aging headhouse and its connection to the Elevated no longer needed, the city began planning a modernization of the station. A $242,000 contract to purchase four escalators was approved on October 17, 1946. In 1948, the Boston Transit Department awarded a $350,000 contract to add the new escalators, remove the elevators, and construct a new headhouse on the north side of State Street. On January 28, 1949, a grease fire ignited by the acetylene torch of a welder removing one of the elevators spread down the elevator shaft and onto the platforms. The fire occurred during the morning rush hour, with 300 passengers having just alighted from an eastbound train. Most escaped through the emergency exit, which was opened by a passenger, while some used the stairs in the main headhouse. Three people died in the headhouse: two passengers who missed the ground-level exit in the smoke while climbing the stairs and became trapped on the second floor, and one construction worker. The fire was compared to the 1942 Cocoanut Grove fire due to the intensity of the victims' burns. After the fire, the station was closed until construction was completed. The fire sparked political debate into the safety record of the MTA (which had replaced the BERy in 1947), and which entity was to blame: the city owned the subway lines and stations within its borders, while the MTA operated them. The new headhouse was a rectangular structure made of limestone and granite in the Stripped Classical style, with four escalators replacing the old elevators. The station reopened on January 12, 1950. MBTA era The construction of the Central Artery in the 1950s left the station cut off from Downtown Boston to the west. Atlantic Avenue station was renamed Aquarium on February 13, 1967, as part of a general rebranding by the newly created MBTA—the then under-construction New England Aquarium, which opened in 1969, was only some from the existing station. The subway lines were given colored identifying names, with the East Boston Tunnel route becoming the Blue Line, and several other downtown stations were renamed. The station was modernized as part of a $9 million systemwide station improvement program, with a dedication ceremony on August 26, 1968. In the 1970s, part of Atlantic Avenue was relocated a block to the west under the Central Artery for redevelopment, which left Aquarium station on the east side of the realigned