West End, Boston, Massachusetts
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The West End of Boston, Massachusetts is a neighborhood bounded generally by Cambridge Street to the south, the Charles River to the west and northwest, Martha Road and Lomasney Way on the north and northeast, and Staniford Street on the east. Beacon Hill is to the south, and the North End is to the east. However, the area is widely known because a late 1950s urban renewal project razed a large Italian and Jewish neighborhood to redevelop the area.
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[edit] History
The neighborhood prior to Redevelopment had declined into a poor residential area with scattered businesses this was laid out much like the north end with meandering small roads. At the end of this period Mayor Curley was running the city with an iron fist. His tactics to blame the woes of the poor on the wealthy 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. [1]’’
Mayor Curley's administration's "policies all but ignored the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) and Yankee business community"[2]. Even with the corruption charges that surrounded him Curley was seen as a people's mayor[3].
When the John B. Hynes administration came into power in Boston they made an about face on this mentality. Hynes wanted to return prosperity to Boston and Hurley worked with business leaders and formed the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
West Boston got caught in the center of this feud being one of the neighborhoods that supported the former mayor it was now in the political sights of the new powers. The BRA used the federal housing act of 1949 to raze the West End to the ground. A few non-residential areas were spared the wrath such as Massachusetts General Hospital and the Charles Street Jail and a small section surrounded by Causeway, Merrimac, and Market Streets. The area was subdivided into Big Blocks.
[edit] Current
Today, the West End is a mixed-use commercial and residential area. Massachusetts General Hospital and the Charles Street Jail are located in the northwest section, while Government Center comprises the southern section. Most of the northern section is covered by North Station and the TD Banknorth Garden .
The character of the area prior to the urban renewal can still be seen in existing commercial and mixed use building surrounded by Causeway, Merrimac, and Market Streets. 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 were rebuilt were primarily upscale highrises.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=317 Mass Moments: Mayor Curley Jeopardizes Election
- ^ http://www.curp.neu.edu/pdfs/Grauds_Urban_Renewal_Boston_NewHaven.pdf Urban Renewal in New Haven and Boston, Transgression or Triumphpg13
- ^ http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAcurley.htm
[edit] Bibliography
- Gans, Herbert, J., "The Urban Villagers: Group and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans ", Free Press, 1962. ISBN 0029112400.
[edit] External links
- "Born Again," from The Boston Globe
- 1963 article by Nathan Glazer, reviewing The Urban Villagers: Group and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans by Herbert J. Gans
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