Beverly Depot

Beverly Depot is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Beverly, Massachusetts. Located in Downtown Beverly, it serves the Newburyport/Rockport Line. It is the junction of the line's two branches to Newburyport and Rockport and is served by every train on both branches.

Beverly Depot
Historic Beverly Depot and modern asphalt platforms
General information
Location12 Park Street
Beverly, Massachusetts
Coordinates42.54760°N 70.88535°W / 42.54760; -70.88535
Line(s)Eastern Route
Gloucester Branch
Platforms2 side platforms
Tracks2
ConnectionsBus transport CATA: City of Beverly shuttle, Beverly Commuter
Construction
Parking500 spaces ($5.00 fee)
Bicycle facilities"Pedal and Park" bicycle cage
AccessibleYes
Other information
Fare zone4
History
Opened1839
Rebuilt1897
Passengers
20181,382 (weekday average boardings)[1]
Services
Preceding station MBTA Following station
Salem
toward North Station
 Newburyport/​Rockport Line Montserrat
toward Rockport
North Beverly
toward Newburyport
Beverly Depot
NRHP reference No.09000087
Added to NRHPOctober 11, 1979

The Eastern Railroad was extended through Beverly to Ipswich in 1839. The 1839 station was replaced in 1855; that station was in turn replaced by one designed by Bradford Lee Gilbert in 1897. The station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, and is a contributing property of the Beverly Depot-Odell Park Historic District which was added in 2014. A 500-space parking garage at Beverly opened on August 2, 2014.

History
The 1855-built depot around 1890
The station building around 1972

The Eastern Railroad was extended from Salem to Ipswich via Beverly on December 18, 1839.[2] One of the difficulties in constructing the extension was blasting a 700-foot (210 m)-long cut through a ridge near School Street in Beverly.[3] The Beverly station, a low wooden structure, was located at the north end of the Essex Bridge in the town's developed southern tip.[4] The Gloucester Branch opened from Beverly to Manchester on August 3, 1847, and to Gloucester on December 1.[2]

As the population of Gloucester grew, development spread northwards along Cabot Street.[5]: 14  Rantoul Street was laid out in 1851 parallel to the Eastern Railroad.[6]: 17  The 1839-built depot may have been moved north near Rantoul Street in 1852.[note 1]

Its 1855 replacement was a larger wooden building with a train shed at the modern site.[4][7] In 1890, a local citizens group hired Charles Eliot to design improvements to the station grounds. The work was paid for by the private group, as the railroad refused to contribute other than donating some labor and materials.[8] The train shed was torn down for the 1897 construction of the Bradford Lee Gilbert station that still stands. A copy was built ten years later at Andover.[7]

The ticket office closed in 1965 with passenger traffic in free fall as the newly formed MBTA began to subsidize service to Beverly.[7] The station building was sold soon after, and was converted to an antique store by 1968.[9] It partially burned on February 15, 1971, but was renovated and reopened as a restaurant by that December.[7] The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.[10] The modern station facilities, located adjacent to the depot building, consist of two platforms serving the line's two tracks. Short high-level platforms are located on the outbound end of the longer low-level platforms, making the station accessible.

On November 16, 1984, the Beverly Bridge, which carried the line between Salem and Beverly, was destroyed by a fire. For 13 months, Beverly was the connection point between a Salem-Beverly-Ipswich shuttle bus and a Beverly-Rockport shuttle train. Regular service over a new bridge was restored on December 1, 1985.[11]

Garage
The damaged pedestrian bridge in May 2017

In April 2007, the MBTA announced plans to expand the parking lot and replace the mini-high platforms, with a garage to be added later.[12] However, in June 2008, then-governor Deval Patrick announced plans to build the parking garage.[13] In June 2009, the MBTA chose a site one block south of the station.[14] As part of environmental mitigation for increased urban auto traffic enabled by the Big Dig, the state was required to add 1,000 parking spaces to MBTA stations by the end of 2011. Garages at Salem and Beverly were originally to fill this requirement, but when it became clear that neither would be finished in 2011, additional parking at Wonderland, Woodland, Savin Hill, and the Quincy ferry terminal were used to satisfy it.[15]

On September 15, 2012, the MBTA approved $25 million in funding for the new parking garage. The three-story, 500-space garage more than quintupled former parking capacity and includes facilities such as electric car charging stations and roof-mounted solar panels as well as a covered walkway leading over Pleasant Street to the station platforms.[16] The $34.1 million project began construction in February 2013 after several months of delays.[17] The garage was originally planned to open in December 2013, but the opening was delayed several times due to construction difficulties. A retaining wall required additional reinforcement, unusually cold winter temperatures prevented contractors from pouring concrete, and contaminated soil had to be unexpectedly brought to out-of-state disposal locations when in-state facilities closed.[18][17] The city of Beverly contributed $500,000 in city funds to cover additional construction costs from these delays.[17]

The garage ultimately opened on August 2, 2014.[19] After four weeks, only 100 of the 500 spaces were being used on a daily basis.[20] By September 2015, usage averaged 260 cars on weekdays.[21] On April 3, 2017, the pedestrian bridge linking the garage and station was damaged by an oversized load on a flatbed truck.[22]

Design work for improvements to the accessible mini-high platforms began in 2021.[23] Because the existing mini-high platforms are "no longer salvageable", the MBTA plans to use the station as the first test site for a freestanding temporary accessible platform design. If successful, the design would then be used at currently-inaccessible stations. As of June 2023, the test platform are planned to be installed later in 2023.[24] A $300k improvement to a tail track north of the station, intended to allow more frequent Boston–Beverly short turn service, was planned to be completed in late 2022.[25]

References
  1. Central Transportation Planning Staff (2019). "2018 Commuter Rail Counts". Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
  2. Humphrey, Thomas J.; Clark, Norton D. (1985). Boston's Commuter Rail: The First 150 Years. Boston Street Railway Association. p. 75. ISBN 9780685412947.
  3. Bradlee, Francis Boardman Crowninshield (1917). The Eastern Railroad: A Historical Account of Early Railroading in Eastern New England. Essex Institute. p. 21. hdl:2027/hvd.hb42t0.
  4. Heald, Bruce D. (2001). Boston & Maine in the 19th Century. Arcadia Publishing. p. 26. ISBN 9780738505466 – via Google Books.
  5. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Beverly" (PDF). Massachusetts Historical Commission. 1986.
  6. Kelleher, Patricia; Kelleher, Doug (October 2013). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Beverly Depot - Odell Park Historic District" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  7. Roy, John H. Jr. (2007). A Field Guide to Southern New England Railroad Depots and Freight Houses. Branch Line Press. p. 133. ISBN 9780942147087.
  8. Stilgoe, John R. (1983). Metropolitan Corridor. Yale University Press. p. 231. ISBN 0300030428.
  9. O'Connell, Richard W. (August 18, 1968). "Old railroad depots take on new careers". Boston Globe. p. A-1 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "MACRIS inventory record for Bevery Depot". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
  11. Belcher, Jonathan. "Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district" (PDF). Boston Street Railway Association.
  12. "Parking Improvements Slated For Beverly Depot CR Station" (Press release). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. April 27, 2007.
  13. Leighton, Paul (June 13, 2008). "Governor pledges money for parking garage; other sites to be considered". Salem News.
  14. Rosenberg, Steven A. (June 11, 2009). "MBTA plans 500-car garage". Boston Globe – via MBTA.
  15. Fichter, Katherine S. (10 December 2010). "Transit Commitments: December 2010 Status Report" (PDF). MassDOT Office of Transportation Planning.
  16. Leighton, Paul (September 15, 2012). "MBTA approves $25 million for garage". Salem News.
  17. Rosenberg, Steven A. (January 30, 2014). "Beverly T garage to open late, but Salem project on track". Boston Globe.
  18. Leighton, Paul (23 January 2014). "Parking garage behind schedule". Salem News. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  19. Jessen, Klark (1 August 2014). "Governor Patrick Celebrates Beverly Commuter Rail Parking". MassDOT Blog. Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  20. Levines, George (31 August 2014). "Beverly garage slow to catch on". Salem News. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  21. Leighton, Paul (17 September 2015). "Fewer cars than expected using Salem, Beverly MBTA garages". Salem News. Archived from the original on October 7, 2019.
  22. Anderson, Buck (April 3, 2017). "Pleasant Street blocked after oversize load jams MBTA overpass". Salem News. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  23. Brelsford, Laura (May 24, 2021). "System-Wide Accessibility Initiatives—May 2021" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Department of System-Wide Accessibility. p. 7.
  24. "System-Wide Accessibility Initiatives—June 2023" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Department of System-Wide Accessibility. June 5, 2023. p. 8.
  25. Sawers, Alistar (June 23, 2022). "Regional Rail Transformation Update: Traction Power Planning for Regional and Urban Rail Services" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. p. 17.

Notes
  1. An 1986 state report claims that the original station was moved in 1852.[5] The 2013 documentation for the Beverly Depot–Odell Park Historic District claims that the second depot was built in 1852 (a claim not supported by other sources) based on an 1852 map showing a station at Park Street.[6]

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