Casey Arborway Tour: Rediscovering the Original Topography of Forst Hills

Join the JP Historical Society and local historian Richard Heath for a walking tour of the imagination. Not one square inch remains of the Forest Hills of forty years ago; the Southwest Corridor and the Casey Arborway obliterated all architectural landmarks from that era. And yet the vista and connection that Frederick Law Olmsted once designed and supervised for the parkway between the Arboretum and Franklin Park (most of which was destroyed in 1952 for the Casey Overpass) have been remade. Our walk will follow Olmsted's plan (and end at the lower busway of Forest Hills Station). The tour will also cover the original transportation patterns which characterized Forest Hills well before Olmsted made his plan, those of the Norfolk & Bristol Turnpike and the Boston & Providence Railroad.

File photo: An inbound Orange Line train between Green and Stony Brook. April 2014.

UPDATED: MBTA Weekend Work June 30 to July 8, Buses Replacing T From Forest Hills to Jackson Square

Editor’s note: This article was updated Thursday with revised information from the MBTA. At least it's not on the weekdays. Buses will be replacing MBTA train service from Forest Hills to Jackson Square on the weekends of June 30 and July 7. The disruption in train service is due to track work. Buses will replace Orange Line trains going both ways and will affect the following station: Jackson Square, Stony Brook, Green Street and Forest Hills. The MBTA had originally planned for track work most weekends through early September but, in response to inquiries from Jamaica Plain News Thursday, clarified that the work schedule had been shortened:

Thanks Robert, we crossed ourselves up.

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Community Meeting to Discuss Redesign of Centre/South Streets on May 14

The Boston Transportation Department is holding a meeting on May 14 to discuss the redesigning of Centre and South streets streetscape. At the meeting the city would like to hear the community's "streetscape improvement priorities" for Jackson Square to Forest Hills along Centre and South streets. Boston Transportation Department officials will discuss the upcoming design process based on the Centre and South Streets Streetscape and Transportation Action Plain. This meeting is open to the public and will be on Monday, May 14 from 6 to 8 pm at the Curtis Hall Community Center (20 South St.).

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New Restaurant Alert: Bar Orange to Open in Forest Hills

A new restaurant, Bar Orange, is planned for a Forest Hills spot that has had two restaurants fail in the last five years. The restaurant will be located at 3698 Washington St., which was previously home to the failed Tonic, and a second location for Grass Fed opened in 2016 and closed in 2017. Bar Orange will be a sit down restaurant with a variety of in-house cooked food, using locally-sourced products, as well as local microbrews, said Ryan M. Gazda of McDermott, Quilty & Miller, LLP, which is representing Bar Orange at public meetings. Closing time will be 1 am. Despite the name, Gazda said the focus of the restaurant will be more restaurant than bar.

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New ‘Fresh and Spicy’ Taqueria Coming to Forest Hills

It looks like the Forest Hills restaurant scene will receive a boost this February when a new taqueria opens on Hyde Park Avenue. The website for Achilito's Taqueria declares itself as "fresh and spicy" with a wood fire grill while utilizing seasonal ingredients. There will be small batch offerings such as spicy salsas and tasty looking tacos. The restaurant will open at 38 Hyde Park Avenue in a new building at the corner of Weld Hill Street across from the Forest Hills MBTA station. The new restaurant has also already created a buzz with local residents.

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MBTA Route 39 Moves Permanently to Upper Busway on Saturday

The MBTA Route 39 bus is moving to its permanent location this Saturday, October 14th. The move will occur following the end of bus operations on Friday, October 13, as the 39 will cease operating from the Route 39 loop at the northern end (towards Doyle’s Café and the Monument) of the Forest Hills Station block. Beginning with the start of bus operations on Saturday, October 14, the Route 39 bus will operate from the upper busway at the MBTA Forest Hills Station, according to a press release from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). Passengers looking to access the 39 should exit to the upper busway as normal and turn to their right as they exit the station. The area that was occupied by the Route 39 loop will immediately become part of the Casey Arborway work zone.

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‘Recent Paintings of Forest Hills’ Exhibit at Arnold Arboretum by Longtime JP Resident

Longtime Jamaica Plain resident Andrew Haines contacted the Arnold Arboretum to see if they had an art exhibition planned to capture the changing Forest Hills area. They liked the idea so much they invited Haines to create his own exhibit. "The Evolution of an Urban Landscape: Recent Paintings of Forest Hills" documents the development of the new park and Forest Hills station, said Haines to Jamaica Plain News. "When it was decided to take down the Casey Overpass, I thought this would be the first time in 60 years that Olmsted's plan would again connect through green spaces of the Emerald Necklace all the way to Franklin Park," said Haines. "The plan was to document as best I could, the development of the new park spaces and Forest Hills station.

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Letter to the Editor: Forest Hills Construction Project ‘Utter Debacle’

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation's Forest Hills construction project is a complete and utter debacle. A pedestrian approaching the MBTA station from central JP is greeted by foot-tall grass, months-old litter strewn everywhere, hedges that have not been trimmed since at least last year and a complete appearance of property neglect. The pedestrian corridors are poorly delineated, lack signage, and have no protection from impatient cars and buses. The time allowed on the traffic light to cross from South Street to the MBTA station is not nearly enough for a healthy, young adult much less for the elderly, the disabled or someone with children. Crossing to the Forest Hills subway stop from almost all directions is truly dangerous.

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Plane trees planted by Casey Arborway, Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Casey Arborway: Tree Planting Continues Two Years After Clearcutting

Tree by tree, sections of the Casey Arborway are being replanted. On Tuesday, resident Clay Harper noticed 21 plane trees being planted along the western section of the massive project. The plantings come two years after clearcutting of hundreds of trees around Forest Hills Station. By the time the road realignment project is completely done - current estimates put that at Spring 2018 - MassDOT says the area will have 400 more trees than when the project began. We've been following the Casey Arborway project's ups and down for years.

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File photo: Commuters will soon see signs like this again, pictured on Sept. 6, 2016, as the T shutters one track at Forest Hills from March 25 through June.

Starting March 25, Forest Hills Station Back Down to One Track

Forest Hills Station will be taken back down to one track starting March 25 as part of the Casey Arborway project. The plan is the same as from when the T shut down one track from September through December. This time, instead of installing a jet fan needed for the new station entrance north of New Washington Street, the closure will make it easier to do electric work and build "underground elements" required by the massive project, MassDOT said in an advisory issued Wednesday. During the last stretch of one-track operation, the T said its plan for rush hour would not cause added delays. The September-December closure allowed the following work on the Casey Arborway project to be done:

Jet fans installed to ventilate the station.

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