South Station's inaccurate mystery plaque
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The plaque in question. Photo: Mike Deehan/Axios
A memorial plaque dedicated to a carpenter that died working on the Big Dig has displayed the wrong date of the accident, possibly for over 20 years.
Flashback: Fook Choi Kan of Springfield was working on the Central Artery/third harbor tunnel project near South Station below Atlantic Avenue on Aug. 16, 1999, when he fell from a beam into a pit beneath South Station and died the next day, according to state records.
The intrigue: The memorial plaque on the wall of the outbound Red Line platform at the station incorrectly lists the date of the accident as Aug. 17, 2000.
- It might also get the project he was working on wrong, as Kan was likely a carpenter on the automotive tunnel project under the subway station, according to the MBTA.
MBTA and MassDOT officials were unable to find out any history about the plaque — who put it there or where it came from.
- A representative from Kan's union, North Atlantic States Carpenters Union Local 327, formerly Local 33, told Axios the union was not responsible for the plaque.
- It's possible the memorial was not authorized by MBTA or state officials and is the result of some sort of rogue plaquery.
Details: The Hong Kong-born Kan is described as a "journeyman carpenter" on the plaque.
- The Boston Globe reported in 1999 that Kan was wearing a safety harness but was between connections when he fell.
Deehan's thought bubble: The Kan plaque wouldn't be the first local landmark to lie to us. Harvard's famous "statue of three lies'' has been proudly inaccurate for nearly a century and a half.