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Inside the tunnel

By adamg on Mon, 05/21/2018 - 11:46pm
Inside the tunnel

Hilary was among the lucky people who got to take a tour of the abandoned trolley tunnel under City Hall, built in 1898. She took plenty of photos of the tunnel and the remains of a trolley station down there.

Video.

Photo posted under this Creative Commons license.

Neighborhoods: 
Downtown
Topics: 
History


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Comments

By anon on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 7:40am.

Nice tour but nothing compared to the abandoned subway tunnels under Tremont street or as majestic as Steinhart Hall.

By Ben_Quahog on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 10:40am.

Steinway Piano moved out of the building a few years ago so it could be renovated. Does anyone know the status of the renovations, particularly whether they intend to rehabilitate & reopen Steinert Hall?

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/05/22/building-owner-plans-revive...

By cybah on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 1:20pm.

It will never re-open. Not without big money to add egress. That article is misleading.

Current configuration does not allow for public use. Too few fire exits and egress from the theatre.

It could be done, would cost a developer a semi fortune to do.. but so few have interest in doing so. And once they get a price tag to do so, it gets dropped. Probably the case here.

By Ben_Quahog on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 3:08pm.

It seems like a neat space, but yeah, probably not worth the money to bring up to code.

By Irma la Douce on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 4:39pm.

That's one space I'd love to be able to tour sometime. I think it was featured on a local tv broadcast (Chronicle, maybe?) a few years ago.

By Det.Bill Kelly on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 8:36am.

where's the graffiti? Not interesting

By Hillary on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 10:58am.

Yeah, it's interesting that there's no graffiti in the tunnel - now that at least 100 more people know exactly where it is, I wonder if that will change. Given that it's under City Hall Plaza and behind what I assume is usually a locked door, it's probably hard to get into.

By scooterdude on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 8:42am.

So, THIS is where Charley ended up!

We can now 'learn' his fate and put closure on that sordid episode in Boston history!

By anon on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 9:07am.

Or New City Hall (aka Scollay Under)?

By Ron Newman on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 10:16am.

See earlier posts. This was a one-way trolley tunnel (northbound only) which was abandoned when the Green Line was realigned during construction of Government Center in the early 1960s.

By Hillary on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 10:48am.

They actually realized yesterday during the tour that part of this tunnel was used as an extension of the Scollay Station platform towards the end of that station's lifetime (there are platform markings on the ground, under a layer of dirt that got scuffed away). This tunnel is on the same level as the Green Line in next-door Government Center station, so it wouldn't have been Scollay Under.

By GregBoston on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 10:27am.

It was between Scollay and Haymarket.

Maybe it was located on this tunnel.

By Hillary on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 11:00am.

This tunnel went from Scollay Square to Adams Square, under Cornhill Street. Here's a fact sheet they put together about the tunnel, which includes a map: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vBIO2XHwT3u0VS1JYKMOfwvCc26Tam3kDKLH...

By Saul on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 11:28am.

I think the map on the fact sheet is mistaken when it says there was a subway tunnel under (the now obliterated) Brattle Street.

All track maps I've seen show the southbound track under Hanover Street:

http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=15951

It looks like there were surface tracks on Brattle Street but not tunnel:

http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=9626

By Hillary on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 11:54am.

Interesting - they may have gotten things mixed up. While the sheet doesn't specifically say it was a subway tunnel under Brattle Street (just that there was a route there, which could mean surface), I recall Joe Bagley, the city archaeologist, referring to it yesterday as a "lost tunnel."

By Saul on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 12:14pm.

I recall him saying that too. (I was on the 12:20 tour.)

It looks like a tunnel under Brattle Street was proposed:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Tremont_Street_Subwa...

By anon on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 3:06pm.

The shirt turn loop that allows trolleys from Lechmere to turn at Government Center is still called "The Brattle Loop".

By anon on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 3:00pm.

From the Department of Pedantry: that's Cornhill, not Cornhill street.

By Hillary on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 4:20pm.

.