Bashka “Bessie” Paeff: Sculptor
Though her humble immigrant background set her apart from her more affluent contemporaries, West Ender Bashka Paeff became a highly regarded member of the national arts establishment.
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Era: Immigrant Neighborhood (~1880-1960)
Immigration, first, second, and third-generation Americans, Settlement Houses, Irish politics, etc.
The Boston-1915 Movement and the West End
The Boston-1915 Committee was formed in 1909 to improve conditions in Boston and to make it “the finest city in the world” by 1915. For many West Enders, Boston-1915 represented the promise of a brighter future, but none of them could have foreseen that some of the movement’s ideas would inspire city leaders to demolish the West End half a century later.
President Calvin Coolidge and the Klayman Family of the West End
In 1923, Annie, Jennie, and Rosie Klayman emigrated from Poland to reunite with their parents who lived on 16 Anderson St. in the West End. After arriving, the Klayman sisters were nearly deported because of restrictive immigration quotas, until President Calvin Coolidge intervened to let them stay in the United States.
The Many Faces of North Station
For tens of thousands of daily commuters, North Station is a final destination to work and a starting point for home. For many others, it is a stop along the way to somewhere else. But few of today’s commuters know that over the past two centuries, there have actually been several train stations in the West End– built in grand style – that predated the North Station we know today.
The Boston Museum: A Pioneer in Boston’s Early Live Entertainment Scene
In an age of ongoing Puritan restrictions on theatrical shows, Moses Kimball founded the Boston Museum as a venue which bowed to the cultural aspirations and respectability of mid-19th Century Boston, but at the same time gave the people what they wanted; live performances. Before the renowned Howard Athenaeum (and later the Old Howard) had opened its doors across the square, the Boston Museum attracted large audiences to the Scollay Square area to witness music, drama, and even moral instruction on stage.
Dr. Charles Wilinsky and the West End’s First Health Center
Dr. Charles Wilinsky, a Polish immigrant who cared for West Enders at his private medical practice, founded the neighborhood’s first dedicated health center to centralize disparate healthcare services and educate West Enders in preventative healthcare practices.
The Wild West in the West End: The Boston Garden Rodeo
In 1931, just three years after its opening, the Boston Garden hosted a new sports phenomenon sweeping the East Coast; the indoor urban rodeos of the kind produced by entrepreneur and cattleman Col. W. T. Johnson. These rodeos in the West End gave eastern sports fans a rare opportunity to relish in the romanticized cowboy image of the bygone American frontier, while also enjoying skillful, and often dangerous, feats of athleticism. Fans of these rodeos were also witnesses to the emergence of professional female sports and the birth of an organized rodeo profession.
The Home for Aged Colored Women
The Home for Aged Colored Women was founded in the historic West End, on the north slope of Beacon Hill in 1860. The organization’s objective was to financially support and house elderly and poor Black women being turned away from existing charitable institutions. The organization raised enough funds to build an institution that served the community through the 1940s.