Kendal Green station is an

MBTA Commuter Rail The MBTA Commuter Rail system serves as the commuter rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's transportation coverage of Greater Boston in the United States. Trains run over of track to 141 different stations, with 58 statio ...

station in

Weston, Massachusetts Weston is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, about 15 miles west of Boston. At the time of the 2020 United States Census, the population of Weston was 11,851. Weston was incorporated in 1713, and protectio ...

, US, served by the

Fitchburg Line The Fitchburg Line is a branch of the MBTA Commuter Rail system which runs from Boston's North Station to Wachusett station in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The line is along the tracks of the former Fitchburg Railroad, which was built across norther ...

. The station has a single platform serving two tracks; it is not

accessible Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...

. It originally opened with the

Fitchburg Railroad The Fitchburg Railroad is a former railroad company, which built a railroad line across northern Massachusetts, United States, leading to and through the Hoosac Tunnel. The Fitchburg was leased to the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1900. The main li ...

in 1844 as "Weston"; it was renamed Kendal Green after the green cloth around 1886. A new station building was constructed in 1896. Service passed to the

Boston and Maine Railroad The Boston and Maine Railroad was a U.S. Class I railroad in northern New England. Originally chartered in 1835, it became part of what was the Pan Am Railways network in 1983 (most of which was purchased by CSX in 2022). At the end of 1970, B ...

in 1900, and to the

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority 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 ...

(MBTA) in the 1970s. The former station building, reused as a private residence, was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2000 as a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

to the Kendal Green Historic District.

Station design

Kendal Green station is located on the north side of the Church Street grade crossing in Weston, about away from North Avenue ( Route 117). The station has a single asphalt

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

on the north side of the two tracks of the Fitchburg Route, with a small paved crossing allowing passengers to board trains on the opposite track. The low-level platform is not

. Parking spaces for 57 vehicles are located along Lower Field Road south of Church Street. The former station building is located adjacent to the platform. It is a single-story hip-roofed

clapboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...

building measuring , with a polygonal

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

in the southern corner. The structure is privately owned and used as a residence, though the MBTA owns the land; the trackside eaves still offer shelter for passengers. The trackside windows and doors have been covered for the privacy of the residents.

History

Early history

The

opened along the Stony Brook valley through Weston on June 17, 1844, with stops at Weston and . New residential development occurred around Weston station, but not around Silver Hill. The original Weston station building, constructed around 1843, was a two-story wooden structure with an apartment for the station master on the second floor. A freight house, no longer extant, was constructed nearby in 1875. The

Central Massachusetts Railroad The Central Massachusetts Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. The eastern terminus of the line was at North Cambridge Junction where it split off from the Middlesex Central Branch of the Boston and Lowell Railroad in North Cambridge and ...

was constructed through Weston in 1881, with its own Weston station closer to the town center. In 1885–86, a post office was opened to serve the North Avenue area. It was named "Kendal Green" at the suggestion of General James F.B. Marshall, co-founder of the

Hampton Institute Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association aft ...

, who had previously used it as the name of his nearby estate. The name was taken from the Kendal green cloth produced in

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...

, England; Kendal was also the surname of Marshall's grandfather. The railroad station also took the name Kendal Green around 1886, possibly to avoid confusion with the two Weston stations. The railroad built a new station building at Kendal Green in 1896. A single-story wooden structure, it resembled a simpler version of the Central Massachusetts Railroad's stick style Weston station. The Fitchburg Railroad was acquired by the

(B&M) in 1900.

MBTA era

The B&M sold off disused station buildings in the mid 20th century; by 1962, Kendal Green and Weston stations both belonged to the same private owner. The

(MBTA) was formed in 1964 to subsidize suburban commuter rail service. On January 18, 1965, the MBTA began subsidizing some B&M service, including as far as West Concord on the Fitchburg Route. The MBTA bought most B&M commuter rail assets, including the Fitchburg Route, on December 27, 1976. In 1989, the MBTA considered moving the station to the south to create a

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuting, commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail t ...

"superstation" for

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 India * National Highway 128 (India) Japan * Japan National Route 128 ...

, similar to

Route 128 station Route 128 station (sometimes titled Route 128/University Park) is a passenger rail station located at the crossing of the Northeast Corridor and Interstate 95 in Massachusetts, Interstate 95/US Route 1/Massachusetts Route 128, Route 128 at the ...

. The station was added to the

in 2000 as a

to the Kendal Green Historic District. A February 2005 study for the Fitchburg Line Improvement Project recommended consolidation of the three Weston stations (Silver Hill, , and Kendal Green) into a single expanded Kendal Green station to reduce travel times, as did a September 2005 preliminary implementation plan. However, by 2007, the preferred alternative did not include station consolidation. Silver Hill and Hastings were temporarily closed in December 2020 due to low ridership, with permanent closure scheduled for April 2021, but Kendal Green station was not modified.

References

External links

{{commons category
MBTA – Kendal GreenStation from Church Street from Google Maps Street View
Stations along Boston and Maine Railroad lines MBTA Commuter Rail stations in Middlesex County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic district contributing properties in Massachusetts