page_title: Brookline Village station
section_title: Streetcar transfer station
hierarchical_section_title: Brookline Village station / History / Streetcar transfer station
caption_attribution_description: English: A postcard of the new transfer station at Brookline Village, postmarked 1913
context_page_description: Brookline Village is a light rail stop on the MBTA Green Line D branch, located in the Brookline Village neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts, United States. It was originally a commuter rail station on the Boston and Albany Railroad's Highland branch; it closed with the rest of the line in 1958 and reopened on July 4, 1959 as a light rail station. With 3,230 daily boardings, it is the third-busiest surface station on the D branch and the sixth-busiest surface station overall.
  Brookline Village station has raised platforms to allow wheelchair passengers to board low-floor trams, making it fully handicapped-accessible.
context_section_description: The first horsecar line to reach Brookline Village was a branch of the Tremont Street line, which opened on October 26, 1859 from Roxbury Crossing to slightly northwest of Brookline Village along Washington Street. A branch from Brookline Village to Cypress Street on Pill Hill opened around 1888. Both lines were electrified on August 4, 1894. The Washington Street branch was extended to Washington Square on September 1; this allowed through service from Reservoir, and – after August 1896 – Boston College. Two additional lines were added in July 1900: a branch on Harvard Street to Coolidge Corner (with through service to Oak Square, and the Ipswich Street line on Brookline Avenue. The Ipswich Street line was extended to Chestnut Hill in late 1900, and the Boston and Worcester Street Railway (B&W) began running on the Chestnut Hill tracks in May 1903.
  Even before the completion of the lines in 1900, the Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) noted the need for improved transfer facilities in Brookline Village. Residents and local politicians petitioned for improved facilities in 1904 and 1908. A transfer station in the middle of the square was finally built in 1912 during road widening. It had two side platforms, with shelters similar to those at Coolidge Corner. By 1926, the transfer station served five main streetcar routes: Chestnut Hill–Park Street via Huntington Avenue, Cypress Street–Massachusetts via Ipswich Street, Lake Street–Brookline Village via Washington Street, Allston–Dudley, and the B&W. 
  The Washington Street line was converted to bus in 1926. As construction of the Worcester Turnpike progressed eastward, the B&W was replaced by buses in June 1932, followed by the Chestnut Hill branch that November. The Ipswich Street line was cut back and mostly replaced by buses to Kenmore in mid-1933. Cypress Street service (operated via Huntington after 1932) was cut back to Brookline Village on June 10, 1934. The Allston–Dudley route was replaced by buses on September 10, 1938, with the Huntington Avenue cars cut back to Brigham Circle short turns. The city immediately demolished the transfer station to speed traffic flow through the square.
caption: The transfer station on a 1913 postcard
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