Life On The Corner: The West End, Part 1

There are still a few of us left who remember when the West End was demolished and replaced with Charles River Park. It’s a sad story and one that has always been of particular interest to me because my wife was born there and because so many West Enders moved to the North End. One of the most perplexing aspects of this was always why the city chose to raze the West End and not the North End? At first glance it made little sense. The West End had larger apartments almost all of which had central heat and hot water. Compared to the North End, few families had to share toilets and the population was much more ethnically diverse than the mainly Italian North End. It’s an interesting story and, like all Boston stories, it involved politics, money, power, prejudice and race. The only thing missing was sex but even that may have played a small, supporting role.