Topic: Women
Women’s issues, suffrage, girls, anyone using she/her pronouns
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
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, educator, publisher, reformer, and namesake of the West End’s Elizabeth Peabody House, was one of the most important figures in Boston’s 19th-century intellectual community. Of all her achievements, perhaps her most impactful was the introduction of English-language kindergartens to the United States.
Read article
Like many fellow West Enders of her day, Dorothy Pastore relished an afternoon escape to the Lancaster Theater. There, neighborhood children from diverse backgrounds would join together and enjoy a break from the stresses of school and everyday life. Such experiences reinforced the notion of the West End as an urban village.
Read article
As emancipated men, women, and children migrated north after the Civil War, the need for Black boarding houses increased greatly. In the West End a large concentration of Black, women-operated boarding houses became home for many of these newly-freed people.
Read article
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
In September 1886, an unofficial boxing match took place on Staniford Street between two young girls, Lizzie and Mollie. The bout involved a makeshift ring, drawn-up terms, a referee, and two-hundred young people in a crowd. When a police officer arrived, the fight quickly ended, but the event made front-page news, and linked the West End to a century-old tradition of women and girls’ boxing in 1700s Britain.
Read article
The Temporary Home for Women and Children located on New Chardon Street in Boston’s West End was one of the first family shelters in the country. From its start as a small home on Charles Street, it has cared for women and children in need for over 150 years.
Read article
The Old West Church, standing at 131 Cambridge St, is one of the few surviving buildings of the historic West End. Since its opening in 1806, the building has served as a church, a library, a shelter, and a church again. It continues to hold masses and contribute to the Boston community today.
Read article