North Station Draws to be Replaced

Anybody happen to know whether Spaulding Hospital was built on land leased or bought from the B&M?

Doing a quick search, the Massachusetts public record of deeds is only searchable online back to 1973. The deed was held by the Nashua Street Company Trust, and the financing for Josiah A Spaulding was provided by New England Merchants National Bank of Boston. Maybe this will help someone else find your answer.

The B & M disposed of all of its real estate south of the Charles River, except for the track and platform area, shortly before the MBTA began full subsidy in 1965. That included the space utilized for parking behind North Station and Hotel Madison and everything from the last usable track (11 or 12) to Nashua Street, North Station and 150 Causeway Street. The Hotel Madison was an earlier sale.

^ From this, it seems we'd say MGH/Spaulding own the land? requiring an eminent domain proceeding if it is to be returned to transit use?

(It isn't going to revert back to the T as successor to a 60 year lease, it sounds like)

I believe Partners Health Care owns the land, so any Partners institutions can use it, which is why MGH is currently using it for office space.

Why would it return to transit use, though? Any needed capacity beyond what Tracks 11 & 12 will deliver should come in the form of North-South Rail Link anyway.

The tracks from the new drawbridge to platform 11/12 have to go where the rehab building and parking lot are.

The most recent plan works with Spaulding still there (access to 11/12 works). But if the platforms need to be made *longer* you would rather a straighter shot through the corner of Spaulding then a curvy pinch to get around it.

http://i.imgur.com/ohmyTSR.jpg

NSRL has nothing to do with the draw bridges, not expanding north station either, really. Curbing necessary expansion in the hopes of a project that isn’t even being planned negating the need is foolish and short sighted. Despite their strongest efforts to avert reality, New Hampshire is going to have to face the music that highways aren’t the only mode of transportation and it’s going to have to fund service its cities have been calling for for decades. Once that border is breached the north side will explode in size. When that happens, even if we have a tunnel we didn’t build when we had the chance, North Station will need more capacity, as the maybe tunnel won’t have the capacity to handle what north station can’t now.

We talk about sensible land use in a high land value area, and a larger transportation hub in an area rapidly expanding in density makes a lot more sense than preserving an abandoned rehab facility for a few administrative offices.

Probably cheaper to buy Spaulding now rather than ten years from now. Secret is to pretend that you don't want it but are willing to buy it just to help out MGH.

If I were MGH I would use Spaulding as leverage to to get the Red-Blue connector built.