Ashmont Station

Transportation – MBTA – Ashmont Station

No. 4574 Postcard. Real photo postcard of Ashmont Station headhouse. Ca. 1930.

No. 12447 Ashmont Station Dedication 10-21-2011, photo from Bob Rugo

No. 7353 Ashmont Station 1895. Photo published on calendar issued by Cole’s Pharmacy, 1876 Dorchester Avenue, corner Dracut St., Ashmont. The calendar for 1901 states that the station was erected 1872, torn down 1895. This station was located at the north side of Peabody Square at the angle created between Argyle Street (later Talbot Avenue) and Dorchester Avenue.

In the late 1890s a new Ashmont train station was built on the west side of the train tracks on the land where the Carruth Building is today. The site of the station in the illustration had been formerly the site of the All Saints Episcopal Church, but when the new church building opened on Ashmont Street, the church no longer needed the land where their wooden building stood on Dorchester Avenue. Earlier, the station was on the north side of Peabody Square in the v between Dorchester Avenue and Talbot Avenue. The station in the illustration today is the one that served Ashmont from the late 1890s until the change-over to rapid transit in the late 1920s, when a brick headhouse was placed approximately where the headhouse is today.

The following is from

https://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/MBTA_Red_Line accessed March 23, 2018

Ashmont (Opened September 1, 1928.) Ashmont Station was constructed as a six track affair, with four island platforms. The rapid transit platform faces were about 350 feet long, while those serving streetcars were roughly 220 feet. The easternmost platform served arriving streetcars, and inbound subway trains. The next platform served outbound subway trains and cars for Mattapan (28). The other platforms served cars for Dudley via Washington St. (23), Dudley via Talbot and Blue Hill Avs. (22), Milton (27) and Brockton (Eastern Mass.). Ramps carried the car tracks up and over the subway in a loop at the north end of the station. At the south end an elevated junction sorted out arriving cars from the surface from those arriving and departing from Mattapan. Fare control was in the headhouse, which stood atop the tunnel facing Peabody Sq. Inside the turnstyles, separate stairways led down to passageways which flanked the tunnel. After passing under the streetcar loop the tunnel and passageways emerged above local ground level, and the dividing walls ended, forming the north end of the platforms. About 75 feet later the streetcar ramps reached the grade of the platforms and the main shelter began. The shelter over the three streetcar loading platforms was somewhat shorter than that over the rapid transit platforms, allowing for the curves which took the cars out to Dorchester Av. At the south end of the platforms, high exits opened into walkways which led to Radford Lane and Beale St. A crossunder connected the two dead-end streets. It is unclear whether any provision for entry was made here. No accommodation was made for bus passengers, as there were no bus lines serving Ashmont at the time.

The first two bus lines to serve Ashmont were reroutes of car lines which were holdovers from the days before the Dorchester Extension. The Washington Street line originated at Andrew Station and followed the route of the Meeting House Hill line (17) to Geneva Av. and Bowdoin St, continuing west on Bowdoin to Washington where it turned left and followed that street to Fairmount St. where it terminated. This route was converted to buses shortly after Ashmont opened, and operated from Gallivan Blvd. to Ashmont via Washington St. and Talbot Av. Several months later, the Norfolk St. line was converted. This line ran from Nelson & Norfolk to Dudley Station via Norfolk, Washington and Warren Sts. As converted, the line was extended to Morton St. via Corbett St. and ran west on Morton to Norfolk. From there it followed Norfolk St. and Talbot Av. to Ashmont. The conversion of these two lines benefited both the Elevated and the riding public. The El. got rid of several miles of unneeded duplicate services. The public got route extensions and a quicker trip downtown. The one drawback in these changes was the lack of a facility for buses to load and unload but this was quickly rectified. Late in 1929, an addition to the west side of Ashmont provided a home for the buses. The busway was at the same level as the roof of the original station, and included a passageway atop the shelter leading to stairs down to the subway and streetcar platforms. The bus platform was the same length as the streetcar platforms, and included its own fare control at the end of the passageway. Buses entered from the south end on an elevated ramp and departed from the north end at street level. The platform area was wide enough for buses to pass each other, and the west side was enclosed by a wall of glass.

The first station on the south side of Peabody Square appears below.

No. 2719 Ashmont Station. Granite Suburban Station at Ashmont. From The Engineering Magazine, Volume IX, April to September, 1895, 664.