Man who worked on demolition crew recalls the razing of Boston’s West End

For the first time ever, the West End Museum is hosting a guest speaker who worked on one of the demolition crews that razed much of the neighborhood in the late 1950s.

Tom Hynes, co-chairman and chief executive officer of Colliers International’s Boston office, will speak at the museum Thursday and talk about his experiences working as a laborer in the West End on the controversial urban renewal project that bulldozed what was once one of the city’s most densely populated and diverse neighborhoods. The demolition of the West End not only resulted in the redevelopment of 46 acres of land but also displaced 2,700 families in the process, according to the City of Boston Archives.