Uphams Corner, or Upham's Corner, is a commercial center in Dorchester, the largest neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The intersection of Dudley Street/Stoughton Street and Columbia Road is the heart of Uphams Corner, and one of Dorchester's main business districts.
It is served by the MBTA Commuter Rail's Fairmount Line (at the Upham's Corner stop), [1] as well as several MBTA bus lines.
The district has several historical sites, including the Strand Theatre, the Columbia Square Masonic Hall Building (1895), and Dorchester North Burying Ground (1634), one of the nation's oldest and one of seven seventeenth-century burying grounds in Boston.
The Uphams Corner business district is part of the North Dorchester section of Boston, home to a diverse mix of people, including African American, Cape Verdean, Haitian, Hispanic, white, and Asian populations. Of the residents living within a mile of Uphams Corner, about 43% are Black, 22% white, and 19% Hispanic. [2] Dining options in the area include Southern soul food as well as restaurants serving food from around the world, including Cape Verdean, Caribbean, Chinese, Greek, and Italian. [3]
Upham's Corner is named for Amos Upham (1789-1872), born in Weston and trained as a baker, who opened a grocery store around 1820 likely on the site of the present Columbia Square building. [4] [5] [6] This store was run by three generations of the Upham family, into the mid-1890s.
The Edward Everett Elementary School, Boston Collegiate Charter Middle and High Schools, the William E. Russell Elementary School, the Roger Clap Innovation School, the John W. McCormack School, the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot School, and Conservatory Lab Charter School are located near Upham's Corner.
In 2015, Artmorpheus, [7] a Boston-based nonprofit, launched the Fairmount Innovation Lab, [8] a partnership initiative with the Fairmount Cultural Corridor. [9] The Lab is an interdisciplinary space designed to support innovative, local entrepreneurs and artists launching enterprises. Created as a hub and launchpad for accelerating creative and social enterprise in the Fairmount Indigo corridor, the Lab encourages collaboration across disciplines and sectors.
The Fairmount Innovation Lab runs Launchpad, a startup accelerator, a selective four-month program that offers creative and social entrepreneurs with coworking space, lean business model training, expert mentors, shared resources and community with an evolving roster of thinkers and doers.
In 2014, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced a major municipal investment in the Uphams Corner Main Street area's infrastructure. The $3.1 million investment was put in place to help finance a number of neighborhood initiatives, including revamping local storefronts, adding street and sidewalk lights and improving the Strand Theatre. The monetary move also had positive implications in the realm of public art. Walsh's transition focused on fostering public art and injecting culture into each of Boston's various neighborhoods, along with bringing Boston to the forefront of global innovation and technology. As per Walsh's announcement, new arts and culture programs through the Uphams Corner ArtPlace initiative will help to boost the commercial district's aesthetics, including a $500,000 public art commission from the Boston Foundation and Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative. [10]
In 2005, the city of Boston made a $6 million, four-year capital investment to rejuvenate the historic Strand Theatre in Upham's Corner. On January 9, 2007, Mayor Thomas Menino gave his State of the City Address from the stage of the Strand Theatre to help bring attention to restoration efforts and help revive the venue's historic prominence in the city of Boston. Advertised as Dorchester's New Million Dollar Photoplay Palace, the Strand Theatre originally opened in 1918 as one of the first theaters designed specifically for motion pictures. [11]
Some of the exteriors and interiors in the film Gone Baby Gone , directed by Ben Affleck, were shot in Uphams Corner. [12]
Dorchester is a neighborhood comprising more than 6 square miles (16 km2) in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester, Dorset, England, to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This dissolved municipality, Boston's largest neighborhood by far, is often divided by city planners in order to create two planning areas roughly equivalent in size and population to other Boston neighborhoods.
Mattapan is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Mattapan is the original Native American name for the Dorchester area, possibly meaning "a place to sit." At the 2010 census, it had a population of 36,480, with the majority of its population immigrants.
Massachusetts Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts, and several cities and towns northwest of Boston. According to Boston magazine, "Its 16 miles of blacktop run from gritty industrial zones to verdant suburbia, homeless encampments, passing gentrified brownstones, college campuses and bustling commercial strips."
Fort Point Channel is a maritime channel separating South Boston from Downtown Boston, feeding into Boston Harbor. The south part of it has been gradually filled in for use by the South Bay rail yard and several highways. At its south end, the channel once widened into South Bay, from which the Roxbury Canal continued southwest where the Massachusetts Avenue Connector is now. The Boston Tea Party occurred at its northern end. The channel is surrounded by the Fort Point neighborhood, which is also named after the same colonial-era fort.
Key bus routes of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) system were the 15 routes that had high ridership and higher frequency standards than other bus lines, according to the 2004 MBTA Service Policy. Together, they accounted for roughly 40% of the MBTA's total bus ridership. These key bus routes ensured basic geographic coverage with frequent service in the densest areas of Boston, and connected to other MBTA services to give access to other areas throughout the region.
The Fairmount Line or Dorchester Branch is a line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Except for a short portion in Milton, it lies entirely within Boston, running southwest from South Station through the neighborhoods of Dorchester, Mattapan and Hyde Park. Weekend service began on November 29, 2014. Most trains reverse direction at the south end at Readville, but some Franklin/Foxboro Line trains use the Fairmount Line rather than the Northeast Corridor.
The Indigo Line was a proposed rapid transit service of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) that would have incorporated parts of the former Grand Junction Railroad, the Seaport District's Track 61, a spur to Riverside station and segments of other MBTA Commuter Rail lines within the Greater Boston region of Massachusetts. As proposed, the Indigo Line was planned as hybrid rail and would have predominately shared existing infrastructure with the MBTA Commuter Rail.
Andrew station is a rapid transit station in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at Andrew Square in South Boston, it serves the MBTA Red Line and the MBTA bus system. Named for John Albion Andrew, the square is at the intersection of several major thoroughfares: Dorchester Avenue, Dorchester Street, Southampton Street, and Boston Street. Andrew is the primary transfer point between the Red Line subway and the MBTA surface bus routes into South Boston. Opened in 1918 and renovated in 1990–1994, it is fully accessible.
Readville station is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) commuter rail station located in the Readville section of the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is served by the MBTA Commuter Rail Fairmount, Franklin/Foxboro, and Providence/Stoughton Lines. Readville is the outer terminus for most Fairmount service, though some trips continue as Franklin/Foxboro Line trains. The station is located at a multi-level junction, with the Attleboro Line tracks at ground level and the Dorchester Branch above. Franklin/Foxboro Line trains that run on the Northeast Corridor use a connecting track with a separate platform. An MBTA maintenance and storage yard and a CSX Transportation freight yard are located near the station.
Shawmut station is a subway station in Boston, Massachusetts. It serves the Ashmont branch of the MBTA's Red Line. It is located on Dayton Street in the Dorchester neighborhood. The station, the only underground station on the Red Line south of Andrew station, sits in a shallow cut-and-cover subway tunnel that runs from Park Street south to Peabody Square where it surfaces at Ashmont station. Shawmut opened along with Ashmont on September 1, 1928, as part of a southward extension of the Cambridge–Dorchester line.
Fairmount station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Boston, Massachusetts. It serves the Fairmount Line. It is located in the Hyde Park area, under the Fairmount Avenue overpass. Fairmount station opened in 1979 during Southwest Corridor reconstruction; intended to be temporary, it eventually became a permanent stop.
Morton Street station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station on Fairmount Line located on Morton Street in the Mattapan neighborhood of Boston. With two full-length high-level platforms and ramps to the street, the station is accessible. The station was reconstructed in 2006, with the official reopening in 2007.
Uphams Corner station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Boston, Massachusetts. It serves the Fairmount Line. It is located on Dudley Street in the Uphams Corner area of the Dorchester neighborhood. It was reopened in 1979 after the line had been closed for 35 years. The station is fully accessible with two full-length high-level platforms and ramps to the street, which were added during a construction project that finished in 2007.
Strand Theatre is a restored vaudeville house located in Uphams Corner in Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts. It is owned by the City of Boston and managed by the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture.
Four Corners/Geneva station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Boston, Massachusetts. It serves the Fairmount Line. It is located in the Mount Bowdoin section of the Dorchester neighborhood. The new station was being built as part of the Fairmount Line Improvement Project, which included four new stations as well as infrastructure upgrades. It has two full-length high-level platforms with walkways connecting them to Washington Street and Geneva Avenue. Four Corners/Geneva Ave opened on July 1, 2013, along with Newmarket.
Newmarket station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Boston, Massachusetts. It serves the Fairmount Line and a small number of Franklin/Foxboro Line trains. It is located off Massachusetts Avenue at Newmarket Square in the Dorchester neighborhood. The station has two 800-foot (240 m) high-level platforms and sloping walkways connecting it to Massachusetts Avenue. Originally planned to be in service in 2011, it opened on July 1, 2013, along with Four Corners/Geneva station.
Talbot Avenue station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Boston, Massachusetts. It serves the Fairmount Line. It is located near Codman Square in the Dorchester neighborhood. The station includes two full-length high-level platforms located north of Talbot Avenue, which are also accessible from Park Street and West Park Street. The station opened on November 12, 2012 as the first of four new stations on the Fairmount Line. Talbot Avenue was the first completely new rail station to open in the City of Boston since Yawkey opened in 1988.
Blue Hill Avenue station is a regional rail station on the MBTA Commuter Rail Fairmount Line located in the Mattapan neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The station consists of a center island platform between the line's two tracks, with handicapped-accessible ramps to Blue Hill Avenue and Cummins Highway. Originally intended to open along with Newmarket, Four Corners/Geneva, and Talbot Avenue, it was significantly delayed due to local controversy. Construction began in 2017, and the station opened on February 25, 2019.
Fields Corner is a historic commercial district in Dorchester, the largest neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States founded in June 1630.
Meeting House Hill is one of the oldest sections of Boston's historic Dorchester neighborhood. It is the site of the First Parish Church and the Mather School, the oldest public elementary school in North America. Located immediately to the north of Fields Corner, it is within walking distance of the Fields Corner and Savin Hill MBTA stations.