|
Somerville and New England History Collection
 
This picture of the Winter Hill railroad station was taken in
1934, just before its demolition. The photo symbolizes the closing
of a chapter in Somerville history. Rail links to downtown Boston
were instrumental in Somerville's rapid growth after the Civil
War. The station was built in 1888 to accommodate the increasing
number of passengers who boarded or disembarked at this stop
on the Boston-Maine railroad: in the years just before the new
station was built, 59 weekday trains and 23 Sunday trains were
stopping at Winter Hill. In their heyday, stations like the
one at Winter Hill were considered ornaments of their neighborhoods.
The Winter Hill depot was made of red marble ashlar and trimmed
with rock-faced marble from Vermont. The interior of the waiting
room was birch with a massive marble fireplace. Here
you can see a picture of the station during its prime.
With the surge in automobile use in the early twentieh century,
traffic on the Boston and Maine line declined rapidly. The Winter
Hill station was closed around 1926. The building was torn down
in the summer of 1934.
|
|
