Boston's Inner Belt - The Highway That Was Stopped - Detailed Report About Impact on Roxbury

Proposed route of the Inner Belt (I-695). Notice that it would have razed Brookline Ave in Cambridge, through Central Square, and then taken out Norfolk Street on its way to Somerville

I've always been fascinated with Boston's proposed, but never built Inner Belt Highway. It was to be called I-695. I came across this fascinating report on the www.archive.org site, in their scanned text section. 
The report detail every building and every family that would be affected in Roxbury. It's very interesting to see how the proposed destruction would affect people, house by house. Views the full listing here.
This photo shows the exit for I-695 (The Inner Belt). Part of it was built, and you can see where the proposed highway was to go. Note the old factory buildings along Albany street in the lower right. You can see them in the new photo below. Also note that the Fort Point Channel used to go all the way to Mass Ave, and you can see it in all its non-glory, to the right of the exit ramps. Also notice the amount of traffic on the highway. Not much.
Here's the same area from Bing Maps. They do a great job with oblique aerial photos, but few people know that they have this extensive photography, which looks much different than the straight down aerials we're used to.
Notice the round brick building in the lower left. You can locate that building in the new aerial. The path for I-695 was taken in Roxbury, and when the highway was cancelled in the 1970's, the right of way became Melina Cass Boulevard.
The round building at the bottom of the photo is an old gas holder that used to store gas for lighting. This Roxbury map from 1883 (Open it here using the Boston Atlas) shows the gas holder, and Mass Ave's old name: East Chester Park. It also shows the "Roxbury Canal" at the end of the Fort Point Channel. (the canal is quite degraded by the time these photos were taken in the 60's)

The highway continues along right near the Museum of Fine Arts, and directly in front of Wentworth College. In the lower right is the United Drug Company. (This was the company that became Rexall Drugs. Northeastern University bought many of their buildings, and this is the site of part of their campus. (It looks like lowest of the United Drug buildings is now a part of the Northeastern University campus. The Orange line takes the path of the rail lines shown in the photo above.)
From this aerial photo, it looks like the taking or the highway stopped before it got the Museum of Fine Arts.
This 1931 of Roxbury (open it here.) Clearly shows the Museum of Fine Arts, Wentworth Institute, and the United Drug Company.
Here the highway goes past the Museum, and right in front of Simmons and Emanual Colleges. I had heard talk that it might have been set underground at the Fens.
1931 map sowing the area.
Finally, here's a look at the whole system, as proposed. You can see how I-95 (the unbuilt SouthWEST expressway) was supposed to connect to the Inner belt. Also notice that what became Route 2 looks like was supposed to branch out to what became Route 3.
Links:
http://places.designobserver.com/media/pdf/Bostons_South_1265.pdf  (Details about how Southwest Corridor was reused)

Other links (from Inner Belt Expressway Unbuilt)
I-695 (Massachusetts) (Neil Kelly)
  • I-695 (Massachusetts) (Scott Oglesby)
  • Boston's Canceled Highways (Scott Moore) (link changed to wayback machine archive...could be slow)
  • Boston University Bridge (Boston University)
  • The Urban Ring (Center for Urban and Regional Policy, Northeastern University)
  • Interstate Plans (1955 "Yellow Book" map) (Adam Froehlig)
  • Expressway Plans (1965) (Massachusetts Department of Public Works)
  • 8 responses
    Thanks, Bill, for the thoughtful, informed, fascinating essay that uses great images from an array of sources to illustrate an important event in Boston's past. It's hard to imagine what the city would look like had I-695 been built, not to mention Cambridge with a freeway through Cambridgeport! BTW, the cool mural in the computer center / trader joe's parking lot in Cambridgeport commemorates how the people stopped the bulldozers.
    Martin - I'm glad you enjoyed it. I have found so little detailed information about the Inner Belt. Also, I never made the distinction between the Inner Belt and the "Southwest Corridor." Doing this post, I came to understand that the Southwest Corridor was the continuation of I-95, which was different from the Inner Belt. If I find detailed documents about the Southwest Corridor (now the Orange Line and its linear parks) maybe I'll do another post. 
    Great information. Thank you.
    This is a fantastic look at the Highway that never was. Any commentary or similar treatment on the sections to the North of the Charles?
    A clarification -- east of the Southwest Corridor (present Columbus Ave), this was to be the mainline of I-95. I don't believe the I-695 designation overlayed onto this section, instead only reaching clockwise north from I-95.
    Matthew, the Boston Atlas has many maps of the Inner Belt. One shows the buildings that were slated for demolition in Cambridgeport: http://www.mapjunction.com/places/Boston_BRA/cgi-view/rest.pl?t=15373&p=3510. Click on a map layer and go to the Future Boston Map Collection > Historic Maps and you'll find other beauties of the Inner Belt at the bottom of the list.
    I know I am a day late and a dollar short, and I was born AFTER the highway revolt. I have long been disappointed and felt it was a mistake not to at least build the Southwest Expressway to this day. Easy for me to say, right, I never lived it, but the development of the highway would provide huge benefit and relieve arterials in Boston from the Mass Pike, Route 9, all the way to the Braintree Split. I despise the Inner Belt portion of the project, but felt that not finishing the SW and NE corridors was a mistake, even though there was immense political pressure at the time.

    To me, even worse was the failure to complete 95 through Lynn and Lynnfield. Route 1 takes a hammering beating in Saugus and Lynnfield because of intended THROUGH traffic to this day. An interesting byproduct of a completed NE Xwy would have been a Salem connector that may have been an x95 spur into Salem for direct access. To me obviously, water under the bridge but it bothers me and is an eyesore whenever I go through Revere and see the rocks and roadbank and roadway for 95 that is there and never completed.

    I'm looking for a drawing/photo of the Roxbury Canal, before it was truncated at Massachusetts Avenue. I understand this canal originally continued beyond Mass Avenue and terminated somewhere near Eustis Street, at the old burial ground on Washington Street. Can anyone hekp me with this request?

    Frank