Urban Renewal at Logan Airport

In 1943, Boston resident Louis Stern wrote a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe, proposing that the West End be razed to build a new airport, conveniently located downtown. This idea was never seriously considered, though the East Boston Airport (Logan Airport) has its own controversial history of urban renewal.

On February 24, 1943, Boston resident Louis Stern proposed in a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe, that the West End be razed for the construction of a new airport. Stern argued that “without shutting my eyes to the fact that the airport at East Boston already represents a large degree of development and sizable investment,” it was time for Boston to “clear a whole section of the city for an airport and thus bring terminal facilities within a stone’s throw of the principal centers.” Stern proceeded to propose demolishing the West End, on the basis that it was a “slum,” to clear the ground for a new downtown airport:

The West End has many buildings of the slum type, many obsolete and others fast becoming so…The West End is of level terrain and as an airport would be just as convenient as our North and South Stations. The Charles River would afford means for handling hydroplane traffic. In comparison, from the standpoint of convenience, East Boston does not compare with it.

Although Stern’s idea for demolishing the West End to build an airport never materialized, the letter was indicative of some Boston residents’ visions for massive redevelopment at the scale of clearing out an entire neighborhood. He acknowledged the existing contributions of the East Boston Airport (Logan Airport), originally a military airfield when it opened in 1923. The City of Boston assumed control of the East Boston Airport in 1929, and by 1940 the airport serviced 26,000 passengers a month. Stern made his suggestion for a new airport in the West End at a time when residents of East Boston were starting to be critical of another proposal, the expansion of East Boston Airport into Wood Island Park.

Wood Island Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead (considered the father of landscape architecture) and opened in 1898, was a significant recreational site for the working-class residents of East Boston. The 50-acre park had trees that were over 200 years old, and everything from picnic areas to a gymnasium, bathhouses, baseball fields, and tennis courts. Next to Stern’s letter, the Globe printed another from Mrs. Joseph Wardell, who observed that “the people of East Boston do not oppose the enlargement of the airport,” only its encroachment upon the park, and that “enlargement of the airport (making available runways of 9000 feet in length) can be made without expanding in the direction of Wood Island Park.” Speaking to the importance of accessible opportunities for recreation, Wardell argued that building new runways atop Wood Island Park would be destructive to the East Boston community:

East Boston is a poor section of Boston, and its people do not have automobiles in which they can drive to distant recreational spots. They cannot afford to maintain Summer camps or country estates, and if they are deprived of Wood Island Park they will be forced to remain at home and stew in the Summer heat.

Logan Airport was originally built on landfill at Jeffries Point, away from where East Boston residents lived, until the ongoing construction of new terminals and runways brought the airport into closer proximity with existing neighborhoods. Wardell proposed that the airport expand “in the direction of and including Apple and Governors Islands and their flats” in lieu of taking over Wood Island Park. During the 1950’s, those two islands were eventually converted into landfill for the airport’s expansion. By 1967, the city of Boston totally cleared Wood Island Park to expand Logan Airport, over the strong objections of East Boston residents. Nearby homes and streets were also slated for demolition under this airport-centered urban renewal.

On September 27, 1968, the “Maverick Street Mothers” from East Boston stood at the corner of Maverick and Jeffries Streets to block the dump trucks headed to Logan Airport for construction. After a standoff with Massachusetts State Police, as officers dragged and pushed women and children onto the sidewalk, Mayor Kevin White sent in the Boston Police Department to hold back the State Police and arrange for the trucks to use alternate routes. Although this expansion of the Logan Airport proceeded, the Maverick Street Mothers’ protest is still recognized by East Boston residents as the start of an environmental justice movement in the neighborhood. From this legacy, Mothers Out Front, a descendant of the Maverick Street Mother’s, is fighting today to force the state to provide East Boston buildings and households with high-efficiency particulate air filters to combat the 35,000 pounds of pollution emitted from the airport everyday which has been linked to above normal incidences of cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and asthma in the neighborhood.