The Removal of the “El”

It was back in 1975, 36 years ago this summer, that the sunlight returned to Main Street. As my nephew John puts it, “It’s like someone took the hairpiece off the old man!”

That year saw the demise of the elevated structure from Sullivan Square to North Station, and beyond. Week by week we watched in awe as the “el” come down, section by section, column by column, piece by piece.

No longer could we hear the screeching blare of the trains hitting the rails at the slightest turn of the engineer’s wheel. But it was replaced by the ear-shattering sound of jack hammers and gigantic drills piercing through the streets, our homes and, it seemed, our bodies.

Each day crowds of residents would start to gather along the route as if in disbelief that this monstrosity was actually being removed. Destruction crews attend to their job, opening one cavernous gap after another. You could feel the fresh air swirl around them and watch the darkness lift and shadows disappear from the landscape below.

Many onlookers took pictures. All were smiling as they shared conversations with their neighbors about their memories of life under the “el,” like the “rubber poles” that many an inebriated driver sought, or found on his way home from one of the many watering holes that occupied space along the main drag.

Built in 1901 to bring a new era of rapid transportation into the new century, the elevated railway actually wrought a continuous decay to the buildings lining the route through Charlestown. This was happening to buildings that, going back to the 1800, were well maintained and proudly owned structures. Before the "el," they were primarily of storefronts on the street with living spaces above on three to four levels.

After the "el," they were opening anew to the sunlight only to show the decline that appeared blighted and impoverished. The removal of the upright rail supports not only widened the street but gave a better view to this deterioration.

Urban renewal had hit Charlestown in the 1960s with mixed reactions, but now it would prove to be beneficial as the town began to rebuild. At the same time that this transition took place, the first influx of new residents seeking bargains in the real estate market began. As now, it was true then, the town was located close to downtown and convenient to many major highways. If the price was right, and it was, why not? (But that’s a story for another time.)

This was 1975. Charlestown was celebrating the bicentennial of the Battle of Bunker Hill and gearing up to the national remembrance of the 200th anniversary of the founding of our country. It was a celebratory and uplifting time. The removal of the “el” was only a bonus.

Everyone you talk with about that time would tell you that they saw the last train travel along Main Street and disappear into the Sullivan Square terminal or watched the removal of the Thompson Square “T” Station to a vacant lot behind the liquor store waiting to be transformed into a restaurant (which never happened due to a fire that destroyed the building, copper and all).

They would remember the last parade on Bunker Hill Day that marched under the railway that year, or not being able to fall asleep at night without the sounds of the trains rolling over the tracks. But all agreed that it was the most important transformation the community saw, next to its rebuilding after the British burnt the entire town to the ground in 1775.