Green Street (MBTA Station)
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Green Street station (signed as Green) is a rapid transit station in
Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. It serves the
MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...
's Orange Line and is located in the southern part of the
Jamaica Plain Jamaica Plain is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood of in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of Roxbury, Massachusetts, Roxbury. The community seceded from Roxbur ...
neighborhood. Green Street is the least-used station on the Orange Line, averaging 3,055 weekday boardings in FY 2019. Like all Orange Line stations, it is fully accessible.


Station design

Green Street station is located in central Jamaica Plain, about east of the primary
business district Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit." A business entity is not necessar ...
on Centre Street. The headhouse is located at street level above the trenched Southwest Corridor on a block bounded by Green Street, Amory Street, Gordon Street, and Woolsley Square. The island platform for the Orange Line extends south from the headhouse. The three mainline tracks of the Southwest Corridor, used for MBTA Commuter Rail and Amtrak, are on the east side of the Orange Line tracks and platform.


Art gallery

Like some other Orange Line stations built in the Southwest Corridor, Green Street has street-level retail space. Since the late 1990s, a succession of related art galleries has been located inside the station. A local artist, James Hull, noted that the space was empty in 1996. He reached an agreement with the MBTA's leasing agent under which he paid no rent, and "The Gallery @ Green Street" opened in 1998. Staffed by volunteers, the gallery displayed contemporary works by a range of artists, including local students and non-commercial pieces by experienced artists. Hull later agreed to install air conditioning and a bathroom in return for use of the space. In December 2006, the space became the home of a successor gallery, the Axiom Center for New and Experimental Media, which was operated by a non-profit
artist collective An artist collective or art group or artist group is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management, towards shared aims. The aims of an artist collective can include almost anything t ...
. It featured rotating shows of artworks incorporating modern technology. In July 2012, Axiom closed the gallery; the space became the Boston Cyberarts Gallery, operated by an associated group.


History


Jamaica Plain station

In 1842, the
Boston and Providence Railroad The Boston and Providence Railroad was a railroad company in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island which connected its namesake cities. It opened in two sections in 1834 and 1835 - one of the Rail transportation in the United States, fir ...
(built starting in 1832) began offering service to Jamaica Plain station, located on the site of today's Green Street station; commuter rail service to the station would continue, uninterrupted, for nearly a century. The railroad opened a new station building at Jamaica Plain in 1871. Starting in 1891, the
Old Colony Railroad The Old Colony Railroad (OC) was a major railroad system, mainly covering southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island, which operated from 1845 to 1893. Old Colony trains ran from Boston to points such as Plymouth, Fall River, ...
(which had acquired the B&P in 1888, and was itself acquired in 1893 by the
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated principally in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to 1968. Founded by the merger of ...
) raised the section of its main line through Jamaica Plain (extending from Massachusetts Avenue to the current location of Forest Hills station) onto a 4-track stone embankment to eliminate dangerous grade crossings. The project involved the building of five new stations in Roxbury and Jamaica Plain; the existing stations at Roxbury Crossing, Jamaica Plain, and Forest Hills were replaced with new elevated stations, while new stations were built at Heath Street and
Boylston Street Boylston Street is a major east–west thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, and its western suburbs. The street begins in Boston's Chinatown, Boston, Chinatown neighborhood, forms the southern border of the Public Garden (Boston) ...
. The Jamaica Plain station opened on June 1, 1897, along with the other four new stations. Although the NYNH&H local stations in Jamaica Plain continued to operate for over three decades following the southward extension of the Washington Street Elevated, they were ultimately unable to compete with the Elevated. The three remaining stops, including Jamaica Plain station, were closed on September 29, 1940 due to a lack of passengers.


Elevated station

On November 22, 1909, the
Washington Street Elevated The Washington Street Elevated was an elevated segment of Boston's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority subway system, comprising the southern stretch of the Orange Line. It ran from Chinatown through the South End and Roxbury, ending ...
was extended south along Washington Street from its original southern terminus at , with new stations at and . Both Egleston and Forest Hills allowed direct connections to the Elevated from streetcar routes serving Roxbury, Dorchester, and Jamaica Plain (as well as, in the case of Forest Hills, to NYNH&H commuter trains); however, El ridership from the areas immediately surrounding the extension also proved high, and an
infill station An infill station (sometimes in-fill station) is a train station built on an existing passenger rail, rapid transit, or light rail line to address demand in a location between existing stations. Such stations take advantage of existing train ser ...
at Green Street (three blocks to the east of the NYNH&H station) opened on September 22, 1912. On December 5, 1960, the MTA began operating " modified express service" on the Elevated during the morning rush hour. Every other train bypassed Green Street and three other stations. This was discontinued in September 1961 to reduce wait times at the skipped stations, all of which were outdoors.


Modern station

In the 1960s, plans took hold to extend
I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...
into downtown Boston along the NYNH&H's right-of-way and to replace the Washington Street Elevated (from 1967 known as the Orange Line) with a rapid transit line running in the new highway's median; these plans led to the demolition of hundreds of homes and the clearing of a long strip of land (the Southwest Corridor) extending through Roxbury and Jamaica Plain all the way up to Green Street, before the project was halted by
highway revolts Highway revolts (also freeway revolts, expressway revolts, or road protests) are organized protests against the planning or construction of highways, freeways, expressways, and other civil engineering projects that prioritize motor vehicle traff ...
in 1969 and the February 11, 1970 announcement by Governor Francis W. Sargent of a moratorium on new highway construction within the
Route 128 The following highways are numbered 128: Canada * New Brunswick Route 128 * Ontario Highway 128 (former) * Prince Edward Island Route 128 Costa Rica * National Route 128 (Costa Rica), National Route 128 India * National Highway 128 (India) Ja ...
corridor, and eventually cancelled by Governor Sargent in 1972. The cleared strip of land was eventually developed into the
Southwest Corridor Park Southwest Corridor Park is a linear urban park in Boston, Massachusetts, part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston and managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. It extends from the South End and Bac ...
, and the Orange Line was moved to a new alignment along the Corridor in 1987 despite the cancellation of the project originally calling for its relocation. This included a new rapid transit station at Green Street, on the site of the former NYNH&H station; the old Green Street station, along with the rest of the Washington Street Elevated, was permanently closed on April 30, 1987, and the new station opened on May 4, as did the eight other new stations on the southern Orange Line. Green Street was not built as a bus transfer station, and lacks an off-street busway. It has not been served by
MBTA bus The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates List of MBTA bus routes, 152 bus routes in the Greater Boston area. The MBTA has a policy objective to provide transit service within walking distance (defined as ) for all residents ...
service since route 48 was discontinued on July 1, 2012. The entire Orange Line, including Green Street station, was closed from August 19 to September 18, 2022, during maintenance work.


References


External links


MBTA - Green StreetBoston Cyberarts Gallery
{{MBTA Subway Stations Jamaica Plain, Boston Orange Line (MBTA) stations Railway stations in Boston Railway stations in the United States opened in 1987 Railway stations in the United States opened in 1912