H. H. Holmes
H.H. Holmes, widely considered to be the nation’s first serial killer, was apprehended after being tracked to the West End in 1894.
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Era: Immigrant Neighborhood (~1880-1960)
Immigration, first, second, and third-generation Americans, Settlement Houses, Irish politics, etc.
Sarah Josepha Buell Hale
Sarah Josepha Hale was one of the most successful women in writing and publishing in nineteenth-century America, and her letters and editorials were instrumental to the creation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Hale is connected to the old West End because one of her poems, “Mary’s Lamb,” was set to music by Lowell Mason at the Bowdoin School.
Veda Borg
Veda Borg was born in the old West End, and became “Boston’s own” as an actor in many movies from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Lawrence Berk
Lawrence Berk grew up in the West End, on the north slope of Beacon Hill, and founded the Berklee School of Music after pursuing his passion for music from a young age.
Mary Antin
Mary Antin, a Russian Jewish immigrant at the turn of the twentieth century, was a notable author who lived briefly in the tenements shared by immigrants in the old West End.
Hyman Bloom
Hyman Bloom was a Latvian immigrant to the West End who become the first Abstract Expressionist. His work features powerful – often morbid – themes juxtaposed with bright colors to create striking works of art.
Judge Elijah Adlow
Elijah Adlow, born in the old West End at the turn-of-the-century, had a long career as Chief Justice of the Boston Municipal Court, yet made decisions as a judge that have a questionable legacy.