Immigrant NeighborhoodModernNew BostonTransportation & IndustryWest Boston A grand arch adjoining two long buildings and a gothic structure. People, horses and street cars are shown in the foreground.

The Many Faces of North Station

For tens of thousands of daily commuters, North Station is a final destination to work and a starting point for home. For many others, it is a stop along the way to somewhere else. But few of today’s commuters know that over the past two centuries, there have actually been several train stations in the West End– built in grand style – that predated the North Station we know today.

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Immigrant NeighborhoodNeighborhood LifeSportsWomen photograph of a paper program with text Boston Garden presents Colonel W.T. Johnson's Rodeo, November 2 to 11, 25 cents, official program with illustration of a cowboy riding a horse

The Wild West in the West End: The Boston Garden Rodeo

In 1931, just three years after its opening, the Boston Garden hosted a new sports phenomenon sweeping the East Coast; the indoor urban rodeos of the kind produced by entrepreneur and cattleman Col. W. T. Johnson. These rodeos in the West End gave eastern sports fans a rare opportunity to relish in the romanticized cowboy image of the bygone American frontier, while also enjoying skillful, and often dangerous, feats of athleticism. Fans of these rodeos were also witnesses to the emergence of professional female sports and the birth of an organized rodeo profession.

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Immigrant NeighborhoodSports An ornate yellow ticket listing a $10 price, Sect5ion E, Row H, Seat 14, and a picture of the old Boston Garden

Fight Night: West End Boxers featured on the Old Boston Garden’s opening night

When the gates of the newly-built Boston Garden opened in November of 1928, ticket holders flooded in to witness a world championship match befitting a celebration surrounding the city’s new sports venue. Local boxers from Boston also had the honor of appearing that night, including a teenage amateur champ from the West End named Arthur “Hy” Diamond. Diamond was just one representative of a West End sporting culture whose fame spread far beyond the confines of this small, immigrant neighborhood.

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