[You can go back to Green Street and continue down to the intersection with Woolsey Square, but we recommend strolling through the park on the corner to make your way there - then stand in the park across from the station.]
Currently, we are standing in the Southwest Corridor Park overlooking the transportation lines that so changed the evolution of Jamaica Plain. The Boston & Providence Railroad came through the Stony Brook valley in 1834. The railroad was built up on a granite embankment in those days and the spot where the Green Street T stop is was the Jamaica Plain Station on the railroad (seen above). The street in front is still known as Woolsey Square but in the 1800s it was a much different place.
In the late 1940s the Massachusetts Department of Public Works determined that a highway needed to be built through this area. The plan was to call it the Southwest Expressway. It was one of several highways (the SE Expressway is another) that would feed traffic into downtown Boston from Route 128. By the 1950s the Federal Highway Transportation Board was including the project in its interstate highway planning. The land we are standing on was cleared in the 1960s-1970s. Using the power of eminent domain, the government simply took houses and buildings in order to put the 8 -lane highway through the neighborhood. Lucky for us, a group of active, concerned citizens in Roxbury, Hyde Park and Jamaica Plain got together and raised a considerable fuss. So much so, that Governor Sargent declared a moratorium on building and then convinced the federal government to cancel the project. It was the first time a federal highway project was stopped by civic action.
The cleared land was put to different uses. The railroad was sunk below grade – but vestiges of the old embankment can still be found throughout the park. The large granite blocks make up walls, benches and create fun splash parks for the children in the summer. The old elevated train line that ran down Washington Street was disassembled and the Orange Line as we know it today came into being in 1988. Instead of the highway, we now have a 5 mile long/52 acre linear park which stretches between Forest Hills and Back Bay. The Southwest Corridor includes a bike trail, walking paths and recreational facilities.
We end the tour here, although Green Street does continue over another couple of blocks to Washington Street. In that section of Green Street, there are brick buildings that speak to the thriving businesses along the Stony Brook and some old brick “hotel” buildings, which were actually apartment residences built around 1890.