Ipswich Street line

Ipswich Street line
Two streetcars passing on a wide street
The Audubon Road shuttle – the last portion of the line to operate – on Boylston Street around 1934
Overview
StatusAbandoned – MBTA bus routes 55, 60, and 65 now operate
Service
Operator(s)Boston Elevated Railway
Depot(s)Cypress Street Carhouse
History
OpenedJuly 1900
ClosedJuly 14, 1934
Technical
Track gauge1,435 mm (4 ft 8+12 in) standard gauge

The Ipswich Street line was a streetcar line in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts. The line ran on Boylston Street and Ipswich Street in the Fenway–Kenmore neighborhood, and on Brookline Avenue through what is now the Longwood Medical Area to Brookline Village.

First proposed in the mid-1890s to aid development of the newly created Fenway–Kenmore area, the line opened in July 1900. Service initially ran between Park Street station and Cypress Street Carhouse; service was extended west to Chestnut Hill later in 1900. The east end of the route was cut back to Massachusetts station in 1925. The next year, the Ipswich Street line and the Huntington Avenue line swapped western terminals, with Ipswich Street service again running to Cypress Street. The west end of service was cut back to Brookline Village in 1932, and cut further to a short Audubon Road–Massachusetts shuttle in mid-1933. The shuttle was abandoned entirely in July 1934.

As streetcar service was cut back, it was replaced by bus routes. MBTA bus routes 55 and 60 are direct descendants of the Ipswich Street line, while route 65 (the descendant of a Huntington Avenue branch) also runs along part of the former line.