Topic: City Planning
City planning and design, built environments, urban planners, parks, roads

City PlanningModernNeighborhood LifeNew BostonNew FieldsUrban RenewalWest Boston

The Secrets of Ridgeway Lane

Easily missed as one trundles down Cambridge Street or behind the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House, Ridgeway Lane in the historic West End is one of Boston’s longest and narrowest streets. Often mistaken for a simple alley, it has served ropewalk workers, residents, Suffolk University students, and the occasional criminal on the run for over 250 years. As one walks the length of this dark road, surrounded by brick on both sides and heavy paving stones below, it is hard to imagine much life here. Yet, hidden, urban pathways like Ridgeway Lane hold many stories worth telling.

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BusinessCity PlanningTransportation & IndustryWest Boston Photograph of a row of multi-story brick buildings with a dug out area of earth framed by wooden boards with workmen around it.

The Middlesex Canal: Massachusetts’ First Big Dig

Two hundred years before construction began on the Ted Williams tunnel, businessmen in post-revolution Boston sought to improve upon dirt and gravel paths used to bring inland goods to the growing port city. The result not only helped New England become an economic driver in the early 19th century, but acted as a blueprint for future engineering endeavors in the young United States of America.

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BusinessCity PlanningImmigrant NeighborhoodPolitics & LawSchools & EducationSocial & Religious InstitutionsSportsTransportation & IndustryUrban Renewal Magazine cover with the words 1915 New Boston written across the top and above a scene of the city of Boston viewed from the harbor with boats and people in the foreground and framed by two large pillars topped with birds with out-stretched wings

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.

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Art & LiteratureCity PlanningNeighborhood LifePolitics & LawUrban RenewalWest BostonYankees & Brahmins Pemberton Square (man with bicycle by tree)

The Hidden History of Pemberton Square

Bostonians familiar with the demolition of the West End may not know how another once-prominent location in the city disappeared from the map. This spot, located on Beacon Hill, was designed for the homes of wealthy Boston families, and was established at about the same time as another famous residential location further down “the Hill.” But, unlike Louisburg Square, which is today synonymous with old Brahmin Boston, Pemberton Square remains largely forgotten, its remnants barely visible.

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