South Station, Boston Mass.

South Station opened as South Union Station on January 1st, 1899 at a cost of $3.6 million (1899 dollars). It became the busiest station in the country by 1910. A station on the Atlantic Avenue Elevated served the station from 1901 to 1938; what is now the Red Line subway was extended from Park Street to South Station in 1913. The train shed, one of the largest in the world, was eliminated in a 1930 renovation due to corrosion from the nearby ocean's salt air. While the station handled 125,000 passengers each day during World War II, after the war passenger rail declined in the U.S. In 1959, the Old Colony Railroad, which served the South Shore and Cape Cod, stopped passenger service. The New Haven Railroad went bankrupt in 1961. South Station was sold to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) in 1965. Portions of the station were demolished and the land was used to build the Boston South Postal Annex and the Stone and Webster building.

Grassroots Effort Saves South Station
A group of concerned citizens, outraged at the loss of such a landmark, stepped in and succeeded in getting South Station listed in the National Register of Historic Sites. Demolition was halted and South Station began its rebirth - with a portion of the headhouse and grand waiting room still intact.

Over the next few years, plans were drawn for the ‘New” South Station which included a people-mover in an elevated passageway connecting South Station to Dewey Square, a direct passageway to the MBTA and an indoor sports arena.

In l978, the BRA sold the facility to the MBTA for $6.1 million. Six years later, the MBTA embarked on a project to restore the glory of South Station at a cost of $195 million - six times the station’s original cost.

The rehabilitation of South Station included the rebuilding of the headhouse, reconstruction of 11 station tracks with high level platforms, and the construction of a new bus terminal and parking garage over the tracks.

That phase of reconstruction was completed in time for South Station’s 90th anniversary, but even now, South Station is a work in progress. In its next century you will see this venerable building and its surroundings continue to reshape Boston’s landscape.

This article originally appeared in the May 1999 edition of South Station’s STATION BREAK newsletter.