Charles/MGH station is a rapid transit station on the MBTA Red Line, elevated above Charles Circle on the east end of the Longfellow Bridge in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The station is named for Charles Circle and the adjacent Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) campus. It has two side platforms, with a glass-walled headhouse structure inside Charles Circle. Charles/MGH station is fully accessible.
The Cambridge subway opened in 1912; planning for an infill station at Charles Street began in 1924. After several false starts, construction of Charles station began in 1931. The Art Deco station, with cast stone headhouse and copper-sheathed platforms, opened on February 27, 1932. A pedestrian tunnel that provided station access was replaced by footbridges in 1961. The station was renamed Charles/MGH in 1973. From 2003 to 2007, the station was renovated for accessibility; a new glass entrance replaced the original structure. The proposed Red–Blue connector would extend the Blue Line to Charles/MGH, with a new underground platform level.
Station design
Charles/MGH station is located at Charles Circle at the west end of the West End and Beacon Hill neighborhoods. The station is on a short elevated segment that connects tracks in the median of the Longfellow Bridge to the west with an incline into the Beacon Hill Tunnel to the east. The two elevated side platforms, above ground level, run west from Charles Circle onto the east end of the Longfellow Bridge.
At their east ends, the platforms widen into passageways that lead to elevators, escalators, and stairs to the surface-level fare lobby in the center of Charles Circle. The station entrance is on the west side of the fare lobby under the tracks, with crosswalks connecting to the sidewalks on both sides of Cambridge Street. The fare lobby and passageways are wrapped in a teardrop-shaped curved glass facade, while most of the platforms have a patinaed copper windscreen.
History
Opening
The Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) opened its Cambridge Subway from Park Street Under to Harvard on March 23, 1912. The line ran in the median of the Longfellow Bridge to cross the Charles River. Like the Lechmere extension opened the same year and the Boylston Street subway opened in 1914, the Cambridge Subway originally had no station serving the area just outside downtown Boston, to speed travel time from farther stations. Although Bowdoin opened on an extension of the East Boston Tunnel in 1916, much of the West End and Beacon Hill neighborhoods were poorly served by the subway system.
On June 2, 1924, the Massachusetts General Court passed legislation authorizing the state Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to construct an infill station at Charles Street. Following a 1924 study by the Boston Transit Department (BTD), the DPU delegated the project to the BTD on January 12, 1925. That study also considered an extension of the East Boston Tunnel to Charles Street to provide a transfer between the lines. The project stalled in 1926 as the $600,000 appropriated by the legislature was only sufficient for four-car platforms, while the BERy insisted on six-car platforms at a cost of $850,000 to accommodate its future plans.
Despite pressure from the Massachusetts General Hospital, located adjacent to the proposed station site, the legislature again refused additional funding in 1927. Uncertainty over whether the station would be built delayed plans to construct a traffic circle at the intersection.
No further progress was made until 1930, when the BERy and BTD reached an agreement for a $350,000 station with four-car platforms. The cost reduction was achieved by having the platforms on the straight track west of Charles Street, rather than the curve to the east. Plans for the station were completed in July 1930. Bidding on the station opened in early July 1931, and a construction contract was awarded later that month. Charles Circle was completed in November 1931, by which time the steel structure of the station was in place in the center of the traffic circle. Charles station opened on February 27, 1932. The station was served by Bowdoin Square–Park Square and Charles station–Massachusetts station bus routes, though a Kendall Square–Bowdoin Square route was closed with the station's opening.