Topic: Social & Religious Institutions
Settlement houses, churches, almshouses, women’s shelters, synagogues, priests, social workers
The West End Dante Alighieri Lodge, a chapter of the Order Sons of Italy, was founded on November 28, 1926. The Order Sons of Italy reflected the values held by the West End’s Italian-American immigrant community in the early twentieth century.
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.
James Butler (1845-1921) was a famous rower who lived most of his life in the West End after his family came to the US from Ireland. He was instrumental in founding the West End Boat Club on the Charles River in 1865, and won many races with his brother, Thomas Butler.
Asher Benjamin designed the Old West Church (1806) and Charles Street Meetinghouse (1807) in the West End, based upon the Federal style of architecture most commonly associated with Charles Bulfinch and many New England homes and churches. The Old West Church has survived multiple waves of redevelopment in the West End due to its historical significance.
Fanny Goldstein, as head librarian of the West End Branch library from 1919 to 1957, bridged the West End’s diverse communities through literary exhibits and events such as “Jewish Book Week.” Goldstein, who immigrated from Russia as a young child and resided on Joy Street, was a true West End community leader.
George Washington Forbes was hired by the West End Branch of the Boston Public Library when it opened in 1896, and thus became the first Black librarian working in the BPL system. At the West End Branch, Forbes served the neighborhood’s Black and Jewish communities until his passing in 1927.
At New York’s 1939-40 World’s Fair, a young man from the West End presented the Chemical Man, a working model of the human digestive system.
In the early twentieth century, the West End House hosted debates between high school literary societies on controversial and important issues. The debates were judged by lawyers and educators in Boston and adopted the format of competitions at the collegiate level.
