History of Back Bay Station
Back Bay Station serves as both a significant landmark and key transit hub for commuters. All Amtrak Acela Express and Northeast Regional trains running to and from South Station stop at Back Bay, as does the Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited. Four MBTA Commuter Rail routes – the Providence/Stoughton Line, Franklin Line, Needham Line, and Framingham/Worcester Line – also stop at Back Bay, as do the Orange Line subway and several local MBTA bus routes. It is the third-busiest MBTA Commuter Rail station and the sixth-busiest MBTA subway station.
The original station, which was built by the New York, New Haven & Hartford line in 1897, was destroyed by a fire in 1928. While it was rebuilt a year later, it was closed in 1979 due to deterioration.
Following the closure, plans for a project emerged that would elevate a highway system in the Southwest Corridor that would cut through the South End and Back Bay neighborhoods. In response, community members organized protests and demanded that a transit system be put in place instead of the highway to better serve the public’s needs. As a result of public activism, the station was rebuilt in 1987 using federal grant funding. The present building was designed by Kallmann McKinnell & Wood, and included an arcade in the spirit of turn-of-the century railroad stations and other features like the rust-colored laminated wooden arches, forty feet high, to span the entrance and the concourse between Dartmouth and Clarendon streets.
This site has a photo (Library of Congress) from October 1979 before the station was demolished in November. It includes a sign noting that the station will close on November 3.
Station Features:
Back Bay Station fills the city block between Clarendon and Dartmouth Street. The key design element of the station is the arcade of wooden arches that connect Dartmouth and Clarendon Street entrances. The Dartmouth Street entrance is framed by one of the wooden arches that is pulled out of the enclosure of the station to help form the outdoor space around it.
The key feature of the Clarendon entrance is the free-standing brick clad ventilation towers that serve as functional pieces of the ventilation system for the railway below, while creating a unique landmark.
A bronze statue of A. Philip Randolph, which was unveiled on October 8, 1988, can be found at the station. Randolph was a prominent civil right and labor movement leader, and he served as the first president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP). The unveiling of his statue was attended by Pullman car operators and dining car waiters.