Doing Time on the Reformatory Branch Trail

From Boxcar Willie:

Like a 19th-century murderer sent up the river to Concord for a long hitch, I've had the Reformatory Branch Railroad on my mind for quite some time.

OK, that's a terrible opening sentence, something worthy of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which challenges participants "to write an atrocious opening sentence to the worst novel never written." Still, my point stands: since my buddy Chris DeBarge, owner/operator of Bird in Hand Tattoo and a fellow explorer, mentioned the old railroad line in Bedford and Concord, Mass., many years ago, I've wanted to get there. And boy am I glad I did - I loved the trail and the history and the reformatory and found so much more than I'd expected.

Let's hop this freight!

I'm going to start not where I started, nor my point of completion, but rather somewhere in the middle.

The sun was setting on the former Billerica and Bedford Railroad Engine House as I wrapped up my hike along the old right-of-way for the Reformatory Branch, which I will get to shortly. I had no idea that this nicely restored building, the adjacent Boston and Maine Railroad engine and the Middlesex Central Railroad Passenger Depot were located in the heart of Bedford.

This area marks the northern terminus of the 10.1-mile Minuteman Bikeway, which also runs through Lexington, Arlington and Cambridge. The trail was built by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on an inactive railway bed in the early 1990s. The old freight/engine house, which dates to 1877, now serves as an information center, museum and gift shop.

The train set on tracks right outside the engine house door is "Rail Diesel Car #6211, which was one of 110 purchased by the Boston & Maine Railroad from the Budd Company to be used for commuter and branch line service," per MACRIS. It is available to rent for meetings or special events.

As for the depot, it was restored in 2014, five years after the freight house was given the same treatment. Both buildings had been under private owneship for decades prior. The Stick Style building dates to 1874. I believe there are small businesses located here. The old depot has some great details.

OK, now let's get to where I started my adventure, at the eastern end of the Reformatory Branch Trail, which is located just south of the John Glenn Middle School, a short distance up Railroad Avenue from the old depot complex.

"The Reformatory Branch Trail was originally a railroad right of way of the Middlesex Central Railroad which opened in 1873 running from Lexington to Bedford and Concord," according to the Town of Concord's Reformatory Branch Trail Guide. "In 1879, the railroad was extended 2.5 miles west to Elm Street near the Concord Reformatory (now the Massachusetts Correctional Institution facility), with a connection to other rail lines at Concord Junction in West Concord. The railroad was taken over by the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1887. Passenger service was maintained by the B & M Railroad until 1926 and remaining freight service until 1962 when the entire branch was abandoned."

I saw some nice trail-side details on this portion of my hike.

(Old fire hydrant.)

(Old concrete signal posts.)

(Kinda spooky, kinda heavenly.)

The trail was pretty muddy at certain points, which was no surprise, given the wet winter we had.

I briefly considered a detour into the Mary Putnam Webber Wildlife Preserve, but I had limited daylight and wanted to get as far down the trail as I could.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a view through the trees open up to the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

The refuge is accessible by car via a road that crosses the trail.

I ventured on a little longer, eventually turning around at Great Meadows Road once I'd crossed into Concord. I wanted to get back to my car before dark. I hiked for nearly two hours in boots that aren't great for my bad feet. But I was happy. Little did I know that after my trek, I'd stumble across Depot Park and two beautifully restored buildings and train car that I wrote about at the top of this post.

I resolved to complete as much of the Concord portion of the trail as I could, and so not long after my initial adventure, I did just that. I started where the trail hits Lowell Road near The Concord Market, and worked my way east toward Great Meadows Road.

A short distance in, I spied this old hunk o' junk in the woods just off the trail.

A friend tells me this is a rotary sifter of some type, perhaps for sifting gravel from sand for making concrete aggregate.

I also saw another signal post, this one a victim of edaphoecotropism.

I took a side trip to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. But again, I didn't want to tarry, as I was on a mission and needed to double back in order to complete it. Below are some shots of the side trails I took to and from the graveyard, which is where some of Concord's most eminent folks are buried.

Since the bridge that once carried the Reformatory-bound trains over the Sudbury River was washed out by the 1938 hurricane, I returned to my car behind the market, and made my way toward Egg Rock.

To access Egg Rock, which is where the Assabet and Sudbury rivers come together to form the Concord River, I had to park on Nashawtuc Road and walk down Squaw Sachem Trail (a private road) and take the narrow path between two houses (#50 and #80).

And that opened up to -- tada! -- the Reformatory Branch Trail.

I headed east toward the confluence until I could go no further. Below is a photo showing where the bridge used to be.

I turned back west, figuring the trail might be blocked or overgrown as it ran along the Assabet, behind some very nice houses. But I was wrong! So I trudged forward.

My original plan was to return to my car, drive to MCI Concord, where the Reformatory Branch once led, make a few photos and try, probably half-heartedly, to find the trail. But since the trail kept going, so did I. Eventually the trail curved south and I ended up on a quiet road near a relatively new housing development. I didn't feel like bushwacking at the curve point to see if the trail continued, so I headed out toward Elm Street.

At this point, once again, the sun was heading toward the horizon, and my dogs were barking. But I'd come all this way, walked way more than I'd anticipated, and was determined to make it to the prison.

On the west bank of the Assabet River, hard by Route 2, I spied what I guessed might be a remnant of the railroad right-of-way.

And just past that, I made a photo of a house along Route 2 that may at one point have been affiliated with the prison, which is located across the road.

And then, at last, I found myself standing in front of the Second Empire building that I'd driven past countless times over the last few decades, the place that looks like a Victorian mental hospital.

Known alternately as the Massachusetts State Prison Warden's House and the Concord Reformatory Warden's House, this brick building at the Concord Rotary was once a residence and offices for prison personnel. MACRIS has an interesting take: "By far the grandest building in West Concord, the Superintendents' House uses the power of the French-inspired Second Empire style to assert its authority over both the prison behind it and the area around it."

It was built in 1878 as the main entrance to what was then a new prison. Over the years, older buildings were torn down and new, less architectually significant ones went up. Once the prison opened, development in West Concord increased dramatically.

From MACRIS: "From the mid-1880's on, much of the building boom, and the social and organizational structure of West Concord as well, was guided by the residents of this building, both before and during their tenures as Reformatory Superintendent and Deputy-Superintendent. Most influential was Joseph Scott, who, with George Russell, developed the Riverside Park neighborhood northeast of the reformatory while Superintendent in the early 1890's. In 1896, with Loring Fowler, he formed the two major Concord Junction real estate syndicates of the later 1890's — the Concord Junction Land Co. and the West End Land Co."

With the announcement earlier this year that the state plans to close MCI Concord -- as the prison has been known for quite some time now -- this summer, this area of Concord is slated for more big changes. The prison has been operating at less than half capacity for some time.

There is no definite plan for the site yet, but the possibilities are tantalizing. "The potential for the prison site situated on the dreaded Route 2 Rotary is enormous," per the Boston Globe article linked above. "For starters it should spur discussion of a reconfiguration of one of the state’s most fearsome traffic circles. But beyond that, 'It’s perfect for housing,' state Senator Mike Barrett, whose district includes Concord, told the Globe editorial board. 'It’s walkable to West Concord [center]' and its train station. 'It could be a whole new neighborhood.'"

I imagine a mix of housing, retail and office space will spring up here eventually. And I certainly hope that the old warden's house will be saved and restored and turned into something useful for the community.