The sweet smell of the T, at least at Union Square

Now we make do when the wind is right with the satisfying scents from down McGrath. Side note: they saved one of the old tumblers from that chocolate factory, shined it up, and put it in the lobby.

And let’s not forgot….

By Ward8Mahatma
Sat, 12/28/2024 - 3:45pm

…Ashmont & the whole Lower Mills neighborhood in Walter Baker Chocolate’s heyday

I'm partial to Malden Center station smelling like roasted coffee beans because New England Coffee is down commercial street or Wellington smelling like roasted nuts or peanuts because the Leavitt (Teddie) factory is there.

I remember that

By Neal
Sat, 12/28/2024 - 6:48pm

I lived in Malden at the turn of the century, and on some days the roasty-toasty smell of the New England Coffee Roasters plant, less than a mile away on Charles St (I lived on Newton St, a couple of blocks behind Sun Kong and the Car Wash), was pretty evident. The first few times I smelled it, I assumed someone was making toast or that it came from Piantedosi Bakery's plant on Commercial St.

Piantedosi

By SwirlyGrrl
Sat, 12/28/2024 - 8:47pm

I do water sampling in that area of the Malden River once a month. I have always had to explain the overwhelming smell of baking bread of an early morning to new sampling folks.

I miss La Ronga bakery on Somerville Avenue

By Ron Newman
Sat, 12/28/2024 - 10:27pm

which blanketed its surroundings with the lovely smell of freshly baked bread.

<3 New England Coffee

By Oxenfree
Mon, 12/30/2024 - 10:03am

The first few months after I moved to Malden, I was driving myself crazy trying to figure out why it constantly smelled like popcorn. A few years later and it's now one of my favorite things about this city.

I haven't smelled the roasting nuts (unless you're talking about the nut vendor inside the station) - when do they usually roast?

It varies

By cybah
Wed, 01/01/2025 - 11:18am

It varies. I don't know of a set time table but is usually during the weekday (obv when people work there). Its when they are roasting nuts usually. I think I may smell it more than Malden because the plant is near the coast so the smell just gets sucked out that way. Usually I smell it when I am at Target in Everett b/c its across the street.

A bit further out ...

By adamg
Sat, 12/28/2024 - 7:22pm

The area around the Natick Mall often smelled like fresh bread because of the Wonder Bread plant behind it (the plant occupied part of the space now used for the "new" wing of the mall, although it had closed a couple years before plans for that were approved). Turns out the chemical that makes fresh bread smell so good is also involved in the manufacture of stuff like Wonder Bread.

And, to the north... animal byproducts

By TomW
Sat, 12/28/2024 - 8:00pm

Atlantic Gelatin had a plant right next to I-93 in Woburn. I actually liked the smell of this as you drove past on the highway, but I think the people who lived nearby were less enamored of it.

A bit farther north, near the Lowell/Billerica/Tewksbury line, there was the Corenco plant ("COncord RENdering COmpany"). They did animal fat rendering there. You could smell it quite a ways away and it was atrocious.

Hyde

By cybah
Sun, 12/29/2024 - 10:22am

Nothing worse that the fur factory on Marginal Street near me on a very hot summer day. Smells like rotting flesh.

Ah, the Gelly

By Neal
Sun, 12/29/2024 - 12:40pm

I grew up a few miles north of there and spent many hours in my teens and twenties at the Bickford's on Montvale Ave (one of only two Bickford's still in operation today) and depending on what they would be making that day at the Atlantic Gelatin plant next door, the Bickford's parking lot would smell like cherry, lemon, lime, orange, or rotting pig carcasses.

Mention of the Atlantic Gelatin Plant had me digging

By Neal
Sun, 12/29/2024 - 2:07pm

I came across this Woburn Historical Society produced history video about it.

Bickfords

By notadoctor
Sun, 12/29/2024 - 4:37pm

Sorry to break it to you, but the Bickfords on Montvale closed a while ago.. :-(

which leaves just one

By Ron Newman
Sun, 12/29/2024 - 10:41pm

on Route 3 in Burlington

Grew up in Saint Louis

By H Hartz
Mon, 12/30/2024 - 11:58am

One thing I love when I go back is driving past the Anheuser Busch brewery and smelling the malt/bready smell that I used to smell every day.

Those were the days....

By Nowy Liberté
Tue, 12/31/2024 - 12:48pm

Most of those kinds of odors were common all around Greater Boston -- back when Greater Boston was known for making things that people could identify by sight or smell

Now most of Greater Boston makes things which often take an advanced degree to even know the name of the substance or object or the meaning of a collection of bits

Another change -- if you notice something unusual coming out of the forest of vents on a building or you hear some alarms -- don't stand around sniffing -- find out which way the wind is blowing and head away

The sweet smell of the T, at least at Union Square

Comments

Some answers via Bluesky

Yeah, almost certainly Taza!

Phil Eng

Taza

Lechmere station used to smell like this

As did Mass Ave near MIT

Fudge Tankers

Superior Nut Co.