The West End Museum Welcomes New Members to its Board of Directors
The West End Museum is pleased to announce four new members to its Board of Directors this year. Each brings lived experience in the West End, along with new areas of expertise. Let’s meet them.
Leland Alexander
Supt., Kaplan Construction
Alexander is a superintendent at Kaplan Construction with experience in practical field work and onsite supervision. He’s also a West End Museum volunteer who has worked on exhibit projects.
“My primary goal as a board member is to provide knowledge as a business owner and construction professional to assist with the strengthening of the West End story,” Alexander said.
“The way the West End was demolished was no mystery to the residents and people of the time, but the story of the West End hasn’t quite ingrained itself into the culture and current Boston landscape. I would like to see an increase in its prominence over the next five years. I would also like to see an update to the spaces, exhibits, and operation of the Museum.”
Chad Kindegran
Partner, Beacon Hill Law Group
Kindegran grew up in the West End, attended the Peter Faneuil School and Boston Latin School, and graduated from Suffolk Law. He lives at West End Place.
“I have fond memories of the Madison Hotel, the old Garden/North Station (and its Iron Horse Saloon), and the remaining tenements on what is now Lomasney Way.
“For me, the West End is my neighborhood and the area where I grew up,” Kindegran continued. “The history — both the good and the bad — is fascinating and it serves as a lesson on urban planning and the pros and cons of urban renewal. The Museum is essential to remembering and preserving history.”
Kindegran also hopes the Museum will start to include more recent history.
“There has to be more of a recognition and incorporation of the ongoing history of the West End, as the changes continue to this day. I think ‘new’ West Enders and visitors will be fascinated by the entirety of the history and feel they are in some way a part of the ongoing story of the West End, if we can continue to record and preserve the changes over time.”
Daniel McGrath
Berkeley Investments Sr. Vice President, Dir. of Asset Management
McGrath has been fascinated with Boston history since growing up in Brockton. His dad was from Dorchester and his grandfather was a Boston police officer. McGrath studied urban history at Harvard University and wrote his senior thesis on the West End, including the urban renewal project.
“I hope to play a role in encouraging the type of museum experience that doesn’t simply celebrate the past, but that actually challenges the visitor to think more deeply about history and how that history continues to shape the present,” he said.
McGrath has several goals for the Museum, including engaging with current West End residents and businesses, ensuring the history of the West End is captured beyond the urban renewal project, and partnering with other museums and institutions in the area to expand The West End Museum’s audience and programming.
Jane Wilson
Past President, West End Civic Association
Wilson is a long-time West Ender who recently led the West End Civic Association and is now bringing her excitement and dedication to the West End Museum.
Wilson has worked closely with the Boston Preservation Alliance on many of the Massachusetts General Hospital expansion projects and is a liaison to several West End organizations.
Her main goal as a board member is to increase membership. “We must bring in young neighbors in addition to the original displaced West End stalwarts,” she said.
She is also looking forward to new exhibits, funding, and media exposure.
“I know no other neighborhood with its own museum,” Wilson said. “Truly, our museum is unique and a wonderful repository of the history of a neighborhood that was obliterated by senselessly destructive development. The Museum teaches us the value of both history and community.”
Alexander, Kindegran, McGrath and Wilson join current West End Museum Board members Duane Lucia (President), Michael Gropman (Vice President), Lois Ascher (Secretary), Amanda Valenta (Treasurer), Bob Campanella, Bruce Guarino, Richard Hartnett, Bill Kuttner, Andy Matteis, Joe McDonald and Tom Palmer.
For more information about The West End Museum Board, click here.