Gilman Square station

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Gilman Square
Gilman Square station construction, December 2021.JPG
Gilman Square station under construction in December 2021
LocationMedford Street at Pearl Street
Somerville, Massachusetts
Coordinates42°23′16.00″N 71°5′47.21″W / 42.3877778°N 71.0964472°W / 42.3877778; -71.0964472Coordinates: 42°23′16.00″N 71°5′47.21″W / 42.3877778°N 71.0964472°W / 42.3877778; -71.0964472
Line(s)Medford Branch
Platforms1 island platform
Tracks2
Construction
Disabled accessYes
History
OpeningMay 2022 (planned)
Services
Preceding station MBTA.svg MBTA Following station
Magoun Square
toward Medford/​Tufts
 Green Line
E branch
 East Somerville
toward Heath Street
Former services (Winter Hill station)
Preceding station Boston and Maine Railroad Following station
Somerville Junction
toward Concord, NH
 Boston – Concord, NH Prospect Hill
toward Boston

Gilman Square station is an under-construction light rail station on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line in Somerville, Massachusetts. It is being built as part of the Medford Branch of the Green Line Extension. Gilman Square will consist of one island platform. The station is expected to open in May 2022.

History[]

Railroad station[]

1880s photograph of the first Winter Hill station, located at Gilman Square
1908 postcard of the second Winter Hill station, built in 1888

The Boston and Lowell Railroad opened between its namesake cities in 1835; local stops were added after several years. Winter Hill station was located at Gilman Square in Somerville, one of several stations in the city. It was open by 1852; all grade crossings on the line in Somerville were eliminated by that time, with Medford Street crossing over the railroad on a bridge.[1] A bridge was added by the 1870s to carry School Street over the railroad.[2] In 1870, the Lexington Branch was routed over the B&L east of Somerville Junction, increasing service to Somerville Junction, Winter Hill, Milk Row, and East Cambridge stations. The Central Massachusetts Railroad began operations in 1881 with the Lexington Branch and B&L as its Boston entry.[3][4]

The original station building was a long wooden structure north of the tracks.[2][5] A foundation was laid in 1886 for a new stone station on the south side of the tracks.[6] The Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) acquired the B&L in 1887.[4] The new station opened in 1888; the old wooden station was split into two sections which were reused as houses, which are still standing near Magoun Square.[5][7][8] The new station was made of red marble ashlar with rough marble trim; the waiting room featured a marble fireplace.[8]

The inner suburban stations lost much of their ridership to streetcars, especially after the Lechmere Viaduct sped travel times to downtown beginning in 1911. The ticket office at Winter Hill was closed in 1926.[9][10] On April 25, 1927, the Lexington Branch was reconnected to the Fitchburg Line; the 1870-built line west of Somerville Junction became the Fitchburg Cutoff used only by freight trains. Three stations on the cutoff plus Prospect Hill and East Cambridge stations east of Winter Hill were closed entirely; service to Winter Hill ended then or soon after.[5][11][12] The railroad unsuccessfully attempted to sell the station for reuse.[13] The abandoned station building was demolished in July and August 1934, as it had become a target for vandalism.[9][10] The stone base of the former station was used to house electric equipment until Green Line Extension construction began in 2018.[5]

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the newly formed MBTA reopened several inner-suburb commuter rail stations in response to community desire for service that was faster if less frequent than buses. In 1976, Winter Hill station was considered for reactivation, but ridership was expected to be negligible due to the nearby 80, 88, 90, and 94 buses.[14]

A Gilman Square commuter rail station to supplement the then-planned Green Line station was listed as a possibility in 2012 as an interim air quality mitigation measure in response to delays in building the Green Line Extension. However, such a station would have been costly to build and could not have been completed by the 2015 deadline, and was thus not supported by MassDOT.[15]

Green Line station[]

Station construction in July 2021

In November 2012, the MBTA indicated that the Gilman Square station was expected to be completed by June 2019, as part of the Phase 3 of the Green Line Extension project.[16] As of 2014, the MBTA expected the Gilman Square station to be completed in 2020, but in December 2016, it announced the station's opening had been delayed until 2021.[17] Original plans called for the D Branch to be extended to Medford/Tufts.[18][19] However, in April 2021, the MBTA indicated that the Medford Branch would instead be served by the E Branch.[20]

By March 2021, the station was expected to open in December 2021.[21] In June 2021, the MBTA indicated an additional delay, under which the station is expected to open in May 2022.[22]

By August 2020, the platform foundation and south headhouse were under construction.[23] The platform and canopy were in place by June 2021, with the footbridge under construction.[24]

The new station is named after neighboring Gilman Square, which in turn was named after Charles E. Gilman, Somerville's first town and city clerk.[25] Before becoming town clerk, Gilman worked for the Boston and Lowell Railroad, and sold the first ticket between the those terminal destinations.[26]

References[]

  1. ^ Draper, Martin, Jr. (1852). "Map of Somerville, Mass". J.T. Powers & Co.
  2. ^ a b "Plate H". Atlas of the city of Somerville, Massachusetts : from actual surveys and official records. G.M. Hopkins & Co. 1874. pp. 30–31 – via Norman B. Leventhal Map Center.
  3. ^ Humphrey, Thomas J.; Clark, Norton D. (1985). Boston's Commuter Rail: The First 150 Years. Boston Street Railway Association. p. 55. ISBN 9780685412947.
  4. ^ a b Karr, Ronald Dale (1995). The Rail Lines of Southern New England. Branch Line Press. p. 227. ISBN 0942147022.
  5. ^ a b c d Somerville Bicycle Committee and Somerville Historic Preservation Commission (May 31, 2008). "Rails of the Past Guiding the Green Line of the Future" (PDF). City of Somerville. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 15, 2013.
  6. ^ "Somerville". Boston Globe. November 4, 1886. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ Samuels, Edward Augustus; Kimball, Henry Hatsings (1897). Somerville, past and present : an illustrated historical souvenir commemorative of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the city government of Somerville, Massachusetts. Samuels and Kimball. pp. 464–468 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ^ a b "Somerville and New England History Collection: In the Spotlight". Somerville Public Library. February 2009. Archived from the original on March 21, 2009.
  9. ^ a b "Somerville". Boston Globe. July 28, 1934. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.open access
  10. ^ a b "Winter Hill station being razed - once pride of the B. & M." Boston Globe. August 4, 1934. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.open access
  11. ^ "Five B. & M. Stations Will Be Abandoned". Boston Daily Globe. March 16, 1927 – via Newspapers.com. (second page) open access
  12. ^ "Lexington Branch back on Fitchburg". Boston Daily Globe. April 25, 1927. p. 13 – via Newspapers.com.open access
  13. ^ "How would you like to live in a railroad station". Boston Globe. July 15, 1933. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  14. ^ Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation and Construction (April 22, 1976). Capital needs developed at the corridor level: core and west (Report). Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation and Construction. pp. 101–102.
  15. ^ Central Transportation Planning Staff (January 23, 2012). "Green Line Extension SIP Mitigation Inventory" (PDF). Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 2, 2014.
  16. ^ "Green Line Extension Project: Fall 2012 Fact Sheet" (PDF). Massachusetts Department of Transportation. November 5, 2012.
  17. ^ Dungca, Nicole (December 7, 2016). "New Green Line stations are delayed until 2021". Boston Globe. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  18. ^ "MBTA Light Rail Transit System OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE PLAN" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. January 6, 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 7, 2017.
  19. ^ "Travel Forecasts: Systemwide Stats and SUMMIT Results" (PDF). Green Line Extension Project: FY 2012 New Starts Submittal. Massachusetts Department of Transportation. January 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 7, 2017.
  20. ^ DeCosta-Klipa, Nik (April 9, 2021). "The MBTA is planning to open part of the Green Line Extension this October". Boston Globe. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
  21. ^ "Report from the General Manager" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. March 29, 2021. p. 20.
  22. ^ Dalton, John (June 21, 2021). "Green Line Extension Update" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. p. 19.
  23. ^ "GLX Community Working Group Monthly Meeting: August 4, 2020". Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. August 4, 2020. p. 8.
  24. ^ Wagner, Jeff (June 1, 2021). "GLXC Construction Update". Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. p. 26.
  25. ^ Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell (2003). Somerville (Images of America: Massachusetts). Arcadia Publishing. p. 45. ISBN 0738512907.
  26. ^ Samuels, Edward A. (Edward Augustus); Kimball, Henry H. (Henry Hastings) (1897). Somerville, past and present : an illustrated historical souvenir commemorative of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the city government of Somerville, Massachusetts. Boston Public Library. Boston : Samuels and Kimball. p. 543.

External links[]

Media related to Gilman Square station at Wikimedia Commons

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