Off the Bricks

Under Boston · STOP 04 · Downtown

The subway builders listed this graveyard as one of seven places the first subway breathed.

In one of Boston's oldest graveyards, beside King's Chapel on Tremont Street, one structure among the slate headstones isn't a grave. It's been breathing for the subway since the 1890s, when the builders listed this yard as one of seven places the tunnel was ventilated. You can see it from the sidewalk, through the fence.

This is stop 4 of Under Boston. Walk it - any two stops are free.

The plate

The Graveyard Exhales

Collected on site

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Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

Tremont St at School St, Boston, MA 02108
Directions

1

The 1899 list of ventilating chambers reads like a walking tour: the Winthrop School yard, the Boylston Street mall, Tremont near West Street, King's Chapel yard, Cornhill, Hanover Street 'near Marston's restaurant,' and Hanover at Washington.

More footnotes on the story card, in the app.

Graveyard, Underground, Hidden in plain sight

In these collections: Under Your Feet

Near Government Center · Near State · Near Downtown Crossing · Near Park Street · Near Bowdoin · Near Haymarket

Sources (10)