 |
|
The Blue Hill Street Railway, No. 65 at Mattapan Square on August 15, 1903. |
Canton sounds different - historically speaking. For one
thing, the sound of factory whistles, or a neighbor’s cow, or even the clinking
sound of the milkman’s bottles. So much of our daily lives have changed over
the course of our town’s history. We cannot quite place a date or time when
most sounds ended, except for one. The sound of the trolley bells that once
clanged through Canton Center were silenced forever during a snowstorm on
February 5th an 6th 1920.
The photographs are an anomaly, when we see the Blue Hill
Street Trolley cars frozen in time, we cannot but help to ask the question – is
this really Canton? It all started in 1899 and the trolley line lived for
twenty-one years. Promoted, constructed and owned by Stone & Webster, the
Blue Hill started during the height of the trolley era in New England. The fifteen-mile
line connected Boston with the suburban towns of Milton, Canton, Stoughton,
Sharon and Norwood. In particular it served the fledgling Blue Hills
Reservation and was a critical link for businesses and factories along the
route.
 |
| Two Unidentified Conductors in the early 1900's |
What made this trolley different than most, and likely led
to it’s downfall, was the fact that this system was built from the suburban
towns into the city as opposed to being built as an extension from existing
city lines. As a result, the system was plagued with equipment, operations, and
financial problems from the start. The Blue Hills Street Railway was never
profitable, and near the end of its life, it was the financial ruin for some
investors.
It was originally to be named the Stoughton, Canton and Boston Street Railway and was the work of
Charles A. Stone and Edwin S. Webster. Stone met his lifelong friend and
partner, Webster, while they were studying electrical engineering at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. These
two men graduated in 1888 and left an indelible mark on electrical engineering,
still visible today.
Electricity was an exciting new field and cities and towns
were building local utilities to meet the large-scale demand of this new
innovation. In 1889, Stone and Webster’s parents provided seed money to form a
consulting firm, the Massachusetts Electrical Engineering Company, whose first
client was a paper mill in Maine in need of a hydroelectric plant for its
power. Public utilities became the niche specialty for the firm, and they began
managing power stations in 1895, financing them in 1902 through an in-house
securities department, and constructing them throughout the firm's history. By
1912, the firm had 600 consultants housed in an 8-story building, yet Stone and
Webster retained adjoining desks and jointly signed their firm’s letters.
In Canton, Stone and Webster had little difficulty finding
investors in the project. Several notable and wealthy citizens signed on. The
initial incorporators were a “who’s who” of Canton’s upper echelon. Names like
Forbes, Huntoon, Chapman, French, Sprague, Everett, Endicott and Rogers brought
the capital needed to build this ambitious system. The route was originally proposed as,
“commencing at the terminus of the Brockton Street Railway Company in the town
of Stoughton… extending through the towns of Sharon, Canton and Milton…to the
line separating Milton from Boston… and the town of Hyde Park. Its length will
be fifteen miles.”
Within a few months nine miles of track were completed
making it possible to get from Stoughton Center along to Cobb Corner – via
Central Street, and then up Washington Street to Ponkapoag where Connor’s
Wayside Furniture is today. Over time rails were laid down Sherman Street to
connect to Canton Junction. Eventually trolleys would run over the Spaulding
Street Bridge and down through Jackson Street to Neponset Street and terminate
at the bridge over the Neponset River into Norwood.
The building of tracks was only part of the equation. If you
drive down Bolivar Street, just after the Town Barn in the distance you can see
what many locals refer to as the Chicken Factory. The moniker was earned in
1935 when Furman - Meyers, Inc. began operation of a poultry dressing and
packing plant. But, before it was destined to handle chickens, this was a
state-of-the-art power station running coal-fired turbines for the Blue Hill
Railway. Another power vestige is the Kessler Machine Works at the Canton Viaduct,
originally a power sub-station. And, the small pizza place across from Canton
Junction was once a waiting room for the trolley system – relocated to Sherman
Street at some point in its history.
 |
| A Frequent Winter Image |
In the earliest of days the line was operated in three parts
due to the fact that it crossed railroad tracks along the way and the railroad
declined to allow crossings. This meant that passengers would board the trolley
at Stoughton Square, and have to get off two more times and board another
waiting trolley just to get to Ponkapoag. Eventually the Massachusetts Railroad
Commission allowed the crossings and by September 1901 most of the system was
built. The complete connection though to Mattapan was competed in the summer of
1903.
The trolley never made money for the investors. In fact, it
hemorrhaged money consistently throughout the operation. In 1903 the company turned
a profit of $84.67 and it likely never was able to pay any dividends to
shareholders. Most of the ridership occurred between Memorial Day and Labor Day
when thousands would flock from Boston to the Blue Hill Reservation. The local
population of Canton at the time was under 5000 citizens, and most did not
travel between the towns served by the trolley system.
Not only did the trolley line lose money, it was also at
times a dangerous ride. John Carroll lives on Pleasant Street and his father;
also John Carroll was a conductor on the Blue Hill Street Railway. “My dad used
to tell stories of how he would fly down the hills in Milton neat the fire
station.” Under their own power, the twenty-eight foot cars would gather quite
a lot of speed unless checked by the breaking systems. Derailments were common
and descendants of Faustina Estey Shaw Jennison still recall her remarking how
she was on that streetcar the day it tipped over by Canton Corner Cemetery. “She
said she thought she was going to wind up early at the cemetery in that accident,”
she would exclaim to her family.
The worst accident, however, occurred at 9:00 pm on October
10, 1904. A Mattapan bound trolley was unable to stop due to wet leaves on the
rails, slamming head on into a car heading towards Ponkapaog Hill. The
motorman, Frank Smith, was killed and found dead, “tightly wedged between the
vestibules of the two cars.” The thirty year-old trainman left five children. James
Duggan, an employee of the railway, had his left leg crushed in the accident
and amputated above the ankle. In the darkness of the wreckage the motorman, Ed
Sheehan, “managed to crawl over” to Dugan. “What is the matter Jim?” Dugan said
his legs were crushed and he was afraid he was bleeding to death. Sheehan tied
the leg with a handkerchief and then fainted beside his comrade whose life he
saved. The seven passengers from Mattapan were badly shaken up, and the lawsuit
that ensued cost the trolley company dearly.
In order to build ridership, the company began raffling off
small pets to encourage children and their parents to ride. Rabbits, white
rats, and “well bred pigeons” were distributed. One resident remarked, “his
home was being turned into a fully equipped menagerie.” The local paper
observed, “there are so many pretty animals not needed in the High Street
neighborhood, it might be suggested that they be rounded up and tagged for delivery
at Blue Hill.” And, while ridership was built up, the finances never worked
out.
 |
| The End of the BHSR - February 6, 1920 |
The winter of 1919-1920 spelled the death knell for the
system. The company was placed into receivership, and the residents of Canton
voted to appropriate $1500 at the special town meeting in the hopes of saving
the company. Mother Nature was not as accommodating. A series of snowstorms
forced the system to its knees. The steam generator at the power station failed
and on February 5th an intense nor’easter dumped 17.3 inches of snow
on Canton. The local paper described the storm. “Two trains stalled from
Thursday night until Saturday morning, one hundred and fifty passengers
dependent on Red Cross and citizens for food and shelter. Bread supply
exhausted within an hour of each baking. Blue Hill St. Ry. out of coal in midst
of storm and may have to wait until line is opened up by thaw.”
The situation was dire; snowdrifts totally covered the
trolley cars. “They are still up there, with the snow drifted up to the car
roof… under the feet of pedestrians and horses the car line path packed into a
solid mass of ice.” The paper went on to consider that “it is presumed that the
line will have to be dug out before service could be given, and the lowest
estimate of the cost is $2000. In the present state of the road’s finances…it
looks as if the management will have to wait for the next thaw to clear the
line.”
The cars stayed right where they froze on that February day.
Several months later they were returned to the carhouse and never ran again. Mothballed
until a massive fire at Cobb Corner in 1921 destroyed the entire rolling stock
and the line became totally abandoned. In time the tracks along Washington
Street were torn up and scrapped. There are a few rails rumored to be in a driveway
on Sherman Street. There are scrapbooks with tickets, and John Carroll still
has his father’s motorman’s badge from a uniform cap.
Pretty much all we have now are the photographs that show
this amazingly wonderful yet failed experiment in regional transportation. As
the snow falls, it is hard to imagine the frozen trolleys on the hill in
Ponkapoag. And, of course we will never hear the sound of the bell ringing
along our main street as we head into history.
