Topic: City Planning
City planning and design, built environments, urban planners, parks, roads
Charles Bulfinch and his architecture transformed Boston during the Federalist era. Many of his works, such as the Massachusetts State House, still grace the city today. One of his now lost and lesser known buildings, the Parkman Market, served the West End as a public market, a factory, and an early home of St. Joseph’s congregation. Despite its historic significance, it did not survive Urban Renewal.
Urban renewal is a process that aims to revitalize and transform urban areas to meet changing societal needs, but it can also have far-reaching consequences, particularly in terms of population and housing dynamics.
West End Place, the mixed-income condominium complex on Staniford Street, is the home of The West End Museum. West End Place, like the Museum, owes its existence to the dedicated activism of displaced former residents who hoped to right the wrongs of urban renewal.
Summer in Boston is a celebrated, if too short, season for residents and visitors alike. In recent years, however, more frequent heat waves and extended periods of above-average temperatures have sometimes created dangerous conditions for many city residents…but not all.
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.
Arguably the most famous arts facility in the world, Lincoln Center is a present-day, glittering example of American urban renewal gone wrong.
James “Jim” Campano dedicated his life to preserving the memory of his beloved West End as a protester, journalist, and historian.
Scollay Square was a popular Boston hot spot for nightlife during the first half of the 20th century, with its vaudeville theaters, bars, and sideshow attractions. Long chided by local politicians for its perceived physical and moral decay, in 1963 the City of Boston completely demolished the area as part of an urban renewal project. Though often viewed within the broader context of the West End’s redevelopment, Scollay Square’s final chapter can also be understood through the lens of World War II, the growth of Boston’s Navy Yard, and the demographic shifts at the war’s conclusion.
