Boston Redevelopment Authority to Partner with West End Museum on New Exhibition

The Boston Redevelopment Authority is making nice with the neighborhood it once used its power to demolish, in an effort to extend that power another 10 years.

The BRA is partnering with the West End Museum on a new exhibition, titled “Dewey Defeats Truman/The Housing Act of 1949.” It will feature maps, archival photos, and documents detailing the passage of the landmark legislation, which expanded the federal government’s role in public housing and paved the way for a new, controversial urban planning strategy called “slum clearance.”

“Although it helped jumpstart Boston’s long-term economic growth, the redevelopment of the West End and Scollay Square (now Government Center) are often cited as examples of urban renewal’s overreach, as large areas of the old city were demolished to make way for new housing and infrastructure such as highways,” the BRA said in a release.