use it ever saw.

[3rdrail]

I found this site on the web. It's got some tremendous photos, as well as a map that is higher in elevation and shows a good deal of right of way in and around Adams Square Station. Enjoy !

http://www.bambinomusical.com/Scollay/Adams.html

[Gerry6309]

OK... Here's another Boston Trivia Question:

When Adams Sq. was destroyed, what happened to the large statue of Samuel Adams?

The answer is covered in Paul's previous post - Look carefully!