West End, Boston

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West End
Neighborhood of Boston
(2009)
(2009)
Country United States
State Massachusetts
County Suffolk
Neighborhood of Boston
Time zone Eastern (UTC-5)
Area code(s) 617 / 857

The West End is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, bounded generally by Cambridge Street to the south, the Charles River to the west and northwest, North Washington Street on the north and northeast, and New Sudbury Street on the east. Beacon Hill is to the south, and the North End is to the east. A late 1950s urban renewal project razed a large Italian and Jewish enclave in order to redevelop the area.

Geography

West End, c. 1769

The West End occupies the northwest portion of the Shawmut Peninsula. Much of the land on which the neighborhood lies is the product of land reclamation.[1] Beginning in 1807, parts of Beacon Hill were used to fill in a small bay and mill pond that separated Beacon Hill and the West End from the North End. Today the neighborhood consists primarily of superblocks containing high rise residential towers. The West End borders the Charles River between the Longfellow Bridge and the Charles River Dam Bridge. The Charlesbank Playground runs along the bank of the river, but is separated from the rest of the neighborhood by Storrow Drive, a large crosstown expressway.

Early days

The first house Charles Bulfinch designed for Harrison Gray Otis in the West End.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Boston's waterfront and North End were becoming overcrowded, and many of the city's well off residents took the opportunity to develop the area now known as the West End. At that time, the area was separated from the older neighborhoods by a small bay. The architect Charles Bulfinch was responsible for much of Boston's architectural character at the time, and played a large part in this new development of the West End.

Bulfinch spent much of his early career in the 1790s designing mansions, many of them in the West End and other Boston neighborhoods.[2] One of the most famous examples of these was the first Harrison Gray Otis House. This historic building was the first of three that Bulfinch designed for the affluent lawyer Harrison Gray Otis, and is one of the few buildings that survived Urban Renewal in the West End. Other West End landmarks designed by Bulfinch were the Massachusetts General Hospital's domed granite building, built 1816–1825 (today known as the Bulfinch Pavilion), and the West End Market on the corner of Grove and Cambridge Streets. Constructed in 1810, this historic market did not survive the area's redevelopment in the 1950s.[3] Bulfinch's architecture of newer large brick buildings with gardens attracted many of Boston's wealthier citizens. By 1810, the West End was inhabited by wealthy business men, merchants, and lawyers. Many would soon move to the nearby Beacon Hill, turning the West End into an African American community and stopping point for new immigrants.[2]

Another early West End building is the Charles Street Jail (1851), designed by Gridley James Fox Bryant, which was renovated into the Liberty Hotel.

Ethnic history

African American history

West End Adult Evening School, c. 1890s; photo by A.H. Folsom (Boston Public Library)

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See also: History of the United States (1789–1849) and African American history

In the early 19th century the West End, along with Beacon Hill's north slope, became an important center of Boston's African American community. The mostly affluent and white inhabitants of Beacon Hill's south slope were strongly supportive of abolitionism. This encouraged middle and working class free African Americans to move into the nearby North slope and West End. After the Civil War, the West End continued to be an important center of African American culture. It was one of the few locations in the United States at the time where African Americans had a political voice. At least one black resident from the West End sat on Boston's community council during every year between 1876 and 1895.[2]

Immigration

From the second half of the 19th century to the mid-20th century, Boston's West End became a home to many different immigrant groups. The wealthy and middle class business men were almost entirely gone, but many African Americans remained in the neighborhood, making it one of Boston's most diverse.[4] Among the many immigrant groups contributing to this melting pot were Armenians, Greeks, Irish, Lebanese, Italians, Jews, Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, Syrians, Ukrainians and many other Eastern and Southern Europeans. It was during this period that the neighborhood's population reached its peak at approximately 23,000 residents [5]

As a result of this immigration, the religious make-up of the neighborhood changed dramatically. Protestant churches moved away or shut down, to be replaced by Catholic churches and synagogues. For example, the old West Church, built in 1806 closed in 1892 due to lack of congregation. It reopened two years later as a library to better serve the new community.[3]

Irish

One of the first new immigrant groups to settle the West End was the Irish. After briefly passing through the North End, many Irish families moved on to the West and South ends. The West End soon developed a thriving Irish community.

Later on, this community became associated with Martin Lomasney. Lomasney, also known as "the Mahatma", was the ward boss of Boston's Ward 8 located in the West End. He was well known for taking care of the community that had developed there, especially the Irish families.

Junior baseball team, West End, 1915

Early in Lomasney's career, he established the Hendricks Club in the heart of the neighborhood. The Hendricks began as a social club and gathering place, but later turned into the center of Lomasney's political machine. It was from here that he began to provided social services, charity, and shelter for poor immigrants. In return, he was able to drum up votes and support from much of the neighborhood.[2][6]

Jews

By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Irish immigration had slowed and Eastern European Jews began to immigrate into the West End in large numbers. Many came to escape persecution in Lithuania, Russia, and Poland. They formed a community in the West End and became a significant part of the population by 1910. They made their home in the neighborhood, constructing health centers, libraries, labor unions, loan societies, orphanages, and synagogues. Actor Leonard Nimoy[7] was raised in this community. The new Boston Synagogue, the 1919 Vilna Shul, and the African Meeting House which was the home of Anshi Lubuvicher from 1900 to 1972 are the only surviving West End synagogues. The Boston Synagogue is a newly merged congregation; the Vilna Shul, 16 Philips Street which was outside the urban renewal demolition area, is now a synagogue museum (vilnashul.org); and the African American Meeting House is now a church museum. Over the Vilna Shul's ark is the double hand symbol for the Kohanim, the ancient Israelite priests, which was the source for the Star Trek Vulcan salute. The Vilna Shul also has pews salvaged from the former Twelfth Baptist Church on which once sat former African American slaves and volunteers in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment popularized by the movie Glory. The Vilna was the last of the approximately seven West End synagogues to stay open, closing in 1985.

Urban renewal

Green Street, 1959

By the 1950s, Boston's West End had turned into a working poor residential area with scattered businesses with small meandering roads much like the North End. According to most residents, the West End was a good place to live at this time.[4] The once overcrowded neighborhood was in the process of "deslumming"[8] and the population had dropped to around 7,500 residents.[9] By the end of the 1950s, over half of the neighborhood would be completely leveled to be replaced with residential high rises as part of a large scale urban renewal project.

Political background

The large-scale renewal of the West End was first proposed in the 1930s by Nathan Strauss Jr., among others, shortly after the National Housing Act of 1934 was passed.[5] The neighborhood was considered a slum by wealthy Bostonians who did not live there. The working class residents of the West End felt strong ties to the community and so the plan would not become politically feasible until the 1950s.[10]

By the end of the 1940s, Mayor Curley was running the city with an iron fist. Mayor Curley's administration's "policies all but ignored the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) and Yankee business community."[11] One of his tactics was to blame the woes of the poor on the wealthy. This is said to be one of the factors that caused an exodus from Boston and contributed to the blight that ensued.

‘’Curley made many enemies in his long career. He enjoyed verbally attacking the Boston Brahmins, and he encouraged his Irish constituents to blame their woes on the Yankees. Many of the people who had long dominated the city came to feel unwelcome in Boston. The exodus of Protestants to the suburbs that took place during the Curley era left a lasting legacy.’’[12]

Even with the corruption charges that surrounded him Curley was seen as a people's mayor.[13]

When the John B. Hynes administration came into power in 1949 city officials recognized that the federal government's Housing Act of 1949 presented the opportunity to remake parts of Boston. The Boston Housing Authority (BHA) held responsibility for developing Boston's urban renewal plans and was designated the city's local public authority for federal funds.[14]

Implementation

One of the few buildings (known as "The Last Tenement House") to survive the urban renewal of Boston's West End, 42 Losmasney Way, stands in one of the Super Blocks that was created by that project.[15]

As part of a plan to create a "New Boston", the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) and its 1957 successor, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, redeveloped neighborhoods throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The New York Streets section of the South End was redeveloped before the West End, and in the 1960s Scollay Square was leveled to create the Brutalist Government Center afterwards. The motivation behind these projects was to replace neighborhoods that had been classified as slums with neighborhoods that would bring in increased tax revenues. It is estimated that before the renewal project, the tax revenue from the West End was approximately $546,000 a year.[9]

The redevelopment of the West End was officially announced on April 11, 1953. Mayor Hynes and the BHA stated that the project would be beneficial to the neighborhood. The West End's narrow streets were a fire hazard and many of the buildings were not up to code, with approximately 80% of them substandard or marginal.[5] Tenants were assured that affordable housing would be found for them, and many were led to believe that they would be able to move back into the West End after the project was complete.

The plan involved completely leveling a 46-acre (190,000 m2) portion of the West End, displacing 2,700 families to make way for 5 residential high rise complexes that would contain only 477 apartments.[5] The new development was aimed towards upper middle class residents: most of those displaced would not be able to afford to return.

In October 1957, the BRA held a hearing on the new project. At least 200 West End residents attended and the consensus was overwhelmingly opposed to the plan. The Save the West End committee was formed with the support of Joseph Lee to organize protests against the new development. Most residents believed that the project would not be realized, and so did not act until it was too late.[5]

Residents received their eviction letters on April 25, 1958. The BRA used the Housing Act of 1949 to raze the West End to the ground. Working-class families were displaced, and superblocks replaced the original street layout. The result was a neighborhood consisting of residential high rises, shopping centers and parking lots.

Controversy

Population of the West End, 1910–1950
Year W. End Boston
1910 22,656 670,585
1920 18,442 748,060
1930 13,454 781,188
1940 12,879 770,816
1950 11,731 801,444
Source:[16]
West End project area looking northeasterly, circa 1959–1964

The urban renewal of the West End has been attacked by critics for its destruction of a neighborhood and its careless implementation. One of the main criticisms of the project is that the neighborhood was not considered a slum by the residents, and instead had a strong sense of community. A later mayor of Boston, Ray Flynn, described the West End as "a typical neighborhood" and "not blighted."[17] The perception of the neighborhood as a slum was mostly held by wealthy outsiders and was enhanced by city policy. For example, the city stopped collecting garbage and cleaning the streets, leaving the neighborhood a mess.[5] A photographer for a local newspaper was even assigned to go to the West End, overturn a trashcan, and take a picture of it to create the impression of a blighted neighborhood.[18]

Many building owners were not adequately compensated for their property. Due to city law, as soon as tenement buildings were condemned by the BRA, the city became the legal owner. This meant that building owners had no income as rent was paid directly to the city. Soon owners became desperate to sell their property at severely reduced prices.[8]

The justification for razing the West End has also been called into question. Some say that, as one of the neighborhoods that supported the former mayor, it was in the political sights of the Hynes administration. The entire net cost of the project was $15.8 million, not including the additional loss of tax dollars for the years that the West End was vacant. It is uncertain as to whether the increased tax revenue would ever be enough to justify the costs.[9]

The negative effect of urban renewal on the former residents of the West End has been well documented. Between one quarter and one half of the former residents were relocated to substandard housing with higher rents than they were previously paying. Approximately 40% also suffer from severe long term grief reactions.[5] Many former residents share their memories and grief through the West Ender Newsletter, published with the tag line, "Printed in the Spirit of the Mid-Town Journal and Dedicated to Being the Collective Conscience of Urban Renewal and Eminent Domain in the City of Boston." [19] The destruction of the West End community led to a strong distaste for urban renewal in Boston.[4] In 2015, Boston Redevelopment Authority director Brian Golden officially apologized for the demolition of the neighborhood.[20]

West End today

Causeway Street, Boston, 2010

Today, the West End is a mixed-use commercial and residential area. A few non-residential areas were spared from the urban renewal of the 1950s, such as Massachusetts General Hospital, the Charles Street Jail, and the Bulfinch Triangle—a small section surrounded by Causeway, Merrimac, and North Washington Streets. Massachusetts General Hospital and the Charles Street Jail are located in the northwest section, while Government Center which was the former site of Scollay Square, comprises the southern section. Most of the northern section is covered by North Station and the TD Garden.

The character of the area prior to the urban renewal can still be seen in existing commercial and mixed use building of the Bulfinch Triangle. Here there are a few pubs and restaurants that feed off the traffic traveling to and from Faneuil Hall and the Garden. The residential areas that have been rebuilt are primarily upscale highrises, though the neighborhood is currently making strides to re-establish the close knit community that once was. The West End Museum currently has a permanent exhibition outlining the history of the neighborhood and its residents, while the West End Community Center hosts classes and events, in addition to putting on the annual West End Children's Festival.

42 Lomasney Way

Located in relative isolation on 900 Sq. ft. of land just to the southwest of the TD Garden is a four-level[21] brownstone apartment building. Known affectionately as "The Last Tenement", or "The Ideal Apartment for Celtics, Bruins fans";[22] it was built in the 1920s.[23] Number 42 Lomasney, is a remnant of the West End neighborhood where it was flanked within a row of 30 similar sized dwellings.[24] In the 1950s this building's neighbors were demolished as part of the city administration's plans for the area leading to standoff between the #42 Lomasney Way's owner and residents causing the city to eventually give up and merely build around it.[25][26] Today it stands as somewhat of a landmark of the working class neighborhood it once associated. The City of Boston estimates the property's value as roughly USD$0.6 Million as of 2015.[27] The building is not without occasional criticism, in 2013 an editorial carried in the Boston Phoenix nominated #42 as one of the ugliest buildings in Boston.[28]

Demographics

According to the City of Boston, the total population was 4,080 as of the 2010 United States Census. 75.2% of residents were white, 16.2% were Asian, and 8.4% were some other race. Housing in the West End was about 89.3% occupied.[29]

Image gallery

  • Almshouse, Leverett St., c. 1828

  • Overview of West End, c. 1850s

  • Fitchburg depot, Causeway Street, c. 1852

  • North Station, Causeway Street, c. 1903

  • Play area between Poplar and Chambers Street, December 4, 1952

  • North Market Street, April 29, 1966

  • 2007 view; the old Charles Street Jail buildings can be seen to the right.

  • The Boston Museum of Science, located in the West End

View of the West End, looking down from top of Beacon Hill, 19th century

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 O'Connor, Thomas H., The Hub: Boston Past and Present, Northeastern University Press Boston, 2001. ISBN 1-55553-474-0
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Whitehill, Walter Muir, and Kennedy, Lawrence W., Boston: A Topographical History 3rd Ed, Harvard University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-674-00267-9
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Gans, Herbert, J., The Urban Villagers: Group and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans, Free Press, 1962. ISBN 0-02-911240-0.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 O'Connor, Thomas H., Building a New Boston: Politics and Urban Renewal, Northern University Press, 1993. ISBN 1-55553-161-X
  6. ↑ O'Connor, Thomas H., Boston A to Z, Harvard University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-674-00310-1
  7. ↑ Benarsky, M. Leonard Nimoy, Boston Native, Dies at 83, Jamaica Plain Patch, February 27, 2015, 11:01am
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Jacobs, Jane, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, page 287. Random House Inc. NY, 1961. ISBN 0-679-74195-X.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Anderson, Martin, The Federal Bulldozer: A Critical Analysis of Urban Renewal 1949–1962, The MIT Press, 1964.
  10. ↑ Weaver, Robert C., Dilemmas of Urban America, Harvard University Press, 1966. ISBN 0-674-20700-9.
  11. ↑ Urban Renewal in New Haven and Boston, Transgression or Triumph p.13
  12. ↑ Mass Moments: Mayor Curley Jeopardizes Election
  13. ↑ Spartacus
  14. ↑ O'Connor, Thomas H., Building a New Boston: Politics and Urban Renewal, Northern University Press, 1993. pp. 126–27.
  15. ↑ City’s last tenement an island awash in modernity
  16. ↑ Simonian, Kane. Urban Redevelopment Division, Boston Housing Authority. The West End Project Report: A Redevelopment Study. Boston, March 1953. Accessed 24 July 2014.
  17. ↑ Jones, Michael, The Slaughter of Cities: Urban Renewal and Ethnic Cleansing p.524, St. Augustine's Press, South Bend, IN, 2004. ISBN 1-58731-775-3
  18. ↑ Jones, Michael, The Slaughter of Cities: Urban Renewal and Ethnic Cleansing p.175, St. Augustine's Press, South Bend, IN, 2004. ISBN 1-58731-775-3
  19. ↑ Belmont, Vivienne. “West End Residents Struggle to Raise Neighborhood's Profile: Old Loyalties Survive.” Boston: City in Transition.
  20. ↑ http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/09/28/bra-director-offers-formal-apology-for-west-end-demolition/lz7v4TLDdrmAG45FRxPIdK/story.html
  21. ↑ [1]
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Parcel ID: 0301075000 - 42 LOMASNEY WY City of Boston's Assessor's office
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ West End Neighborhood 2010 Census, cityofboston.gov

Further reading

External links

 Cambridge Charlestown Charlestown / Charles River
Charles River North End
  West End  
Back Bay Beacon Hill Financial District
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