Jackson Square station

The new bridge over Centre Street in 1896

The Boston and Providence Railroad opened through Roxbury in June 1834. Local stations were gradually added; trains began serving Heath Street around the 1850s.[3]^: 154[4] In 1867, the Massachusetts legislature ordered the railroad to build a new station building at New Heath Street, slightly to the north.[5] The new station was completed in 1872.[6][7] It was a one-story wood building located on the west side of the tracks north of Heath Street (rather than at New Heath Street).[8][9]

Starting in 1891, the Old Colony Railroad (acquired in 1893 by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad) raised the section of its main line through Jamaica Plain (extending from Massachusetts Avenue to Forest Hills) onto a 4-track stone embankment to eliminate dangerous grade crossings. The project involved the replacement of the five NYNH&H stations in Roxbury and Jamaica Plain; the new elevated stations opened on June 1, 1897.[10][11]

On November 22, 1909, the Washington Street Elevated was extended south from Dudley Square (now Nubian Square) to Forest Hills.[1] Although the five NYNH&H stations in Roxbury and Jamaica Plain continued to operate, they were ultimately unable to compete with the Elevated.[11] Heath Street station closed in the early 1930s.

A train at Jackson Square in 2016

In the 1960s, plans took hold to extend I-95 into downtown Boston along the NYNH&H's right-of-way and to replace the Washington Street Elevated (after 1967 known as the Orange Line) with a rapid transit line running in the new highway's median. Although the project was halted by highway revolts in 1969 and the February 11, 1970 announcement by Governor Francis W. Sargent of a moratorium on new highway construction within the Route 128 corridor, and eventually cancelled by Governor Sargent in 1972, the right-of-way had already been cleared. This empty strip of land (known as the Southwest Corridor) was eventually developed into the Southwest Corridor Park, and the Orange Line was moved to a new alignment along the Corridor in 1987 despite the cancellation of the project originally calling for its relocation. This included a new rapid transit station, Jackson Square, at Centre Streetsouth of the former NYNH&H station. The Washington Street Elevated was permanently closed on April 30, 1987, and the new southern half of the Orange Line, including Stony Brook, opened on May 4.[10][1]

In 2004, the MBTA added murals as well as better lighting and new sidewalks after a spree of violent crimes near the station. The improvements at the station were designed to reduce criminal activity as well as provide a more welcoming atmosphere for transit riders.[12][13] Additional murals were added in December 2007.[14] The entire Orange Line, including Jackson Square station, was closed from August 19 to September 18, 2022, during maintenance work.[15]

The MBTA plans to add a second platform elevator, rebuild the existing elevator, and make other repairs to the station. A $4.7 million design contract for Jackson Square and Massachusetts Avenue was awarded in April 2020.[16][17] Design work reached 30% completion in 2021 and 75% completion in 2022.[18][16][19] The MBTA also plans to convert the currently-southbound-only busway to bidrectional bus traffic in 2024 as part of construction of bus lanes on Columbus Avenue.[20]