Ownership of North Station/ Boston Garden/ 150 Causeway St.

[TomNelligan]

The North Station HORSE owner also owned the SIDECAR in South Station.

Both are fondly remembered establishments for me, although the Sidecar got pretty shabby-looking in its last years, like most of the pre-reconstruction South Station. The current adult beverage establishments at both North and South Station are perfectly adequate places to grab a beer while waiting for a train, but neither has that classic character!

[Rbts Stn]

Back in the 70's, 150 Causeway also served as the media entrance for the old Boston Garden.

You would enter the lobby off of Causeway St. (under the Charlestown El tracks) and take an elevator to a higher floor. Then, you would cross an enclosed bridge, connecting the two buildings and spanning the alleyway between them. A lone usher would check that you were on the list, and allow you to proceed through an area where various things were stored, such as the parquet floor when the Celtics weren't playing, and the various equipment used by the Bull Gang (forklifts, trailers, etc.). This was on the same level as the ice/court and the players' and officials' dressing rooms.

I still remember that there was a coffee shop in the lobby of 150 Causeway (which was always closed by the time one would arrive for a game), and the entire lobby area had that kind of Woolworth's lunch counter smell permeating it.

Not only the Woolworth's smell, but if you took this route any time in the month after the circus had visited, well, you knew the circus had visited.

This route survived until they put up the new Shawmut Center/Fleetcenter/TD Garden building. Can't count the number of times I walked over that bridge.

[jaymac]

Rbts Stn » Fri Jan 22, 2016 1:07 pm
,,,but if you took this route any time in the month after the circus had visited, well, you knew the circus had visited.

Tradition used to be that Northeastern University held its graduation on Fathers Day, the probable presumption being that Dad had ponied up the tuition that co-op didn't cover. Tradition also used to be that Ringling Brothers et al. appeared at the Garden all the week before the aforementioned Fathers Day. As one of the approximately 200 members of the 1965 College of Liberal Arts baccalaureates, I can testify that we formed up and waited in a holding area that mere hours earlier was the holding area for incontinent big gray things with prehensile snouts. Ah, what is so rare as a day in June with parfum des éléphants!

[edbear]

When I worked at 150 Causeway, when the circus was in town, one could sometimes ride an elevator with a real clown.

[Engineer Spike]

While we're on the topic, when did B&M move out of 150 Causeway, for Billerica? Did any offices pertaining to passenger service remain, or were they in North Station anyway?

[edbear]

B & M entered bankruptcy March 12, 1970. By early Summer bankruptcy Trustees Meserve (saw it through to end), Lacy and Cherington were appointed and deposed the top management and replaced them. Several replacements came from Penn Central including H. E. Ring and he had a former storehouse at the Billerica Shop complex modified for office use. By mid-Summer 1971, Engineering, Mechanical, Purchasing, Freight Claim and Operations and Dispatchers were in Billerica. Now and then small departments were moved around. Finance, Treasurer, Law, Personal Claim, Freight Sales, Trustees were in Boston until the last to go, Finance and Treasurer went in early Dec. 1983. The bankruptcy was handled by Federal Court in Boston and Trustee Meserve had his own Downtown Boston law office. The Trustees normally met with management twice or more each month in Boston. The entire passenger operation while I was at B & M (1968-83) was managed by George F. Gallagher. GFG made out the Budd car assignments, passenger counts etc. probably in conjunction with the late Lester Stephenson. GFG worked out of 150 Causeway. When Guilford acquired B & M on June 30, 1983, work on Billerica went into high gear and by early December, everyone was under the roof at Billerica.

[edbear]

Slight mistake. I worked for B & M 1968-86 (not 1983). Also, with the move of Operations to Billerica, whatever was in the Greenfield, MA office building was moved. I believe there were some CTC control machines that were in the move from Greenfield. There were also control machines moved out of Boston. Tie Plant-Bow-Concord, NH, Rockingham-Dover, NH, Dover-Portland. Other machines were in local towers. When Plaistow, NH-Rockingham was single-tracked and CTC'd, the Concord-Westboro, NH machine which was sitting in a corner of the 3rd floor, 150 Causeway having been unplugged in 1966, was modified and became the control machine for the new CTC segment. There was a lot going on on the B & M back then.

[midgetexpress]

While we are on this topic, I'm hoping that someone can help me with this question. In late 1994, my husband and I were on our way to Salem via the commuter rail. Before we departed for Salem, we had lunch at a great restaurant/pub that was located in the old Boston Garden/North Station complex. It served stuff like burgers, sandwiches, soups (I had a delicious clam chowder), and a great beer selection. It was a casual place and reasonably priced. It had a main part and some tables outside that main area which were more in the area of the station. This place was quite close to where the commuter trains departed. When we returned to Boston a few years later, after the old Boston Garden/North Station was demolished and became the Fleet Center and then TD Garden, our restaurant was gone. We have always wondered what happened to it, did it go out of business after the demolition or did it find another location somewhere? The problem is that we don't remember the name of it so we can't look it up. I even emailed the Boston Public Library hoping that they could look in a reverse directory and tell me what restaurants had been at the North Station in 1994 but the librarian who tried to help me couldn't find a listing for the restaurants in that complex. Does anyone remember the place I'm describing? I don't recall many restaurant/pub places being in North Station at that time. I see people talking about a place called the Iron Horse/Horse but what other similar establishments were in North Station/Boston Garden in 1994? I don't think that the place I'm looking for is the Iron Horse but I'm not totally sure. Did the Iron Horse serve food?

Thank you for any help that can be provided.

[edbear]

Abut 1956-57-58 the Maginnis management of the B & M tried to find tenants for many of their underutilized railroad buildings. North Station got a pinball arcade, the Warren Institution for Savings (later Union-Warren Savings Bank) and the Iron Horse Restaurant in addition to the usual newsstands and soda fountains. The Iron Horse was renamed the Horse in short order because there already was an Iron Horse, fashioned from old passenger cars, off Route 1 in Norwood and its owners objected to the use of their name. (The Norwood Iron Horse even did some local radio advertising.) After long time owner Ira E (Eddie) Meister passed away one of his sons ran it for a time and then got out of the restaurant business. The Horse's site was taken over by an outfit called the Rail's End. Every now and then some of the covered over Iron Horse logos would re-appear on the outside walls when someone peeled off the covering.

[Engineer Spike]

So North Station was sold in the 1965 era, not with the rest of commuter rail sales in 1976? The funny thing is that I was listening to a recording of the Grateful Dead concert at BG 1973. I thought it would be neat if Jerry Garcia actually performed on B&M property.