Under Boston · DETOUR · Downtown / Boston Common
The first American subway car reached Park Street three minutes after it entered the tunnel, and this entrance has been collecting plaques ever since.
On September 1, 1897, the first car on America's first subway pulled into Park Street three minutes after it entered the tunnel at the Public Garden. Since then, three separate institutions have bolted plaques to this entrance to say it matters. Read them on your way to the train.
This is a detour on Under Boston.
The plate
Collected on site
Tremont St at Park St, Boston, MA 02108
Directions
The city's plaque credits the legislatures of 1893 and 1894 and Mayor Nathan Matthews Jr., then names the engineer: Howard Adams Carson, chief engineer of the Boston Transit Commission.
More footnotes on the story card, in the app.
Argue about it
Was this really America's first subway?
Both sides, with their sources, are on the story card in the app.
In these collections: Under Your Feet, Firsts (Contested)
Near Park Street · Near Downtown Crossing · Near Boylston · Near Chinatown · Near Government Center · Near Bowdoin · Near State
Sources (10)
- Tremont Street Subway - National Historic Landmark nomination (Rettig)National Park Service, NPGallery 66000788 · 1976
- Happy birthday to America's oldest subwayStreetsblog Massachusetts · 2026-09-01
- America's First Subway (Park Street plaque)Read the Plaque · n.d.
- Tremont Street Subway (National Historic Landmark plaque, HMdb 177230)Historical Marker Database · photos 2021-06-19
- Tremont Street subwayWikipedia (citing Boston Daily Globe Sept 1 1897 'First Car off the Earth'; NHL Jan 29 1964) · accessed 2026-10-10
- Power System of Boston's Rapid Transit, 1889 (HMdb 154429)Historical Marker Database / IEEE · photo 2011-11-19
- Park Street Subway StationSAH Archipedia (Buildings of Massachusetts) · n.d.
- Vent Building #3, Central Artery/Tunnel ProjectLeers Weinzapfel Associates · 2004 (unbuilt scheme)
- Fourth Annual Report of the Boston Transit Commission (year ending Aug 15 1898)Boston Transit Commission · 1898
- The 1870 Beach Pneumatic Transit Tunnel Showing the Conjunction of Iron and Brick Work, 1899The Henry Ford (museum collections) · read 2026-10-11