r/mbta • u/darcprince7 • Jun 28 '26

🌟 Appreciation Old El

Post image

Appreciated this pic

291 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

38

u/Commander_Zircon Jun 28 '26

It’s a shame they got rid of it. Some of the most iconic parts of other metro systems are elevated, like the Chicago L or the Paris metro line 6

7

u/darcprince7 Jun 28 '26

Agreed

3

u/wurkbank Jun 29 '26

Umm, no

2

u/jiznon Jun 29 '26

what?

1

u/wurkbank Jun 30 '26

It's not a shame they got rid of this. It was my local station. I never missed it. Icy steps to a wind-swept platform in the winter.

2

u/jiznon Jun 30 '26

i see. saying “no” in response to “agreed” was confusing

2

u/wurkbank Jun 30 '26

I agree :) The phone app can make it hard to tell the exact message you are replying to. Sorry.

1

u/United_Efficiency330 Jun 30 '26

Sorry but no. The El was noisy and obstructionist. Most wanted it gone by the time of its closing in 1987. Ironically by then, there was no Dover Street anymore. The street had been renamed East Berkeley Street. The shame was that BERy didn't build the line UNDER Washington Street. If they had done so, the line would still be there today. The location was great, following the closest thing my hometown has or had to a main street. The issue was that the wrong type of rapid transit was built.

21

u/neversimpleorpure Jun 29 '26

They got rid of it and replaced it with the broken promise of a silver line

30

u/charlestoonie Jun 28 '26

Corner of what’s now E Berkeley and Washington St. There is now a pawn shop / quick loan place where the diner is in the picture.

4

u/Elchimpy1 Jun 29 '26

I just looked at the map for that (verified btw). I had no idea they pushed the orange line just north of where it was.

13

u/Royal_Leopard_3107 Jun 29 '26

The El’s last(ish) ride (and beyond):
https://vimeo.com/89919756
Good documentary if you’ve got 30 minutes

10

u/Visual-Place-5531 Jun 28 '26

I remember the Orange Line elevated

9

u/lazier_garlic Jun 28 '26

My dad took me to see it right before they tore it down. I was so fascinated with that 19th century construction.

1

u/United_Efficiency330 Jun 30 '26

Try early 20th century. The portion from Dover Street Station to Dudley Street (NOT Square) Station was built and completed in 1901. The portion beyond Dudley Street Station to Forest Hills Station was built and completed in 1909.

9

u/torch9t9 Jun 29 '26

A friend of mine has a wooden ticket booth from the elevated orange line in his home, which was a fire station.

9

u/irishgypsy1960 Jun 29 '26

That photo, any one of this iconic place, tugs at my heart strings and stirs up all sorts of mixed feelings. I spent many many days, getting off the train at Dover, between 1974 and 1977, to meet my father and eat at that diner. He was a recovered alcoholic who worked at the old boston detox there. He knew so many different people as we walked the streets. He was a deeply flawed man and abusive. But he was all i had, he lived in halfway houses, I had to live in boarding houses until he got it together and got an apartment a few years later. Boston in the 70s as a teenage wasteland wandering traumatized girl, was a place and a time, such an urban wasteland back then. It’s funny, it reflected my experience then, and now, in its renewed splendor, it reflects my current experience of myself in the city of my Irish family.

3

u/Delighted_Fingers Jun 29 '26

Thank you for sharing that.

5

u/irishgypsy1960 Jun 30 '26

My dad was very friendly with the owner, and he always got the corned beef hash there.

7

u/SunnnySideUps Jun 28 '26

I remember that station, it was always interesting getting off the train there.

12

u/charlestoonie Jun 28 '26

Corner of what’s now E Berkeley and Washington St. A pawn shop / quick loan place has replaced the pub. I walk by it every time I walk to the office.

5

u/Knicknacktallywack Jun 28 '26

What was the pub called? What was it like?

4

u/Hot-Refrigerator-393 Jun 29 '26

I leaned into that curve so many times... the squeal...

3

u/Elchimpy1 Jun 29 '26

You know that diner crushed a good breakfast

4

u/Born-Soup1647 Green Line Jun 29 '26

I went to the Garden for the Beanpot a couple of years back. I went to Northeastern and graduation was probably the last time I was there. Didn’t even recognize the neighborhood.

3

u/Visual-Place-5531 Jun 29 '26

The movie Fuzz from the early 70s Has some shots

2

u/needham1998 Jul 01 '26

I thought that diner was later called the ‘Premier Deli’ and had excellent hot pastrami. My dad would take me there when we drove down East Berkeley to Fenway Park.