| Back of the Hill | |
| Style: | MBTA |
| Style2: | Green |
| Address: | South Huntington Avenue at Back of the Hill |
| Borough: | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Platform: | None (passengers wait on sidewalk) |
| Tracks: | 2 |
| Connections: | MBTA bus: |
| Accessible: | No |
| Passengers: | 35 (weekday average) |
| Pass Year: | 2011 |
| Mapframe: | yes |
| Mapframe-Marker: | rail-light |
| Mapframe-Zoom: | 14 |
Back of the Hill station is a surface stop on the light rail MBTA Green Line E branch, located in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is named after, and primarily serves, the adjacent Back of the Hill apartment complex, a Section 8 development for elderly and disabled residents. Back of the Hill is located on the street running section of the E branch on South Huntington Avenue. The station has no platforms; passengers wait in bus shelters (shared with route 39 buses) on the sidewalks and cross a traffic lane to reach Green Line trains.[1]
The Boston Elevated Railway opened streetcar tracks on the newly-laid-out South Huntington Avenue between Centre Street and Huntington Avenue on May 11, 1903. The company began Jamaica Plain–Park Street service via South, Centre, South Huntington, and Huntington as a branch of existing Boston–Brookline service on Huntington Avenue.[2] [3] All Huntington Avenue service (except for and short turns) operated on South Huntington after September 10, 1938.[4] The line became part of the Metropolitan Transit Authority in 1947, and part of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in 1967; it was designated as the E Branch of the MBTA Green Line in 1967.
By the 1970s, E Branch trains stopped at and, with no stop between them.[5] The Back of the Hill apartment complex, located just north of Heath Street, was built in 1980 and opened in 1981.[6] [7] [8] The E Branch was closed for track work from June 21, 1980, to June 26, 1982; trains began stopping at Back of the Hill then or after.
Back of the Hill is the least-used stop on the MBTA subway system, averaging only 35 riders per day by a 2011 count. It was one of only four stops to average fewer than 100 riders per day.[9] In 2021, the MBTA indicated plans to modify the Heath Street–Brigham Circle section of the E branch with accessible platforms to replace the existing non-accessible stopping locations.[10] The new platforms are planned to be long enough to accommodate two 110feet Type 10 vehicles. Design work began in July 2023 and is expected to reach 15% completion in July 2024.[11] [12]