Identify Newton Location for MTA era photos?

5308 signed "Central" waiting at island passenger shelter.
Confirm Watertown Square.
Far left in the background is the bridge over the Charles to Galen St. and Watertown Carhouse.

Otto Vondrak wrote:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ottomatic77/50634744058



-otto-

Two possible clues-There are two highway signs on the light pole behind the work car that indicate State Rt 2A and US 3. Also in the distance is a building beyond the Texaco sign that looks like an "Armory" type building like the one at Arlington St and Columbus Ave.

Adams_Umass_Boston wrote: ↑Sun Nov 29, 2020 4:01 pm

Otto Vondrak wrote: ↑Sat Nov 28, 2020 12:50 am
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ottomatic77/50634744058

-otto-

# 40 looks to be Adams Square -Leopold Morse had two locations, Summer Street and Adams Square (29 and 30 Dock Square,).

It can't be Adams Square, trackless trolleys never operated in downtown Boston.

That's Harvard Square.

You're saying that #40 is on Mass Ave. at Church, and the street behind the sidewalk clock is now JFK St.? If Out of Town News existed when trolleybuses ran to Dudley, it seems like we should see it, or the subway entrances & exits.

Also, what would the much taller building with no windows be? It's hazy enough that it would be between Mt. Auburn and Memorial Drive. No windows implies infrastructure or really heavy industry. Nothing like that is visible in the 1958 photo on pg. 135 of Clarke's 'Boston's MTA Through Riverside & Beyond'

Anyone who has Clarke's "The Streetcar Lines of the Hub - The 1940s", take a look at p. 123. A color photo credited to Foster Palmer shows #40 at the north side of Harvard Sq. in April, 1950. But the picture is looking North and the trolleybus wires don't seem to be on the same side of the tracks.

Yes, Mass Ave at Church. The rooflines of the buildings at right (except for the one modern building) are an exact match, as is the building at left that now houses the CVS. The subway kiosk (that later housed OOTN) is slightly out of frame to the left. And not a building in the background, but a blank billboard. See this old postcard for a nearly-identical angle.

The EGE wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 2:30 pm That's Harvard Square

100% agree. You can see the Harvard Coop building too.

Thank you all.

I'm guessing the first four photos were taken on the same day.

The first photo was taken about 140m (450 ft) SE of the current Newton Corner bridge over the turnpike. It is looking south on Park Street. The tracks on the right are coming from the current turnpike bridge whereas the train is headed for the old bridge over the B&A, pre-turnpike tracks. The house behind the backhoe scoop is visible in Google street view. I believe that when this photo was taken, the inbound trains were being routed over the new bridge as the inbound tracks in this photo have been removed.

In the 2nd photo, the trolley is at the old Newton Corner stop for outbound trains, now Charlesbank Road. It is about to turn right onto Galen Street. At the left edge of the photo is the construction for the new tracks over the turnpike.

In the 3rd picture, the trolley is in the same place as the trolley in photo #2. It may be the same cars.

I believe the 4th photo is an inbound train crossing the new turnpike bridge.

With near certainty, I believe the photo labeled, "Boston MTA, Work Car 40, Boston, Mass." was taken at Harvard Square, Cambridge, not Adams Square Boston, as labeled. The photographer is about 100m north of the current kiosk facing south towards the Anderson Bridge. The building with Leopold Morse Clothiers is still at the corner of Church Street and Massachusetts Avenue.

In the last photo at Watertown Square, I remember the trackless trolleys would loop counter-clockwise around the square. Today, they loop clockwise. Central-bound trackless would board at the same location as the trolley pictured. Harvard trackless would board at the old outbound platform on the other side of the waiting room.