Era: New Boston(~1950-1995)
Urban renewal, the taking, Government Center, Charles River Park, highways, bussing

City PlanningImmigrant NeighborhoodNew BostonUrban Renewal An aerial plan of the neighborhood of Charlestown, showing a large number of buildings colored in, coded with needing "serious" or "major" repairs.

Urban Renewal in Boston’s Charlestown Neighborhood and Lessons Learned from the West End

Boston’s urban landscape has been dramatically shaped by urban renewal initiatives of the mid-20th century. Among the most notable examples are the West End and Charlestown—two historic neighborhoods with starkly divergent urban renewal results. While the West End became the poster child for urban renewal’s destructive potential, Charlestown had a very different outcome only a few years later. This article examines these contrasting urban renewal experiences, highlighting their implementation approaches, community responses, and lasting impacts on Boston’s urban fabric.

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Art & LiteratureImmigrant NeighborhoodModernNew BostonSocial & Religious InstitutionsWest Boston A black and white drawing of cruciform-layout building, filled with large arched windows and topped with a central rotunda.

The Charles Street Jail

Charles Street Jail stands as a landmark of major national significance, both as a key example of the Boston Granite Style of architecture and as the embodiment of mid-nineteenth-century penal reform movements. The jail’s history was marked by dramatic shifts: initially celebrated as an architectural and reformist triumph at its opening in 1851; later decried for its “cruel and unusual” conditions in the 20th century, prompting its closure; before being reinvented as a luxury hotel in the 21st century.

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City PlanningModernNew BostonReports & AnalysisUrban Renewal A black and white photograph of two high-rise apartments being built. In front of them is an advertisement for a new apartment complex labelled: "Charles River Park."

Affordable Housing in the West End: Initial Plans and Current Realities

The story of urban renewal in the West End is a complex one, marked by both ambitious plans and challenging realities when it comes to affordable housing. Over the past seventy years, the West End has served as a cautionary tale, full of broken promises and ongoing struggles for income-restricted housing. More recent efforts, such as the affordable housing initiative that is part of the redevelopment of the West End branch of the Boston Public Library, look to address this past.

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Art & LiteratureNew BostonUrban Renewal A black and white photograph of a woman wearing a dress, heels, and a jacket, standing in front of a crane.

Claudia Kelty & Stephen Edgell: Photographers of the West End’s Demolition, Part II

From 1958 to 1960, Claudia Kelty and Stephen Edgell systematically photographed the demolition of the West End neighborhood, street by street. The Edgells continued their involvement in post-demolition West End activities, creating an (unpublished) book on the West End and becoming members of the West End Historical Committee, and later its successor, the West End Historical Association. In March of 2023, their son, Stephen Edgell Jr., donated their extensive collection to The West End Museum, including records, art, ephemera, and, most significantly, the 1,700 photographs that his parents took during the West End Project.

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Art & LiteratureImmigrant NeighborhoodNew BostonUrban Renewal A black and white photograph of a man standing behind a movie camera with destroyed buildings in the background.

Charles Frani: Photographers of the West End’s Demolition, Part I

Charles J. “Frani” Zanfani (1922-2001), born in Boston to Italian immigrant parents, first moved to the West End with his family in the 1950s. Displaced by the West End urban renewal project to the North Slope of Beacon Hill, Frani devoted the 1960s to meticulously photographing the destruction of the neighborhood. His photographic collection, preserved at The West End Museum, offers a poignant view into Urban Renewal and its devastating effects on the community.

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New BostonUrban Renewal A 3-D model for Boston's Government Center, showing roads and concrete buildings.

West End Brutalism

Boston’s brutalist buildings are divisive, having inspired decades of both contempt and praise. The Government Center Project and its brutalist structures are the result of, and symbols of, debates surrounding urban renewal planning in the 1950s and ‘60s. The divergence in opinions between architectural and political elites and ordinary people is illustrative of larger issues and trends related to the Urban Renewal and New Boston movements.

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City PlanningNew BostonPolitics & LawUrban Renewal "A Guide to Slum Clearance and Urban Development," which outlines Housing Act of 1949

The Creation of the US Federal Urban Renewal Program

While the demolition of the West End began in 1958, the momentum for its destruction and for the federal urban renewal program itself began 20 years earlier, in the aftermath of the Great Depression. The Housing Act of 1949 would later mark the official birth of the federal Urban Renewal Program. Although it aimed to revitalize struggling inner cities, it often did so at the expense of established communities and displaced residents.

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