[3] The station has two works of public art, which were installed in 1988 as part of the Arts on the Line program:[4][5] After the success of the 1897-opened Tremont Street Subway, the Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) planned an elevated system with lines to Cambridge, South Boston, Charlestown, and Roxbury.

[6]: 7  After debate about running an elevated line above business districts in Cambridge, the BERy agreed in late 1906 to build a line under Beacon Hill in Boston, over a new West Boston Bridge, and under Main Street and Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge to Harvard Square.

The station had one exit and one entrance stairway at each end of each platform; all were 4 feet (1.2 m) wide except for one 6-foot (1.8 m)-wide pair.

[10] In the mid-1980s, the platforms were extended at many early-built Red Line stations, allowing six-car trains to be run beginning in January 1988.

[7] The platforms at Central were extended to the northwest (contrary to original plans for the southeast) beginning on April 25, 1985, with new entrances placed west of Prospect Street.

[14] The MBTA agreed to replace the inbound elevator as part of the 2006 settlement of Joanne Daniels-Finegold, et al. v.