Suffolk Downs is a rapid transit station on the MBTA Blue Line located off Bennington Street on the east side of Orient Heights in East Boston, Massachusetts. It serves the Orient Heights neighborhood as well as its namesake, the now-defunct Suffolk Downs racetrack.Originally a Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad station called Belle Isle and Suffolk Downs from the early 1900s to 1940, it reopened in 1952 as a rapid transit station on the Revere Extension of the East Boston Tunnel line (now the Blue Line).With just 1125 daily boardings in 2013, Suffolk Downs is the least-used rapid transit station on the MBTA system. It is fully handicapped accessible.HistoryThe narrow gauge Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad (BRB&L) opened from East Boston to Lynn through Breed's Hill (not yet part of East Boston) on July 29, 1875; there was initially no station at the modern site. A stop named Belle Isle opened at Waldemar Avenue around 1905. Just from Orient Heights station, it closed around 1925 and suffered a number of fires in 1925 and 1926 caused by sparks from locomotives.By 1928 the line was electrified, with pre-pay stations - more a rapid transit line than a conventional railroad. The station was reopened and renamed Suffolk Downs when the horse-racing track opened in 1935. Due to the Great Depression, the BRB&L shut down on January 27, 1940.
