Adams Square was an underground streetcar station located at Adams Square in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It opened in 1898 and was used until 1963.

History

layout of Adams Square station An unusual northbound-only station, Adams Square station was opened with the rest of the northern section of the

Tremont Street subway The Tremont Street subway in Boston's MBTA subway system is the oldest subway tunnel in North America and the third oldest still in use worldwide to exclusively use electric traction (after the City and South London Railway in 1890, and the Bud ...

on September 3, 1898. Initially designed for streetcars only, the station was retrofitted in 1901 to also handle

Main Line Elevated The Orange Line is a rapid transit line operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) as part of the MBTA subway system. The line runs south on the surface from Oak Grove station in Malden, Massachusetts through Malden and ...

trains, which ran through the subway until the completion of the Washington Street tunnel in 1908. Thereafter the station reverted to exclusive streetcar use. Scollay Square and Adams Square had similar baroque granite headhouses with four-sided clock towers designed by

Charles Brigham Charles Brigham (June 21, 1841 – July 1925) was an American architect based in Boston, Massachusetts. Life Brigham was born, raised, and educated in Watertown, Massachusetts schools and graduated at age 15 in 1856 in the first class of Wa ...

. A small exit structure was located to the north, while the Brattle Loop used a separate entrance built into a building at Court Street and Brattle Street. The headhouses of the Tremont Street subway were sharply criticized as "pretentiously monumental", with the Scollay Square headhouse compared to "an enlarged soda fountain". Later stations on the

East Boston Tunnel The Blue Line is a rapid transit line in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, one of four rapid transit lines operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). It runs from Bowdoin station in downtown Boston under Boston Harbo ...

and Washington Street tunnel incorporated this criticism into their more modest headhouses. In 1931, the headhouse was removed to improve visibility for automobile drivers and was replaced by a significantly smaller structure of modern design. (Large headhouses at Scollay Square and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

were also torn down for similar reasons in that era.) Adams Square was closed on October 28, 1963, as part of the Government Center renewal project, and was subsequently largely demolished and covered during the construction of

Boston City Hall Boston City Hall is the seat of city government of Boston, Massachusetts. It includes the offices of the mayor of Boston and the Boston City Council. The current hall was built in 1968 to assume the functions of the Old City Hall. It is a cont ...

References

External links

Railway stations located underground in Boston Railway stations in the United States opened in 1898 Railway stations closed in 1963 1898 establishments in Massachusetts 1963 disestablishments in Massachusetts {{MBTA-stub