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The stub from before 128

By adamg on Sat, 04/05/2014 - 3:43pm
Old town-line sign at Needham-Dedham border.

Old town line sign. See it larger.

Get off 128 at Great Plain Avenue and head towards Dedham and you'll see what looks like a driveway just before the Dedham line.

It's actually the remains of an old road, one that now dead-ends at the soon-to-be-expanded 128. Park by the gate, and you'll see the old town-line signs. Look down toward the river and you'll see an official boundary stone (like this one). Then look at the phone poles and lines that still run along the side of the road - and continue across 128.

Could this be the old alignment of Great Plain Avenue before 128 was built?

And, at least for now, you can walk right to the side of 128 - where you can wave at passing motorists, some of whom might just wave back.

Neighborhoods: 
Needham
Topics: 
Driving
History
Free tagging: 
Great Plain Avenue
Needham


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Comments

By Hyde_Parker on Sat, 04/05/2014 - 4:56pm.

Cool! Thanks for the tip.

Does your discovery of this have anything to do with the rollover in the prior post?

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By adamg on Sat, 04/05/2014 - 6:23pm.

We were coming down 128 south and got off at Great Plain Avenue, as one does, at least when one is from Roslindale, and I got the bright idea to pull into the Cutler Park lot and walk to the overpass to get some photos of that. But the lot was full, so I pulled into the entrance to that stub road instead ...

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By moxie on Sat, 04/05/2014 - 5:02pm.

Used to fish there (or actually turtle there) as a kid. Fun bonus fact: They pulled an alligator out of that spot a few years ago:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/09/alligator_captu.html

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By cybah on Sat, 04/05/2014 - 6:38pm.

Yes it is the old alignment of Great Plains Ave

I took a few minutes and looked this up.

This is where Adam is talking about today: (via gmaps)

http://goo.gl/08EFGW

This is the same spot in 1938, long before 128 as a highway existed: (via historicaerials.com)

http://www.historicaerials.com/aerials.php?scale=8E-06&lat=42.2688492&lo...

Select different years and you can see how its the old alignment and when 128 was added

(historicaerials.com is an awesome site and a huge time waster!)

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By N on Sat, 04/05/2014 - 9:47pm.

Google Earth also has historical satellite imagery.

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By 02132 on Sun, 04/06/2014 - 12:56pm.

Cool pic. Sign is visible from the road, as I found out yesterday when I drove by, but I've certainly never taken any notice of it before. Love these types of posts.

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