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.

In 1987, the Boston Globe  interviewed John Moore, an African-American social worker whose family home was on Grove Street on the north slope of Beacon Hill, about his memories of the West End. Moore recalled that in his mind, the north slope was always part of the West End, despite the popular association of Boston’s historic Black neighborhood with Beacon Hill. He said, “I say I grew up in the West End, never say Beacon Hill. I say Grove Street. They say, ‘Isn’t that Beacon Hill?’ We didn’t consider it Beacon Hill. We considered the West End from Myrtle Street down to North Station.” The discrepancy between Moore’s memories of Boston and others’ perception that he was from Beacon Hill had everything to do with urban renewal in the West End.

The demolition of the historic West End began in 1958, when Moore was eleven years old. The  zone of destruction reached to Cambridge Street, sparing the north slope across the street. The Beacon Hill Architectural District, first established by the City of Boston in 1955, incorporated the north slope into Beacon Hill in 1963, the year after Beacon Hill was designated a National Historic Landmark. The purpose of the Beacon Hill Architectural District was “to maintain [it] as a landmark in the history of architecture and as a tangible reminder of old Boston as it existed in the early days of the Commonwealth.” The City’s interest in maintaining historic architecture also spared the Otis House and the Old West Church on Cambridge Street during urban renewal. Yet many historic buildings, throughout the fifty acres of the West End demolished by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), did not survive urban memories of Boston. Abbott Lowell Cummings, the architect who was a leading expert on early New England architecture, opposed “slum clearance” in the West End for that reason.

The north slope of the historic West End could be distinguished by building type; the nicer, more expensive buildings on the south slope were typically associated with Beacon Hill, while the north slope had cheaper properties. The West End was home to Boston’s thriving African-American community of abolitionists, ministers, laborers, and business owners on the north slope in the 19th century. Much of this community moved to the South End by 1900, following the migration of churches (such as the congregation of the African Meeting House moving from the north slope to the South End in 1898). Yet many Black families remained on the north slope, such as the Moores. Moore was born in 1948, and his parents grew up on or around Joy Street on the north slope. As a child, Moore played touch football and stick ball with white children in the West End, an example of the diverse relationships that transcended race and religion in the neighborhood.

When the Globe interviewed Moore about growing up in the West End, he was a social worker for the Mental Health Department at the Roxbury Municipal Court. Moore was active in the Black community as an activist and member of the Charles Street AME Church in Roxbury, where he mentored youth. The Charles Street AME Church was founded on the north slope in 1833 and moved to Roxbury in 1939 – the last Black church to leave the north slope. Moore graduated from the University of Massachusetts Boston and received his master’s degree in social service from the Boston University School of Social Work in 1976. In 1987, Moore was hired by Boston College as a part-time faculty member in the Graduate School of Social Work, where he supervised graduate students placed in assignments with the Boston Public Schools.

John Moore passed away on February 1, 1998 at the age of 50, due to illness. At the time he then resided in Mattapan, but growing up as a West Ender from the north slope was a fundamental part of his identity. The demolition of the West End and the preservation of Beacon Hill occurred within the same timeframe and fundamentally shaped Bostonians’ understandings of today’s boundaries of neighborhoods. Stories from West Enders like John Moore help to reconnect those perceptions with historic reality.