David J. Russo

Scollay Square Station (central)

Scollay Square
Boston, Mass.

Year Built: 1898
Year Demolished: 1927

Built in 1898 and demolished in 1927. This station is substantially similar to Adams Square Station, the difference being that Scollay Square Station has rounded wings and Adams Square Station had rectangular wings and no date of construction over the clock. The roof line of Scollay Square Station is straight and cone-like and Adams Square has rounded roof lines, which are more bell-like.

This building was demolished because Cambridge Street, the street on which the station sat, was widened and the station was said to obstruct vision from many angles. The new station was a short granite bunker-like structure that was removed in the urban redevelopment of Scollay Square into Government Center in the early 1960s.

Scollay Square Station and Adams Square Station were in the second group of stations designed for Boston’s new subway system. The first stations at Park Street and Boylston Street were designed by Wheelwright & Haven. By choosing to underwrite architect-designed structures such as these, the Boston Transit Commission was highlighting the social and economic prowess of Boston and the people it served.

The structure was constructed of Milford granite, except for the wings, which, 6-feet above the sidewalk, are constructed of an ornamental cast iron framing with glazed panels and bronze and copper trimmings. The cast iron was painted green to represent old bronze. The roofs of the wings were glazed with ribbed glass; the window casings, doors and central tower are of quartered oak, while the door and roof frames and window grills were of bronze. The tower of the station contained a clock with four dials set in dormers and was roofed with fluted copper tiling.

The structure measured 17 x 51 with semicircular ends. The ends measured 12.5 feet tall to the cornice and the tower measured 43 feet tall.

References

• City Reports, City of Boston, Auditor's Report, 1898-1899, Adams and Scollay Square Stations, Charles Brigham, Architect, $2,500, p. 115.

• "Charles Brigham," MacMillan Encyclopedia of Architects, Adolph Placzek, entry written by Margaret Henderson Floyd, 1982, p. 288-9 (Scollay Square (central) Subway Station, 1897-1899, Charles Brigham architect).

• "The Completion of the Boston Subway and New Arrangements of Street Cars," The Railroad Gazette, October 21, 1918, p. 759.

• Annual Report of the Transit Department of the City of Boston for the Year Ending December 31, 1927, p. 38 and Plate XV.

• Annual Report of the Boston Transit Commission, 1898, pp. 7, 30, 31 and 64 and Plates 21, 21A and 26.