Wellesley Hills station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. It serves the Framingham/Worcester Line. It is located off Washington Street (MA-16) in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Wellesley Hills has two low platforms serving the line's two tracks; it is not accessible. Designed in 1885 and completed in 1886, the station was the last of nine stations that H.H. Richardson designed for the Boston and Albany Railroad. It replaced a previous station, built in 1834 with the completion of the Boston and Worcester Railroad.
The Boston & Worcester Railroad (B&W), extending outwards from Boston, reached through the West Parish of Needham in mid-1834.[2] North Needham station (also called Needham) was the terminus for a few months while construction continued towards Worcester.[3] In 1839, the line was double tracked through the area.[4]
Around 1844, the railroad proposed to relocate the station building to West Needham, which had more population.[5] A new station building was constructed there instead.[6] Improvements were made to Needham station around 1846.[7] It was later renamed Grantville, then briefly Nehoiden, and finally Wellesley Hills in 1881 when the West Parish was fully separated from Needham as the town of Wellesley.[3]
Wellesley Hills station was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson in 1885 for the Boston & Albany Railroad,[8] and was the last in a series of stations he designed, all featuring rough-cut light colored stone with dark stone trim around windows and doors, slate roofs, and varying amounts of decorative dark stone carvings.[8] As a B&A station, it originally served both commuter trains in the Boston Metropolitan Area and long distance trains toward Albany, New York.
By 1962, the disused station building was converted to a dry cleaning shop, with large plate glass windows added to the façade.[9] The previous station building, constructed in 1855, has been moved across the road and converted to a private residence.[10]
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 Hills station would be $43–45 million, with completion in 2030.[11]
Media related to Wellesley Hills station at Wikimedia Commons