"Among the many transformations that Boston has undergone in its more than 300-year history, one of the most dramatic is the destruction of the West End in the late 1950s. Now known for its high rises, medical facilities, and TD Garden, the neighborhood’s past as a vibrant multi-ethnic, multi-religious immigrant enclave is one of the most poignant parts of  'Lost Boston...'"

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"Boston's schools have always been an important part of the community! Early in the 20th century, Boston’s public school system expanded rapidly.

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One of the new schools built to accommodate the expanding population was the Washington School, in the West End

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Named for George Washington, and established in 1904, the school served a primarily immigrant population. By 1905, the City had created a “summer school” where children could come while their parents were working, and could participate in dance, gymnastics, or arts and crafts like sewing or woodwork..."

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"In the 1950s, the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) announced plans to "redevelop" the West End, a working-class, largely immigrant neighborhood. The BHA described the West End, a primarily residential area, as overcrowded.

 

Immigrants from Ireland and Southern and Eastern Europe made the West End their home beginning in the 1800s. At the time of the announcement in 1953, the BHA declared that 25 percent of West End residents were immigrants, mostly from Italy, Poland, and the U.S.S.R..."

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"Residents were arrested, tomatoes were thrown, furniture was tossed into the street. In a David-and-Goliath-esque standoff, a small Allston neighborhood banded together to save their community from destruction.

 

On Thanksgiving of 1964, residents of Barry’s Corner in Allston received letters that their homes were being seized by eminent domain to be torn down in an effort to redevelop the area.  By June of that year, most residents of Barry’s Corner had left to avoid eviction, and in August of 1965, the Boston Redevelopment Authority sent moving vans to forcibly evict those remaining..."

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"Boston is a city known for its firsts. First subway, first public park, first public library, and unbeknownst to many, the first school training social workers.

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The Boston School for Social Workers, now Simmons University’s School of Social Work, was the first institution in the United States to grant degrees in Social Work, pioneering education for a field that had yet to define itself when its first graduates walked in the door in 1904..."

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"If you put 15 Hanover Street into a GPS, it will bring you to the middle of a crosswalk looking toward Government Center, next to the Holocaust Memorial. On the street now buried underneath City Hall, there used to be a popular, fun spot: the Crawford Bowladrome, a seven-lane, 10-pin bowling alley.

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Anthony D. Grande opened the Crawford Bowladrome on September 8, 1938. Bowling flourished as the Great Depression lifted, when American families were able to earn some more spending money and enjoy leisure activities..."

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"What characteristics do you think of when you hear the word "slum"? Deteriorated infrastructure? Closely packed? 

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Does the photo above depict a slum or does it depict a bustling urban neighborhood? 

Looking at the images above, reflect on how you would identify a slum versus an urban center. The photograph above is from the West End prior to the neighborhood’s demolition, which proponents defended as urban renewal. The photo shows Cambridge Street looking northwest to Blossom Street around 1958..."

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"From the outside, the Elizabeth Peabody House was an unassuming building in Boston’s West End, before the neighborhood was bulldozed in the late 1950s in the name of urban renewal. The facade was plain: just bricks and windows. Looking at the building on Charles Street, a passerby would not expect the bustling community space on the other side of those doors..."

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"The West End of Boston was once a diverse, bustling, working-class neighborhood of Boston. Then, in the 1950s, the Boston Housing Authority began tearing down entire streets and displacing thousands of people...

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On the surface it seems like a typical 1950s Boston street. A bustling liquor store on the corner, cars lining the street, small groups of men having a smoke and a chat in gruff accents. Perhaps they are discussing the most pressing news of the day or maybe catching up after a busy week. This image becomes interesting when you look closer at the other storefront in the picture..."

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"At the beginning of the twentieth century, interest in public health and child welfare grew. 

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Local Boston physicians also began to recognize that public health needs were not being met. John and Mary Forsyth established the  Forsyth Institute to address some of these needs.

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At its opening, Thomas Forsyth remarked, 'the Infirmary should be a home to the children, beautiful and cheerful; a protector of their health, a refuge in their pain...'"

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