The Somerville Community Path parallels the west side of the Medford Branch through the station area.

[3]: 12.1-5  The station entrance is at a small plaza at the south end of the platform, with a level crossing of the southbound track.

A ramp from the eastbound Washington Street sidewalk meets the Community Path at the track-level entrance plaza.

[2] Domino Frame, In Tension, an aluminum foam sculpture by Nader Tehrani, is located at the station entrance.

[a][12][13] All grade crossings on the line in Somerville were eliminated by 1852; the railroad passed over Washington Street on a bridge.

[14] The railroad bridge was raised and a longer embankment built in 1862 as Washington Street was lowered, widened, and paved.

[16][17] The B&L began construction of a new station off Alston Street, slightly to the north of Milk Row, in June 1886.

[21] The Prospect Hill station building was disused by 1924 as passenger volumes dwindled, though trains continued to stop.

[22] In 1926, the Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) began work on North Station plus an expansion of its freight yards.

[30] The Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) opened Lechmere station in 1922 as a terminal for streetcar service in the Tremont Street subway.

[35][36] In 1945, a preliminary report from the state Coolidge Commission recommended nine suburban rapid transit extensions – most similar to the 1926 plan – along existing railroad lines.

These included an extension from Lechmere to Woburn over the Southern Division, again with Washington Street as an intermediate stop.

[41] The 1966 Program for Mass Transportation, the MBTA's first long-range plan, listed an approximately 1-mile (1.6 km) extension from Lechmere to Washington Street as an immediate priority.

A second phase of the project would extend Green Line service from Washington Street to Mystic Valley Parkway (Route 16) or West Medford.

[33][43] In 1980, the MBTA began a study of the "Green Line Northwest Corridor" (from Haymarket to Medford), with extension past Lechmere one of its three topic areas.

[44]: 308 [45] A 1991 agreement between the state and the Conservation Law Foundation, which settled a lawsuit over auto emissions from the Big Dig, committed to the construction of a "Green Line Extension To Ball Square/Tufts University".

The EENF identified a Green Line extension with Medford and Union Square branches as the preferred alternative.

[55] Preliminary plans in the DEIR called for the station entrance to be off Joy Street, with the lobby partially under the west (southbound) track.

The Somerville Community Path extension was to be elevated over the station headhouse to cross over to the east side of the tracks.

[57] Plans presented in February 2012 moved the platform back south, with an elongated headhouse connecting to Washington Street.

[66] At that time, cancellation of the project was considered possible, as were elimination of the Union Square Branch and other cost reduction measures.

E. Denise Simmons criticized the scaled-down station designs at Union Square and East Somerville for having long ramps rather than elevators, saying they were not sufficient for accessibility.

[81][82][83] Among the drainage improvements included in the GLX project was a new pump station at Washington Street to mitigate flooding issues related to the former Millers River.

A tentative settlement with adjacent landowner, reached in 2023 as part of a property acquisition for expansion of the nearby Green Line yard, will allow these connections to be built.