Era: Immigrant Neighborhood (~1880-1960)
Immigration, first, second, and third-generation Americans, Settlement Houses, Irish politics, etc.
Historic New Year’s Celebrations in the West End The West End was home to many New Year’s celebrations at sites of community for the neighborhood’s Black residents, Polish Catholic residents, and Jewish residents. Like all neighborhoods of Boston, and the entire country, the West End has been home to many distinct celebrations of the new…
Before the City of Boston widened Chardon Street in the 1930s to develop the area around Haymarket Square, West Enders voiced their support for widening the street on a grassroots level.
Harry “Buddo” Greenberg, a long-time West End resident, was an experienced basketball referee who liked to call a fast-paced game. The way he called games helped shape the direction of what became the NBA.
In 1946, two of John F. Kennedy’s Democratic primary opponents for Massachusetts’ Eleventh Congressional District were from the West End, and both were named Joe Russo. One was a popular city councillor and undertaker, the other a janitor who entered the race under suspect circumstances.
A report on the population of the West End from the late colonial period through the modern day.
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.
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, 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.
