The West End House, a Neighborhood Hub for Generations, is Demolished

Boston’s former West End House, one of the last remaining treasures of the old West End and a gathering spot for thousands of immigrant families, was demolished on Oct. 1, to make room for a new building for the Massachusetts General Hospital.

“It is genuinely sad,” said The West End Museum Dir. Sebastian Belfanti, who watched the demolition. “It is the end of an era.”

A vacant tenement on North Anderson Street was also flattened in September as part of the project. It has been more than 50 years since urban renewal altered the neighborhood forever.

The Winchell School, another vestige of a bygone era which sits next to the West End House on Blossom Street, is set to come down around Thanksgiving. The West End Museum has been working closely with MGH to preserve historic artifacts from the buildings, including slate blackboards, banisters, bookcases and some flooring.

Opened in 1906, the West End House offered clubs, classes, sports teams and more to families in the neighborhood. Standing four floors high, the building had a two-story basketball gym on the top floors. In 1962, as the neighborhood was being redrawn, the organization’s leadership sold the building to MGH and moved to a new building in Allston.

Joe Greenberg, who was born in 1944, lived in the old West End until he was 13 and his family was forced to leave. He spent countless hours of his childhood at the West End House, playing basketball, boxing, and taking classes. His father, Buddo, coached a basketball team which featured among its members a young Leonard Nimoy. Buddo was also a referee at the West End House and later became one of the first refs in the NBA.

“The West End House played a remarkably significant part of my early childhood,” said Greenberg. “Without it, my life would be amazingly different.”

Belfanti said MGH is providing a “significant amount of economic support for the Museum and the community,” as remediation for tearing down these old West End buildings.

Learn more about the West End House at https://thewestendmuseum.org/article/west-end-house/.