Haymarket / North Station / Bulfinch Triangle questions

[Ron Newman]

If somoene can answer these questions, I'd appreciate it....

• When did the Green Line incline, from Haymarket to North Station, open?
• When did the Orange Line incline, from Haymarket to North Station, open? It closed in April 1975; was it torn down immediately, or did it linger for a while?
• Before either of these inclines existed, Boston & Maine trains crossed Causeway Street and continued to a station at Haymarket Square. They used tracks parallel to and between Canal and Haverhill Streets, in about the same location where the inclines were later built. When did these tracks go into service? When did they go out of service?

[jrc520]

A. 1912.
at first, 1901. then, the new one, which is what remained until it closed in 1908.

[Ron Newman]

I don't quite understand -- what opened in 1901 and closed in 1908?

[jrc520]

whoops. that would be the orange line incline. forgot to put "B." there. ::headdesk::

[eddiebear]

The Boston and Maine and predecessors operated into the Boston and Lowell Station for the first decade or so of operation. Dissatisfied with the B & L's attitude towards fitting its services into B & L's operations, the Boston & Maine was the beneficiary of a Special Act of the Legislature which authorized it to construct its own line from Wilmington Jct. into Boston. I don't have my texts right at hand, but the approximate opening date into the Haymarket Square Station was about 1847. The B & M moved out of Haymarket to the 1894 Union (North Station) and sold its right-of-way to the Boston Transit Commission. When the B & M served Haymarket, Causeway and Traverse Streets were grade crossings.
As an aside, it is probably no accident the street names in the vicinity of the railroad terminals at Haymarket and Causeway Sts. bear names of stations on some of the predecessor railroads. There are Haverhill, Beverly, Portland, Lancaster, Merrimac, Lowell and Nashua Sts. right nearby. Minot is most likely named after Charles Minot, one-time B & M super who later managed the Erie and sent the first telegraphic train order.

[Ron Newman]

Also Medford Street and Billerica Street, the latter of which was wiped out by the O'Neill Federal Building in the late 1980s.

So when the Green Line El and Central Artery ramp are finally demolished later this year, it will be the first time ever that the Bulfinch Triangle hasn't been bisected by a surface or elevated transportation right-of-way. (The railroad was preceded by a canal, hence the name Canal Street.)

[efin98]

If somoene can answer these questions, I'd appreciate it....

• When did the Green Line incline, from Haymarket to North Station, open?

The incline to the loop on the lower Green Line station was opened in either 1898 or 1899. The incline to the el was built around 1912 probably, along with the rest of the el structure and viaduct to Lechmere.

[*]When did the Orange Line incline, from Haymarket to North Station, open? It closed in April 1975; was it torn down immediately, or did it linger for a while?

1901 and 1908 were the dates for the Orange Line inclines. The first was the temporary use connection to the Green Line tunnel and the second was the one that lasted until 1975. IIRC it was torn down as much as possible, with the opening not being torn down or sealed up(remember it for years before it was reused for the Green Line).

[*]Before either of these inclines existed, Boston & Maine trains crossed Causeway Street and continued to a station at Haymarket Square. They used tracks parallel to and between Canal and Haverhill Streets, in about the same location where the inclines were later built. When did these tracks go into service? When did they go out of service?[/list]

They might have gone into service in the late 1860s or 1870s? They then went out of service when the first North Union Station was built(I believe before the Green Line tunnel was extended north in 1898 or 1899?

[Cotuit]

As an aside, it is probably no accident the street names in the vicinity of the railroad terminals at Haymarket and Causeway Sts. bear names of stations on some of the predecessor railroads. There are Haverhill, Beverly, Portland, Lancaster, Merrimac, Lowell and Nashua Sts. right nearby. Minot is most likely named after Charles Minot, one-time B & M super who later managed the Erie and sent the first telegraphic train order.

I never thought of that, what a cool little tidbit.

[Ron Newman]

I've never seen Minot Street -- where is it?