Hey, there! Log in / Register
Next car to Magoun Square, now departing
By adamg on Tue, 01/03/2017 - 11:14am
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this photo. See it larger.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Some Hints...
This site is one of the few to see continuous and successive use by a horse railroad, WESRy, BERy, MTA and the T. The first facility on this site was opened in 1872 by the Metropolitan Railroad and the final facility was closed by the T in 2005. The streetcar in the photo is assigned to Division Six (ex-Middlesex Railroad routes in Somerville, Charlestown, Medford, Everett, etc.) but the facility is Division One. This division consisted of several ex-Metropolitan trunk lines; modern descendants of these lines include MBTA Routes 23 and 42. Although motormen, conductors and streetcars were assigned here as a regular operating carhouse; the major function of this facility was systemwide overhauls and maintenance. It was the Everett Shops of its era. The trackage in the foreground is on a quiet side street most people would never imagine to have had streetcar service. The trackage continues up a hill to a church built in 1804 and another smaller carhouse named after a famous hotel where Horace King worked briefly as a handyman (well, handyboy) before building his legendary omnibus empire. A tiny street in the nearby neighborhood carries his name today.
And go!
Was this building part of Bartlett Yards in Roxbury?
(If that answer is correct, I would never have guessed it from the photo, only from your description)
dudley and bartlett
nt
Bartlett St.
Bartlett St.
A detailed 1908 track map of
A detailed 1908 track map of the Dudley Sq. area, including Bartlett Street Carhouse, is here:
http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=19679
It shows the tracks on Bartlett St. only going up as far as the carhouse. Although the street continues up to John Eliot Square (where the church and the Norfolk House are located), it has no tracks on that section. Streetcars could get to John Eliot Square via Dudley St. or Roxbury St., but not via Bartlett St.
Am I missing something here?
Oof, An Obscure Anachronism...
Good catch! Seems I was mixing up the trackage (this is Division One after all, so a little outside my territory). I recall reading that the Metropolitan had been granted a location for track in Bartlett Street leading up the hill. According to the 1895 City of Boston street railway location book (located here: https://archive.org/stream/streetrailwayloc00bost#page/158/mode/2up/sear...) this location was granted in 1863. But reading comprehension is key! Turns out this was for a temporary track. Certainly, assuming the Metropolitan accepted the location and built accordingly, that trackage would have been long gone by the time this photo was taken; and definitely gone by 1908!
The Answer
Thanks for playing, folks! This is indeed the Bartlett Street Car House, photographed in about 1896