Building
History

Special thanks to Kim Tenney, Fine Arts Reference Librarian of the Boston Public Library for her research and for supplying the following history of the building at 540A Harrison Ave.

According to Susan and Michael Southworth in the AIA GUIDE TO BOSTON, (Globe Pequot Press, 3rd edition, 2008 / Fine Arts call # Desk Ref NA735.B7 S69 2008), the West End Street Railway Central Power Station at 540A Harrison Avenue was designed by William G. Preston, 1889 - 1892.  On page 15 is a small, contemporary black & white photograph of the exterior and a description.  The description is as follows:

 "This complex of brick gable-roofed sheds is handsomely detailed with arches and corbels.  In 1889 the West End Street Railway had 9,000 horses and more than 1,500 wagons in a transportation system covering Boston and adjacent towns.  Henry Whitney had already decided to experiment with electric streetcars.  Closed streetcars were a great improvement, especially in cold weather.  They replaced the horsecar lines when he built the largest electrical traction system in the world to supply the power.  After 1899 the station supplied power to the Boston Elevated Railway.  When it was replaced by a power station on East First Street in South Boston, it served as a maintenance facility." Your local library may have the AIA GUIDE TO BOSTON (2008).

Archival Photo

There is a detailed description of the building in AMERICAN ARCHITECT AND BUILDING NEWS, Volume 30, December 6, 1890 on page 154.  The description is quite detailed - excerpts follow:

"A power-house and boiler-house for the West End Street Railway Company are now in the course of construction on the Hinkley Locomotive-works property (purchased for the purpose.)  The power-house is 300 feet long by 173 1/2 feet wide, the side walls being 34 feet in height, while the central front gable will be 65 feet from the ground.  The walls are strengthened by buttresses opposite ends of roof trusses (note: text appears exactly as I transcribed it).  The boiler-house is 161 feet long by 84 feet 10 inches wide, with side walls 31 feet in height...... The foundations of the buildings and machinery are of block granite resting on about 10,000 piles.  The foundation of chimney rests on 812 piles.  As the land is 'made land' and the buildings and machinery are of the heaviest character very massive foundations were required.  The materials of the walls of the buildings are dark, hard-burned, water-struck brick, with sills, lintels, copings, bed-mouldings of arches, weatherings of buttresses, etc., of Longmeadow brownstone, underpinning of Cape Ann granite, rock face.  The inside of the walls of the power-house, pump and toilet-rooms are to have a base of English glazed brick of dark red color, 2 feet in height, above them a dado of cream glazed brick.  The roofs are of iron and will be slated; the underside plastered on wire lathing.  The valley platforms between the central and side gables of power-house are of boiler iron.  The roof trusses, rafters and purlins are of iron.  Trusses 40 feet on centres in power-house and 25 feet on centres in boiler-house...."

Charles S. Damrell's A HALF CENTURY OF BOSTON'S BUILDING (Boston, Louis P. Hager, 1895 / Fine Arts Desk Reference F73.7 D16 1975x) includes a description of the building on page 92:

"The large power house of the West End Street Railway Company, on Albany Street and Harrison Avenue, is the largest electric generating plant in the world, and is a magnificent piece of workmanship, from the design of the plans to the installing of the powerful machinery.  It was built by Whidden & Co., masons, and James Nickerson, carpenter, and cost the company $500,000 - a large part of which is represented in the equipment.  The architecture of the building is plain and simple, but on a very grand scale, the plans being drawn by W. G. Preston.  The interior is the attractive part of the building, and the features here are the powerful engines, generators, boilers, and other electrical apparatus, which is on a scale that has not been attempted heretofore." 

There are two photographs entitled "Interior View of Power-House of West End Street Railway" on pages 25 - 26 of BOSTON OF TODAY: A GLANCE AT ITS HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS (Boston, Post Publishing Co., 1892 / Fine Arts call # Boston Reserve Closet F73.5 H55).  The photographs show machinery and equipment.  This publication is fragile and may not be photocopied. 

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