Boston & Lowell Railroad

Old Boston North Union Station // 1893-1927

Buildings of New England2 Comments
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

By the 1890s, many of the regional train lines in New England consolidated and as a result, union stations were built. All north-bound train lines including the Boston & Lowell and Boston & Maine railroads would consolidate into North Union Station with southbound trains consolidated into South Station. North Union Station, actually three adjoined buildings, was completed in 1893 and included the former Boston & Lowell Station, a Second Empire masterpiece which dated from 1873. The other sections of Union Station were designed by the firm, Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, and comprised of an office tower at the rightmost section and a central building serving as the main entrance and concourse with waiting rooms and baggage holding. The central entrance exhibited an elaborate columned block of brick with stone trimmings. The station lasted until 1927 when the entire complex was razed for the new North Station (The Boston Garden), which itself was replaced. The demolition of the Old North Union Station was one of the biggest architectural losses in Boston’s history, a stain on its historical legacy only compounded by the sterile development we see there today.

Former Boston & Lowell Railroad Depot // 1871-1927

Buildings of New England2 Comments
Courtesy of Boston Public Library collections

The Boston and Lowell Railroad was established in 1830 as one of the first rail lines in North America. The first track was completed in 1835, and freight service began immediately connecting Boston to the newly established town of Lowell, which had just 6,400 residents at the time (compared to Boston which had 10x that). The original Boston depot was a modest structure, but after the Civil War, it was decided that a new station connecting two of the most important industrial cities in Massachusetts, should be built. Architect Edgar Allen Poe Newcomb and his father’s firm, L. Newcomb & Son, was selected to design a new station on Causeway Street. The French Second Empire masterpiece was built between 1871-1878. Inside, the concourse was lined with oak walls and marble flooring. The depot was added onto in 1893 and incorporated into a Union Station of multiple former lines, and ultimately demolished in 1927 for the first North Station.