The Roslindale Substation is a historic
electrical substation building at 4228 Washington Street in the center of the
Roslindale
Roslindale is a primarily residential neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, bordered by Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, West Roxbury and Mattapan.
It is served by an MBTA Commuter Rail line, several MBTA bus lines and the MBTA Orange Line in nearby J ...
village of
Boston, Massachusetts. The brick Classical Revival building was constructed in 1911 by the
Boston Elevated Railway
The Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) was a streetcar and rapid transit railroad operated on, above, and below, the streets of Boston, Massachusetts and surrounding communities. Founded in 1894, it eventually acquired the West End Street Rai ...
(BERy), a predecessor to today's
MBTA. The monumental building is long, wide, and high. The building was designed by Robert S. Peabody of
Peabody and Stearns, and built by
Stone & Webster. The building was use by the Boston Elevated and its successors to provide AC to DC conversion for street cars until 1971. It is one of four (out of seven originally built) substations built by the BERy to survive.
The building was listed on 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 ...
in 2013.
Renovation and current use
The building was vacant from 1971 until 2013, when the City of Boston sold it to two local non-profit groups, Historic Boston Incorporated and Roslindale Village Main Street, a former affiliate of the
National Trust for Historic Preservation Main Streets program. The non-profits purchased an adjacent parcel of land, and entered into an agreement with a private developer, the Peregrine Group, who would build apartments on the adjacent parcel and restore the substation building. Temporary use of the renovated substation began in 2017, and a long-term tenant, the Turtle Swamp Beer Garden, was in operation from 2019 to 2021. Workhub at the Substation, a
co-working space, began operations in the basement of the building. After the beer garden announced its closing, Workhub revealed plans to take over the ground floor space.
![Roslindale substation with scaffolding, September 2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Roslindale_substation_with_scaffolding%2C_September_2016.jpg)
In spring 2022, the ground floor was again turned into a beer hall run by a rotating selection of local breweries.
External links
Official website
See also
*
Egleston Substation
*
References
Industrial buildings completed in 1911
Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Boston
1911 establishments in Massachusetts
Railway buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
{{Boston-struct-stub