Wellesley Farms station

Wellesley Farms
Wellesley Farms
	Wellesley Farms station in 2023
General information
Location	90 Croton Street; Wellesley, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°19′23.5″N 71°16′19″W / 42.323194°N 71.27194°W
Owned by	Town of Wellesley
Line(s)	Worcester Line
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Construction
Parking	199 spaces ($4.50 daily)
Bicycle facilities	16 spaces
Other information
Fare zone	3
History
Opened	1830s
Rebuilt	1890
Previous names	Rice's Crossing
Passengers
2018	298 (weekday average boardings)
Services
Former services
	Wellesley Farms Railroad Station
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	Croton Street Extension, Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA
Area	2.1 acres (0.85 ha)
Built	1890
Architect	H.H. Richardson
Architectural style	Romanesque, Richardsonian Romanesque
NRHP reference No.	86000259
Added to NRHP	February 14, 1986

Wellesley Farms station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Wellesley, Massachusetts. It serves the Framingham/Worcester Line. It is located in the Wellesley Farms area. The current station building, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson in 1886 and constructed in 1890, has been listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as Wellesley Farms Railroad Station since 1986.^[2]

History

Wellesley Farms station in 1915

The Boston & Worcester Railroad (B&W), extending outwards from Boston, reached through the West Parish of Needham in mid-1834.^[3] Rice's Crossing station opened as a flag stop north of Glen Road soon afterward.^[4] In 1839, the line was double tracked through the area.^[5]

Wellesley Farms station, which was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson prior to his death in 1886, opened south of Glen Road to replace Rice's Crossing in 1890.^[4] Like many B&A stations, it had attractive landscaping; Charles Mulford Robinson called it "unique, and to be remembered" in 1904.^[6]

The station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.^[2] In July 2004, the MBTA closed a paved crossing between the crossings in response to concerns about safety. Similar crossings exist at some other MBTA stations, but the agency's policy is to eliminate grade crossings whenever possible when building or renovating stations.^[7]

In June 2021, the MBTA issued a $28 million design contract for a project to add a third track from Weston to Framingham, including reconstruction of the three Wellesley stations and West Natick station. The project was expected to cost around $400 million, of which rebuilding Wellesley Farms station would be $34 million, with completion in 2030.^[8]