Era: Other
Events taking place outside of Boston and/or the West End era framework
Eminent Domain Part 1: Origins Eminent domain is the right of the state to seize the private property of an individual for a public purpose with just compensation. This article will trace the origins of the concept from Ancient Roman law to its use in Early Modern states. The formal concept of eminent domain is…
In 1625, the Shawmut Peninsula, home to modern day Boston, was known in the Algonquian language as “Mushauwomuk” (“the boat landing place”), and sat within the territory of the Massachuset nation, serving as a seasonal base for fishing and light farming. Within ten years, the Massachuset people lost the Shawmut to English settlers who claimed and occupied it as their land of promise.
Arguably the most famous arts facility in the world, Lincoln Center is a present-day, glittering example of American urban renewal gone wrong.
Urban renewal in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, over the past few decades has prioritized “slum clearance” with uneven results, and failed to ensure affordable housing for all of the city’s poor. Comparing urban renewal in Cairo to the West End suggests shared global challenges for urban redevelopment which remain with us today.
Raymond Reddick, a lifelong Boston resident who is now 74 years old, has spent decades collecting, documenting, and speaking to different audiences about his extensive African-American family history with deep ties to the historic West End. After his grandmother, Ruthena Felton King Reddick, passed away in 1985, Ray began his ongoing genealogical research, which started with stories from family members and countless boxes of family artifacts in his possession. Ray Reddick approached The West End Museum to collaborate on a project that highlights his nineteenth-century ancestors — West Enders and Black Bostonians — captivating lives. Northeastern University’s Reckonings project has collaborated with Reddick and The West End Museum to produce, after a series of oral history interviews, a two-part, co-created report that spotlights Ray Reddick’s family history.
Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann created modern Paris through ambitious urban renewal projects over almost 20 years (1853-1871), but he displaced thousands of working-class Parisians through demolition and slum clearance.
