Car Houses at Neponset
No. 1024 Postcard. Caption on front: Car Barn, Neponset Bridge, Neponset, Mass. Postally unused. On verso: 1216 Publ. by W.N. Baker. Made in Germany. Circa 1910.
No. 10090 Detail from 1898 atlas showing the West End Street R.W. Co. car house.
In 1904 there were two car barns on the west side of Neponset Avenue across from the Frost Coal Company at River’s edge: the Boston Elevated Railway Car Company (formerly West End Street Railway) and the Brockton Street Railway (formerly Quincy & Boston Street Railway). Leo Sullivan writes: As completed, the two carbarns, though a few hundred feet apart were not (until 1907) connected by track (RR crossing problem).
No. 7036 This picture is of the Boston Elevated Railway Car Company house.
No. 7037 Neponset Car House
No. 7038 Plan of the car house
No. 7039 Plan of the track lines
No. 7040 Back and side of the Car House
Caption: About 279,800 square feet of land consisting mostly of marsh and flats. On the portion near the steam railroad tracks there is a frame car house with brick boiler room and shops in the rear, built during 189 and 1897 and at present n excellent repair and condition. On the piece of land with a frontage of 54.49 feet on Neponset Ave, there is a small dwelling of six rooms in good repair.
Passengers coming from the north would end their trip at the Boston Elevated car house and walk to the Brockton Street Railway station to take a different trolley.
The Neponset trolley car house was located on the west side of Neponset Avenue south of Gallivan Boulevard, perhaps where the Ups and Downs restaurant/bar is located today, or perhaps a little closer to the river. The high bridge we use to cross the Neponset River was a later addition to the landscape.
The 1910 atlas shows the car house, with the Starter’s Office and the Waiting Room labeled to match your photo, as being as being directly opposite where Taylor Street intersects Neponset Avenue. There are two buildings between the car house and the river, one of which can be glimpsed in your photo. That would put it where the big shed, Mass Highway, is located now, just beyond the wonderful Ups & Downs. In 1910 there was still open water behind the building and to the left. The railroad track is the spur that used to serve Baker Chocolate and later Burke Distributing Co. (beer – now Shaws Supermarket). Most of the railroad track was turned into the bikeway along the river.
No. 7037 Another photo of the car house.
The Boston Elevated car house sat next to the branch railroad line that ran along the Neponset River, although the company’s trolley cars did not run on those tracks.
In 1904 there were two car barns on the west side of Neponset Avenue across from the Frost Coal Company at River’s edge: the Boston Elevated Railway Car Company and the Brockton Street Railway. Leo Sullivan writes: As completed, the two carbarns, though a few hundred feet apart were not (until 1907) connected by track (RR crossing problem). This picture shows the side and back of the Boston Elevated Railway’s car barn ca. 1904.
The Brockton Street Railway car house was located next to the River.
No. 9916 This must be the Quincy & Boston facility nearer to the River than the Neponset Car House for the West End Street Raildway.