Topic: African Americans
Black West Enders, other Black Americans

AbolitionAfrican AmericansWest BostonWomen Photograph of a Black woman seated, wearing a long dark dress.

Harriet Bell Hayden

Harriet Hayden was born enslaved, fought for her freedom, and aided hundreds of southern escapees by housing, feeding, and protecting them. She did this all while raising a family, running a boarding house, learning to read and write, and becoming an activist and community leader. Without her efforts, the many accomplishments of her husband, Lewis Hayden, would not have been possible.

Read article
African AmericansImmigrant NeighborhoodImmigrationNeighborhood LifeWomen

Boarding Houses in the West End

Boarding Houses played an important role in the housing system during the age of industrialization and immigration in Boston and the West End. Along with lodging and rooming houses, they were the only alternative for those in need of affordable and transitional living space in the neighborhood until the arrival of tenements and apartment buildings. Boarding houses also offered women of the period one of the few ways to earn a decent income.

Read article
African AmericansNeighborhood LifeNew BostonUrban Renewal Photograph of a man wearing glasses and sweater sitting in a chair and gesturing with his hands.

Richie Nedd

Richie Nedd was one of the historic West End’s Black residents and a board member of The West End Museum before his passing in 2011. Nedd’s article for the June 1998 issue of The West Ender, “A Black Man’s View of the West End,” features he and other Black residents coming together in reunions of hundreds of West Enders after urban renewal.

Read article
African AmericansCity PlanningNew BostonUrban Renewal Image from a newspaper articles showing a man with short hair and a beard wearing a jacket. He is standing in a wooded area with a two-story wooden house in the background.

John Moore’s North Slope Story

John Moore understood himself to be a West Ender when he grew up on Grove Street on the north slope of present-day Beacon Hill. The demolition of fifty acres of the historic West End and the preservation of the Beacon Hill Architectural District were simultaneous, influencing popular perceptions of the boundaries not just of Boston’s contemporary neighborhoods, but its historic ones as well.

Read article