Beverly Farms station

Beverly Farms station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in the Beverly Farms village of Beverly, Massachusetts. Located at the intersection of Oak Street and West Street, it serves the Newburyport/Rockport Line. The 1898-built station building is still present but no longer used for railroad purposes. The station has two side platforms serving the line's two tracks, each with a mini-high section to make the station accessible.

Beverly Farms
Beverly Farms station in 2013
General information
Location1 Oak Street
Beverly, Massachusetts
Coordinates42.56175°N 70.81130°W / 42.56175; -70.81130
Line(s)Gloucester Branch
Platforms2 side platforms
Tracks2
Construction
Parking25 spaces
Bicycle facilities7 spaces
AccessibleYes
Other information
Fare zone5
History
Opened1847
Rebuiltc. 1879, 1898
Passengers
2013107 (weekday average boardings)[1]
Services
Preceding station MBTA Following station
Montserrat
toward North Station
 Newburyport/​Rockport Line Manchester
toward Rockport

History
The station building in 2013

The Eastern Railroad opened its Gloucester Branch to Manchester on August 3, 1847, and to Gloucester on December 1.[2][3] An intermediate station was located at West Beach (West Street at Hale Street).[2] It was a flag stop established by Eastern Railroad president David A. Neal, an early resident of the village of Beverly Farms.[4][5]

Around 1879, West Beach station was replaced with Beverly Farms station, located 0.4 miles (0.64 km) to the west adjacent to the village center.[6][7] In 1898, the Boston and Maine Railroad replaced it with a larger hip-roofed depot.[4] The ticket office in the station building closed on February 22, 1952.[8] The freight house was demolished the year after. The station building was closed in 1958 and renovated for commercial use.[4] A group of friends paid $8,000 for the building and spent $22,000 to convert it for use as a country store. A travel agency began using the space in 1962.[9] It was used as a country store by 1977.[10]

References
  1. Central Transportation Planning Staff (2019). "2018 Commuter Rail Counts". Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
  2. Bradlee, Francis Boardman Crowninshield (1917). The Eastern Railroad: A Historical Account of Early Railroading in Eastern New England. Essex Institute. p. 35. hdl:2027/hvd.hb42t0.
  3. Humphrey, Thomas J.; Clark, Norton D. (1985). Boston's Commuter Rail: The First 150 Years. Boston Street Railway Association. pp. 75–80. ISBN 9780685412947.
  4. Roy, John H. Jr. (2007). A Field Guide to Southern New England Railroad Depots and Freight Houses. Branch Line Press. pp. 135–136. ISBN 9780942147087.
  5. Who's who Along the North Shore of Massachusetts Bay. Salem Press Company. 1910. p. 320 – via Google Books.
  6. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Beverly" (PDF). Massachusetts Historical Commission. 1986. p. 18.
  7. "Plate K: Beverly Farms" (Map). Atlas of Beverly. 1:3,000. G.M. Hopkins & Co. 1880. pp. 50–51.
  8. "B. and M. to Close 4 Ticket Offices". Boston Globe. February 7, 1952. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Few Trains, But Stations Still Busy". Boston Globe. February 16, 1962. p. 24 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Henry, Alan P. (August 10, 1977). "There's no depot like an old depot". Boston Globe. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.

Media related to Beverly Farms station at Wikimedia Commons


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