The Origins and Future of South Station

South Station is such an important aspect of my parcel because once construction of the station began in 1896, Federal St, at least my parcel of Federal St, was destroyed and replaced by the web of train tracks leaving from South Station. South Station is an immensely important building to the city of Boston, as well as to the distribution of goods in New England. The station officially opened January 1st, 1899 when the first train departed destined for Newport. The building was inspired from the Neoclassical Revival style favored by the City Beautiful movement of the 1890’s. The station was a technological marvel at the time. One newspaper article that I found from 1898 noted that “men, horses, carts, derricks, steam machinery, elevators, steam engines and almost every device known to contractors for time and labor saving are to be seen on every hand.” (proquest). The five-story pink granite headhouse was accompanied by a metal shed that housed 28 railroad tracks. Everything about the station was state of the art. People were amazed by the 1,200 lights illuminating the halls of the station. South Station was the country’s busiest terminal. “it served 38 million passengers in 1913,” compared to Grand Central terminal which only saw 22 million. (Houton).