It was opened on December 15, 1917, as part of the Dorchester Extension from Downtown Crossing (formerly Washington station) to Andrew.

In use around the 1880s, it was closed no later than 1896, when Midland Branch service was rerouted to the Old Colony terminal during construction of South Station.

[8] After the Cambridge Tunnel was completed between Harvard and Park Street in 1912, work began to extend the line south to Dorchester.

Extensions opened to Washington (Downtown Crossing) in 1915, South Station Under in 1916, and to Broadway on December 15, 1917.

Not until the aboveground Columbia and Savin Hill stations opened in 1927 were there other island platforms used on the line.

[12] Elevators were installed during the project, making Broadway one of the first older stations on the system to be modified for accessibility.

[22][20][23] The middle-level streetcar tunnel ran from a portal on Foundry Street south to another in the median of Dorchester Avenue.

In the 1930s, the Boston Elevated Railway attempted to grow mushrooms in the tunnel, and in the 1980s it was used to test tactile platform edging for blind passengers.

[25] In mid 2012, the MBTA started construction on an $10 million emergency training center located in the old streetcar tunnel, to replace the previous equipment.