On April 28, 2001 Ask the Globe, Boston. Q. How long has Beacon Street been divided by street car tracks? A. According to Steve Jerome, curator of the Brookline Historical Society, Beacon Street was originally laid out in the 1850s as a country road for horse-drawn sleds and carriages. However, in the 1880s, Coolidge Corner businessman HENRY WHITNEY, who was also president of Boston's West End Railway Co. envisioned a wider Beacon Street divided by a street car line to attract shoppers. Accordingly, WHITNEY hired the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to design a broader and beautified Beacon Street. On Jan. 1, 1889, the first electric trolley made its trip.
Dear WRG, Living about 1 mile from there, I can attest to the widening of Beacon Street to 2 lanes either direction and middle-of-the-road train rails. In many parts, the space between the rails and the left lane of traffic is set up for diagonal parking. Hence, Whitney's idea to enhance shopping came to be, with Coolidge Corner one of the primary shopping areas. It is interesting to hear that Whitney hired Olmstead as the designer. Olmstead designed many park areas in the Boston area and they are all beautiful areas. If any "beautification" was ever done in the center of Beacon street, it has long since dissappeared!! Perhaps the flowers found themselves competing with the rise of the automobile for space. If so, the automobile won! Lyn Legere Richard Saunders wrote: > On April 28, 2001 Ask the Globe, Boston. > Q. How long has Beacon Street been divided by street car tracks? > A. According to Steve Jerome, curator of the Brookline Historical Society, > Beacon Street was originally > laid out in the 1850s as a country road for horse-drawn sleds and carriages. > However, in the 1880s, > Coolidge Corner businessman HENRY WHITNEY, who was also president of > Boston's West End Railway Co. envisioned a wider Beacon Street divided by a > street car line to attract shoppers. Accordingly, WHITNEY > hired the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to design a > broader and beautified Beacon Street. On Jan. 1, 1889, the first electric > trolley made its trip.