Population Over Time in the West End
A report on the population of the West End from the late colonial period through the modern day.
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Era: Immigrant Neighborhood (~1880-1960)
Immigration, first, second, and third-generation Americans, Settlement Houses, Irish politics, etc.
Sgt. Salvatore J. Cassaro Receives the Flag of Boston
Sgt. Salvatore J. Cassaro was a West Ender who served in the United States Army during the Korean War. Mayor John Hynes honored Cassaro’s request for a flag of the City of Boston that he could fly over his gun position, demonstrating pride in where he came from.
The American Waltham Watch Company Band and the West End’s “Pop” Concert in 1911
One night in the summer of 1911, West Enders enjoyed a free concert on the Esplanade by the American Waltham Watch Company Band, one of the many in-house corporate bands performing at the turn of the twentieth century.
Marilyn Hurvitz’s Vegetable Garden
Marilyn Hurvitz, an eleven-year-old girl of Polish descent in the West End, took pride in growing a vegetable garden that was ordinarily inaccessible in tenement life.
The Elizabeth Peabody House
One of the West End’s most prominent settlement houses, the EPH served as a community center, education space, and more for more than half a century in the West End, and continues its work today in Somerville.
Italian-American West Enders’ Fight for Citizenship in the 1950s
Two Italian-American West Enders fought for their legal right to live in the United States during the 1950s, with varying degrees of success. These cases reveal how the “immigrant era” of the West End continued after the 1920s, the traditional ending of that period.
Boralma the Racehorse, and His Gift to the West End Nursery and Infants’ Hospital
Boston stockbroker Thomas W. Lawson owned a racehorse, Boralma, who won $5000 in Kentucky’s Transylvania Stakes in 1900. The earnings were donated to the West End Nursery and Infants’ Hospital, with an amusing letter exchange between “Boralma” and “The Babies.”
Walking Competitions: A West End Pastime
Pedestrianism, or competitive walking, was a nationally popular sport in the 1870s and 1880s. The old West End was captivated by local competitions and news of world record-breaking pedestrians such as Boston’s Frank Hart, the most successful African-American pedestrian in the 1880s.