A City Divided: The Building of the Mass Turnpike Extension in Newton (Pt. 1)

Beginning around 1950, discussion of the routing and funding of the Massachusetts Turnpike began, and it continued for over a decade. In Newton, it was a heated battle from beginning to end with citizens and city government teaming up against the Turnpike Authority. Located just west of the heart of Boston, Newton homes and businesses lay directly in the path of the new turnpike.

From an urban planning perspective it was a relatively straightforward situation, as outlined in the 1948 Master Highway Plan for the Metropolitan Area: “The heaviest…line of travel in the metropolitan area is in the western section. Traffic in this area is served by the Worcester Turnpike, Beacon Street, Commonwealth Avenue, Washington Street…they cannot be improved to expressway standards except at tremendous cost for rights-of-way.”

The report goes on to recommend a new expressway be built to supplement the Route 9 and connect routes 20 and 30. This was the seed of the idea for the Mass Turnpike.

To carry out this plan, commissioner of the Massachusetts DPW and Newton resident William F. Callahan proposed the creation of a new agency to manage the project. In 1952, legislation was passed that created the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, and Callahan was appointed as its leader.

Toby Berkman describes the tremendous power endowed in the MTA at its creation: “…the authority used private funding and was free from government control…The Turnpike Authority was also given power to take by eminent domain any lands necessary for the construction of the highway.”

With an unprecedented amount of power and no accountability to the citizens of the Commonwealth, the Turnpike Authority had a tremendous advantage in the battles that would ensue with property owners in the path of their project.

With the creation of the Turnpike Authority, Newton residents and elected officials took action to block the routing of the highway through the city. This fight against the turnpike authority dominated the term of Mayor Theodore Lockwood and his three successors in office. Letters, legislation, and petitions came from politicians, community groups, and concerned citizens. 

All were for naught. The Turnpike Authority, under Callahan’s leadership, kept their plans secret and moved forward aggressively to build the road through the city. By early 1957, the toll road from the western border of the state to route 128 had been completed, and the next phase of the highway project seemed imminent.

Newtonians tried everything---lobbying for a freeway instead of a toll road, suggesting a route that hugged the Charles River rather than cutting through the center of Newton, and making every effort to decrease the power of the Turnpike Authority. But state politicians and city planners were pushing to revitalize Boston, and the highway was a major part of their plan. Also, the Prudential Insurance Company favored the highway and threatened to abandon their plans to build a skyscraper in Boston’s Back Bay if the Turnpike was not built.

By early 1962, construction on the turnpike extension through Newton broke ground. The battle was lost, and the destruction began.