page_title: JFK/UMass station
section_title: Old Colony Railroad and BERy
hierarchical_section_title: JFK/UMass station / History / Old Colony Railroad and BERy
caption_attribution_description: English: Columbia station from the parking area in March 1928
context_page_description: JFK/UMass station is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority intermodal transfer station, located adjacent to the Columbia Point area of Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts. It is served by the rapid transit Red Line; the Greenbush Line, Kingston/Plymouth Line, and Middleborough/Lakeville Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, and three MBTA bus routes. The station is named for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and the University of Massachusetts Boston, both located nearby on Columbia Point.
  JFK/UMass station has four tracks and two island platforms for the Ashmont and Braintree branches of the Red Line, with one track and one side platform for Commuter Rail. A waiting room and fare lobby over the Red Line platforms is connected to Columbia Road, Sydney Street, and the busway on the east side of the station by footbridge. The station is fully accessible. North of the station, the complex Columbia Junction connects the two Red Line branches with the downtown tunnel and Cabot Yard lead tracks.
  The Old Colony Railroad first opened through the area in 1845, with Crescent Avenue station opened in 1868 and rebuilt in 1883.
context_section_description: In 1845, the Old Colony Railroad opened between Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts. A station was opened at Crescent Avenue on November 2, 1868. The depot building was replaced in 1883.
  In the early 1920s, the Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) began planning an extension of the Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel over the Shawmut Branch to Ashmont. The New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, which had succeeded the Old Colony, sold the Shawmut Branch to the BERy, with service ending on September 6, 1926. The mainline stations at Crescent Avenue and Savin Hill were kept open during construction. Crescent Avenue station was closed on July 15, 1927 for final construction and demolished shortly thereafter.
  Crescent Avenue was replaced with Columbia station, which primarily served the residential areas to the west. The station had a single island platform, 300 feet (91 m) long and varying 20–25 feet (6.1–7.6 m) wide, covered with a full-length reinforced concrete canopy. It was designed to be extended southwards if future ridership required six-car trains. The entrance to the station was from the Columbia Road overpass; like other stations on the Dorchester Extension, it was a rectangular red brick structure with red sandstone and Concord granite trim. The roofs of the headhouse, the stairway to the platform, and the canopy were all flashed with copper. Fare control was in the headhouse, with a waiting room on the platform. The station was designed by William D. Austin.
  Construction of the station began in 1925 with the reconstruction of the Columbia Road bridge. The station platform was built in mid-1926. Construction was completed in May 1927; the station was finished during the next several months under the possibility it would open before Savin Hill and Fields Corner. The three stations ultimately opened together on November 5, 1927.
  In November 1928, the BERy began construction of a second station entrance from Sydney Street at Crescent Avenue. A footbridge was built over the southbound track at the south end of the station, with fare control located on a short extension of the platform. The new entrance opened on March 18, 1929; by May, it was used by 42% of passengers at the station. In late 1938, the footbridge was extended east over the other tracks to serve a parking area.
caption: Columbia station in March 1928
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