Former Harvard Sq. Trolleys

Hey guys. I was talking to my grandfather the other day about the trolleys in Watertown before the system had changed to trackless trolleys. He said before they switched over he remembered the tracks only extending to the 71/73 split. I find this hard to believe because I thought they were all ripped up at once. I was wondering if anyone could clarify this. He also said there had been a loop where the Star Market parking lot in Cambridge is, which I hadn’t heard of. So basically I’m asking if anyone has or knows of where to find some info about the Harvard based trolleys. I found F-line to Dudley via Park’s response in the Mattapan thread about making one large trip via all of the different lines very cool. Thanks in advance.

I was under the impression that the lines were converted all at one time. Perhaps Cambridge just didn't rip up the tracks as fast as Watertown and Belmont?

The Star Market building, however, was originally built (sometime in the 1800s) as a horsecar/streetcar barn, but I believe it was converted to a supermarket by the 1930's.

If you can get ahold of Bradley Clarke's Streetcar Lines of the Hub it has some info on the Cambridge based routes. I'd refer to the one I read, but my father has it in Maryland!

The streetcar lines were converted in 1958 and did indeed follow the current 71 and 73 routes in their entirety. They operated through the Harvard tunnel to North Cambridge (the extension to Arlington Heights had ended a few years earlier). Not sure about any loop at Mount Auburn and Trapelo.

Jim

Thats interesting about star market being a car barn. Maybe my grandfather was remembering some old tracks in that parking lot, or perhaps he was thinking about Aberdeen ave where the 72 meets the 71/73, (i don't think he was), it's not a loop but it might have looked like one with all the tracks comming together.

In addition to Bradley Clarke's comprehensive book that's mentioned above, which is an essential reference for anyone interested in the history of Boston's streetcar routes, you can find a bunch of photos of trolleys and trackless trolleys in the Harvard Square area in "Boston Trolleys In Color: Volume 1, the North Side" by William D. Volkmer (Morning Sun Books, 2004). Volume 1 is basically everything north of Beacon Street, and volume 2 is everything south of there.

The Mount Auburn and Waverley lines were converted to trackless routes on September 6, 1958. Regarding when the tracks were ripped up, there's a photo in Volkmer's book that shows the track removal in progress in Watertown Square on October 1, 1960, and another shot of a trackless on Mt. Auburn near Harvard Square on the same day that shows nothing but smooth pavement there.

at the waverly square terminus the tracks are poking out of the pavement

pdxstreetcar wrote:at the waverly square terminus the tracks are poking out of the pavement

I suspect that for most of Belmont St. and Trapelo Rd. in Belmont the tracks (well, probably only rails at this point) are still down there. If you look closely on some of the worst stretches, you can see long straight lines of potholes/cracks paralleling the trolley wires. Same might be true for Mt. Auburn east of Fresh Pond Pkwy.

Mt. Auburn from Fresh Pond to Watertown Sq. looks to be dug up and repaved since the end of the streetcar, at least once, maybe more often.