Downtown Crossing (MBTA Station) - History

History

The current, upper-level Orange Line station was opened on November 30, 1908, along with the rest of the Washington Street Tunnel. Originally, the northbound and southbound platforms had different names; the northbound was named Summer and the southbound was named Winter. The lower level Red Line station was added in 1915 and that was originally named Washington. In order to simplify system maps and decrease confusion, the MBTA renamed the entire station (both Orange and Red line levels) Washington in 1967. In 1985 the name was changed again to Downtown Crossing. Originally, the Orange Line level had an underground concourse with several direct access points to the various stores in the district such as Jordan Marsh (now Macy's) and the former Filene's department store. Both levels were substantially renovated and accessibility was improved in the mid-1980s. In 1979 the Winter Street Concourse was opened, connecting the station to upper level of Park Street station two blocks away, utilizing a previously unfinished tunnel.

Read more about this topic:  Downtown Crossing (MBTA Station)

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.
    Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)

    A people without history
    Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
    Of timeless moments.
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.
    John Dos Passos (1896–1970)