|
 Another
of the original
railroads that
made up the Boston
Terminal Company,
the Boston and
Albany Railroad,
came about in
l867 when the
Boston and Worcester
Railroad merged
with the Western
Railroad. The
Boston and Worcester,
the first commercial
line in New England,
was opened in
l834. The Western
Railroad was created
around the same
time, to make
the connection
from Worcester
to the New York
state line.
While Massachusetts was pushing westward, the folks in New York State were trying to figure out how to connect east. The Albany and West Stockbridge line was formed through several New York mergers and it began the build-out to the Berkshires.
Trying to connect the lines and figuring out how to get through the spine of the Berkshire mountains were daunting tasks. Eventually seven stone bridges were built across the Westfield River. Nearly 1,000 immigrants built the bridges with imported stone, precisely cut to fit together, with little or no mortar. Although common in Europe, these were the first stone arch bridges built in the U.S. for railroad use.
The tracks between Worcester and the New York state line set the Western Railroad back almost $6 million, but were completed in three short years, and the two ends of Massachusetts were joined.
Yet, the Boston and Albany is perhaps as well known for beautifying the system as for connecting east and west.
During the times when the railroads began servicing more and more commuters and the outskirts of Boston began to develop, the Boston and Albany line was faced with a need to invest surplus profits. It was decided that not only would trackage be part of the investment, but the B & A would create the “Railroad Beautiful.” In so doing, it hoped more people would want to commute, the suburbs would develop and the railroad would prosper.
To enrich the experience of the train rider, Charles Sprague Sargent, the director of The Boston and Albany, commissioned the services of well-known Boston architect H.H. Richardson. Known for his work on imposing buildings such as Trinity Church in Copley Square, he began designing the railroad stations which would dot the path west of Boston.
 But
the architecture
alone was not
enough and Sargent
decided to enhance
the route with
beautiful landscaping.
That decision
came as no surprise
to those who knew
Sargent, who had
spent his post-Harvard
years in Boston
studying botany
and horticulture.
Sargent enlisted
the expertise
of his friend,
famed park designer,
Frederick Law
Olmsted. Together
they had created
the Arnold Arboretum
and Sargent wanted
the train line
to be as beautiful.
After Richardson’s death, the successor firm, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, continued to build the stations and worked with Olmsted to develop the depots as attractive places to await the train. As Richardson had prescribed, each station would act as a gateway to the town where it stood. And the architecture would focus on two concepts - shelter for the passengers and an easy pathway to the train. The main feature of each of these stations was the roof, and the design allowed traffic to flow easily and simply from the station to the train, sheltered all the way.
Also, every station had to capture the essence of each distinctive town, welcoming visitors, and hopefully, new residents. From Western Massachusetts, into Boston’s South Station, Richardson and the Richardson-style architecture graced the rails. You can still see some of the original stations, now in use on the MBTA’s Riverside line. However, most have since met the wrecker’s ball.
This article originally appeared in the November 1999 edition of South Station’s STATION BREAK newsletter.
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