Stuart+Spina2

Dudley Square has long been considered to be the “Heart of Roxbury”. Located on the northern edge of the predominantly black and working class neighborhood, the Dudley Square area is roughly bounded by Shawmut Avenue to the west; Harrison Avenue to the east; Melnea Cass Boulevard to the north; and Dudley Street to the south. Washington Street cuts directly through its middle and links the square to Downtown Boston and the neighborhoods of southern Boston (Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, Hyde Park, and West Roxbury). Several side streets also crisscross the neighborhood east-to-west. The area takes its name from the prestigious Dudley Family, who lived nearby in the 1600s and 1700s. Several members of the family are interred at the local Eustis Street Burying Ground, which was established in 1631. Having been a major commercial hub for decades, many businesses still populate the area. They range from Tropical Food’s, a local supermarket with a strong Caribbean and Latin American flavor, to Mr. G’s Plaza, a sort of modern day bazaar featuring a motley collection of “mini-stores” along the central hall through the building. Among them are a hair salon; bookstore; on-site wood furniture factory; and soul food kitchen. There are also several eateries serving everything from //roti// to subs and pizza to Chinese food and southern cuisine. With the exception of a Walgreens and Payless, the businesses in the area are all locally owned and managed. The residential part of the neighborhood, however, is small and barely noticeable. No one actually lives in Dudley, it seems, save for two or three little clusters of apartments. Among all the shopkeepers, their patrons, and the passers through; a genuine Dudley resident is hard to find. Many of Dudley’s transient visitors live in the more residential areas of Orchard Park and Madison Park, to the east and west of Dudley proper, respectively, and in other parts of Roxbury. Besides the lack of homes and apartments, the Dudley area also has little (if any) green spaces to speak of. A handful of trees dot the streetscape along Washington Street, but they number slightly less than twenty. The only “open” spaces not occupied by buildings are vacant and gravelly lots devoid of vegetation that pockmark the landscape. They range in area from about the size of a small building foundation to desolate Renfrew Street, which has had every one of its buildings leveled long ago and is now a literal road through nowhere. Even its street signs and what appears to have been a mighty oak (only its stump remains today) were cleared away in the demolition. But it was one of the area’s most interesting buildings that had been spared the wrecking ball that really caught my interest. I realized it could tell a better story about Dudley Square and Roxbury as a whole than I could. A major transportation hub for nearly 110 years, Dudley Station stands as a living testament of transit from a bygone area. It has also witnessed firsthand an ever changing Dudley Square and Roxbury. For 86 years, the Main Line Elevated (a predecessor to today’s Orange Line) stopped here. An extensive station complex, completed in 1901 and designed by one of the best architects of the era, combined efficiency with elegance. Two trolley ramps flanked either side of the elevated train station, allowing passengers to alight from their streetcar and walk across the platform for quick train service into downtown. Had they missed their train, people waiting could visit the mahogany newsstand and buy a newspaper, candy, or even cigars. [1] The canopy of the station, like the others along the line, was clad in copper. Later, it would fade into a wizened green patina. Changing times and demographics saw the station’s early users shift from post-Victorian commuters to an increasingly more working class group of riders. By World War II, defense workers using the station were joined by most everyone else. Wartime rationing saw increased transit use, with Dudley Station being the poster child of the system. In 1943, the station averaged 100,000+ commuters entering and exiting on a typical workday. Compare that to today’s busy stations like South Station and Downtown Crossing, which average about 20,000 entrances per weekday. During the post-war years Dudley Station would witness a more dramatic shift in its users, a reflection of a changing Roxbury. Redlining and blockbusting aided in the “white flight” from Roxbury [2] in the 1950s and 1960s. This opened up Dudley Square and the rest of Roxbury to many of Boston’s blacks, who had before lived mainly in the South End just to the north. Through what one writer called “state-sponsored ghettofication”, Dudley Square and the rest of Roxbury soon came to be known for its violent crime and vice by the 1970s and 1980s. By then, Dudley Station had lost most of its luster. With broken windows, chipped paint, poor lighting, and one of its trolley ramps demolished (the other having been converted for use by buses), it seemed that the station and the neighborhood around it was being left to fester and decay. City Hall and private development overlooked the area and wrote it off as a just another ghetto, not worthy of their social or monetary investment. In 1987, in conjunction with the opening of the realigned Orange Line, the elevated was demolished with most of Dudley Station coming down with it. The train had been moved several long blocks to the west, so no longer would its wheels screech and whine in and out of the station. Many of the bus routes that terminated here were extended to connect to the new train line, and one (Route 22) was even relocated to another part of Roxbury. Shortly thereafter, the station was remodeled into the bus terminal that it is today. The original canopy and an old switch tower, Tower F, were incorporated into the new design. The Dudley Station of today seems to be a shadow of its former self. More a utilitarian hub than an architectural gem, the current station is an entirely surface affair. Twenty bus berths are spread out in a “T” shaped pattern and serve the Silver line and sixteen other bus routes. While not quite the hectic madhouse it used to be, the station still sees about 30,000 riders on a given weekday – the busiest bus station not only on the T, but in the entire state. Rush hour has become a much more chaotic scene; the new facility does not lend itself to the efficient movement of people and vehicles. Instead of the smooth train-to-trolley and trolley-to-train movements of the passengers of yesteryear, hundreds of people now dart back and forth through the station. Bus operators are advised to move through that station slowly and cautiously, lest they strike someone running to make a connection. Many riders come into the station on routes from other parts of Roxbury, or Dorchester, Mattapan, and Jamaica Plain. A large number of them change to the Silver Line – the fifteen-years-too-late bus replacement for the el – to continue their trips downtown. In a sharp blow to efficiency, the drop-off area for these incoming buses is located literally on the opposite side of the station from the Silver Line berth. Mini-marathons from the drop-off area to the Silver Line are a frequent occurrence when the Silver Line bus is preparing to leave. Unlike some of the first users of Dudley Station, many of today’s commuters are “captive riders”; they have no choice but to use public transit. Many of the areas that they serve – not just Dudley Square or Roxbury – have very low rates of auto use or ownership. The Silver Line, a bus rather than a train, now ferries riders into downtown in about twice the time the elevated took. The station, like the neighborhood it serves, is in need of real reinvestment and revitalization. Tower F, now a silent sentinel that local pigeons roost in, waits to see what will happen next to its little corner of Roxbury.

[1] Smoking cars were common place on Boston’s rapid transit system until 1918, when they were phased out. Today, smoking is prohibited on all MBTA vehicles and property. [2] As well as neighboring Dorchester and Mattapan.