Rugby, Boston

Rugby was a 1894 residential development of 60 acres straddling the border between what was then the western section of the Dorchester district of Boston and the eastern part of the town of Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Described by the developer Wood, Harmon & Co. as a "new Dorchester suburb, commands fine views of Blue Hills", the area was purchased from the estate of Charles L. Flint and others.[1] The area is now part of the Boston neighborhoods of Mattapan and Hyde Park.

1894 plan for Rugby

Streets

A unique alliterative feature of Rugby was that each street was designated a road and began with the letter "R".[2] Many of these streets have since been renamed:

  • Radcliff Road
  • Ralston Road
  • Randolph Road (Greenfield Road)
  • Ransom Road (Randley Road)
  • Regent Road (Blake Street/Rugby Road)
  • Richmond Road (Richmere Road)
  • Ridge Road (Ridlon Road)
  • Roanoke Road (Mariposa Street)
  • Rock Road
  • Rockingham Road
  • Roland Road (Harmon Street)
  • Rosebery Road (Roseberry Road)
  • Ruskin Road (Ruskindale Road)
  • Rutledge Road (Taunton Avenue)
  • Ruxton Road

Rugby station
Rugby station in June 1906

A major selling point of the development was its close proximity to the New York and New England Railroad with access to downtown Boston.[3] The developers constructed a station for the development and promised to pay the 5¢ fare to Boston for the head of the household until 1900.[1] A temporary platform was used in April 1894 during sales of lots in the development.[4][5] Rugby station was built later in 1894.[6] It had a small wooden station building on the north station of the tracks just east of Randolph Road (now Greenfield Road), with two side platforms.[7][8]

The station building was closed after a mere three months, but trains continued to stop.[9][10] The disused building was damaged several times by fires – both accidental and intentional – and was destroyed on April 24, 1908, by a fire caused by sparks from a passing locomotive.[11][12][13] With the station building gone, only the platforms remained.[14] Rugby was served by only a single train in one direction by 1915, and abandoned entirely by 1924.[15][16] A pedestrian underpass was built between Greenfield Road and Rector Road (both formerly Randolph Road) at the former station site in 1932.[17][18] Passenger service on the line ran until 1944 and resumed in 1979; it is now the Fairmount Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system.[19]

See also

References
  1. "Grand Opening of Rugby [Advertisement]". Boston Globe. April 17, 1894. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Rugby Roads Are All Alliterative [Advertisement]". Boston Globe. April 12, 1894. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Rugby, Near Boston". Boston Globe. April 12, 1894. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Go To Rugby [Advertisement]". Boston Globe. April 18, 1894. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Great Day For Corner Lots". Boston Globe. April 20, 1894. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Bitter-Sweet". Boston Globe. May 16, 1894. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Bromley, George Washington; Bromley, Walter Scott (1894). "Part of Ward 24, City of Boston" (Map). Atlas of the city of Boston : Dorchester, Mass. 1:2,400. Vol. 5. Plate 38.
  8. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts (Map). 1:1,200. Sanborn Map Company. 1908. p. 109.
  9. "Two Abandoned Stations". The Boston Sunday Globe Magazine. June 17, 1906. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Building Lots Finding Buyers". Boston Globe. January 2, 1895. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Small Fires In Boston and Its Vicinity". Boston Evening Transcript. July 24, 1903. p. 12 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Excitement In South Station". Boston Evening Transcript. May 23, 1904. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Rugby Station Destroyed". Boston Evening Transcript. April 24, 1908. p. 12 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. Bromley, George Washington; Bromley, Walter Scott (1910). "Part of Ward 24, City of Boston" (Map). Atlas of the city of Boston: Dorchester. 1:2,400. Plate 39.
  15. Summer Schedule: Lines East of New London and Willimantic. New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. August 9, 1915. p. 27.
  16. Time Tables East of New London and Willimantic. New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. September 28, 1924. p. 27 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  17. "Dorchester District". The Boston Globe. February 20, 1932. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. "Part of Ward 18, City of Boston" (Map). Atlas of the city of Boston : Dorchester : from actual surveys and official plans. 1:2,400. G.W. Bromley and Co. 1933. Plate 39.
  19. Karr, Ronald Dale (2017). The Rail Lines of Southern New England (2 ed.). Branch Line Press. pp. 360–364. ISBN 9780942147124.

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