Silver Hill station

Early history

The Fitchburg Railroad opened along the Stony Brook valley through Weston on June 17, 1844, with stops at Weston (later Kendal Green) and Silver Hill.^{[7]: 87 [8]: 6} The origin of the name "Silver Hill" is uncertain; it may refer to local rumors of Captain Kidd hiding his treasure on a nearby hill, or a stand of silver birches.^[9]: 11 Unlike Weston, Silver Hill did not immediately attract new development around the station.^[9]: 8 The Fitchburg Railroad was acquired by the Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) in 1900.^[7]: 88

In 1905, the Weston Land Association began the development of a garden suburb called Silver Hill in the area directly south of the station.^[9]: 10 The station building was destroyed on March 17, 1893, by a fire caused by sparks from a passing locomotive.^[10] Its replacement was a small wooden station building, located on the north side of the tracks east of Merriam Street, with steps leading to the platform from the street.^[11] That structure was gone by 1977.^[12][6] A wooden bridge was constructed in 1926 to carry Merriam Street over the tracks.^[9]: 22

In December 1958, Silver Hill was one of eleven stations – four commuter rail stations in Waltham and Weston, and seven stops west of Fitchburg – on the Fitchburg Route proposed for closure.^[13] Stony Brook in Weston and the seven western stations were closed on June 14, 1959; limited service continued to Silver Hill, Riverview, and Beaver Brook.^[14]

MBTA era

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) was formed in 1964 to subsidize suburban commuter rail service. On January 18, 1965, the MBTA began subsidizing some B&M service, including as far as West Concord on the Fitchburg Route.^[15]: 377 The MBTA bought most B&M commuter rail assets, including the Fitchburg Route, on December 27, 1976.^[15]: 381

A three-sided shelter, which resembled similar shelters commonly found at flag stops decades before, was built in 1979 to replace the former station building.^[6] The station was briefly closed on February 1, 1981, due to budget cuts, but reopened soon after.^[16][6] The Merriam Street bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 as a contributing property to the Silver Hill Historic District.^[9]: 22

A February 2005 study for the Fitchburg Line Improvement Project recommended consolidation of the three Weston stations (Silver Hill, Hastings, and Kendal Green) into a single expanded Kendal Green station to reduce travel times, as did a September 2005 preliminary implementation plan.^[4][17] However, by 2007, the preferred alternative did not include station consolidation.^[18]

Closure and reopening

With 11 weekday daily boardings by a 2018 count, Silver Hill was the lowest-ridership station in the MBTA Commuter Rail system.^[1] By that time, the station was served by only two peak-hour inbound trips and three peak-hour outbound trips out of nineteen weekday round trips operated on the Fitchburg Line; weekend service did not stop at the station.^[19] Reduced schedules based on existing Saturday schedules were in effect from March 16 to June 23, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These schedules did not include Silver Hill and five other limited-service stations not normally served on Saturdays.^[15]: 399

In November 2020, as part of service cuts during the pandemic, the MBTA proposed to permanently close Silver Hill, Hastings, and four other low-ridership stations. Silver Hill was nominated for closure because of its low ridership and lack of accessibility; Kendal Green station is just 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the southeast.^[2][20] On December 14, reduced schedules went into effect due to limited employee availability.^[21] Again based on the existing Saturday service, these temporary schedules did not include service to Silver Hill and four other stations.^{[15]: 400 [22]} That day, the MBTA Board voted to enact a more limited set of cuts, including indefinitely closing Hastings, Silver Hill, and three of the other four stations.^[23][24] The closure of the five stations became indefinite effective April 5, 2021.^[25] The station reopened on November 18, 2024, with service by two inbound and three outbound trains on weekdays only.^{[26][15]: 405}