Somerville station was a

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing suc ...

on 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 ...

Somerville, Massachusetts Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a total population of 81, ...

History

Fitchburg Line from Park Street looking east

A short-lived station opened at Kent Street in 1842. By 1851, Somerville station was located to the east at Park Street, near the junction of the

Harvard Branch Railroad The Harvard Branch Railroad was a short-lived branch from the Fitchburg Railroad to Harvard Square and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Part of the former right-of-way is now used by Museum Street. The company was incorporated April ...

.Dinsmore, Curran (1851). The station building was located on the north side of the tracks, just west of Park Street. Like

Union Square Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

and other local stops, Somerville was served primarily by

Lexington Branch Lexington may refer to: Places England * Laxton, Nottinghamshire, formerly Lexington Canada * Lexington, a district in Waterloo, Ontario United States * Lexington, Kentucky, the largest city with this name * Lexington, Massachusetts, the oldes ...

trains in the mid-19th century. Planning to eliminate the eleven remaining grade crossings in Somerville, five of which were on the Fitchburg Route mainline, began in 1900. In 1906, the city engineer proposed to raise of the line between Beacon Street and Somerville Avenue to eliminate the five level crossings, but that scheme was not adopted. The other four crossings were eliminated in 1908–1912, but the Park Street grade crossing remained. In 1935, the city requested that the crossing be replaced with a bridge as part of a

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

-funded grade crossing elimination program. It was not, and the location has continued to see collisions. Horsecar and later electric streetcar service cut ridership at urban stations; by 1917, and Somerville stations were served by 4–5 daily

Watertown Branch The Watertown Branch Railroad was a branch loop of the Fitchburg Railroad that was meant to serve the town of Watertown and the City of Waltham, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, as an independent short line railroad; it also serviced the Wate ...

trains plus several off-peak mainline local trains. As passenger volumes dwindled, the station building was rented to an upholstery maker by 1924. By 1929, their only service was two inbound and one outbound Watertown Branch train. Service to the two stations ended on July 9, 1938, along with the end of passenger service on the Watertown Branch.

References

{{reflist Stations along Boston and Maine Railroad lines Former railway stations in Massachusetts Railway stations in Somerville, Massachusetts Railway stations in the United States closed in 1938 Railway stations in the United States opened in 1842