2020 End-of-Year Newsletter
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
At the Museum, we refuse to let the pandemic keep us down! We’ve been focusing on projects with long-term impact. From renovations to demographic research to a website overhaul — we’ve got some big news to share and opportunities for you to be part of the action.
Museum Renovations
The Museum layout and permanent exhibit, “The Last Tenement,” have long been the same. Planning underway since March aims to reinvent the Museum space in order to improve the visitor experience, expand the West End’s story, and strengthen community engagement — thereby increasing revenue and securing the Museum’s future.
With the Board’s approval, the Exhibit Committee — Director Sebastian Belfanti, Board President Duane Lucia, Board member Lois Ascher, and volunteer Philip MacLeod — has been meeting weekly to advance the project.
The plans would reconfigure the current Main Exhibit Gallery space to create clearly defined areas, the largest section being the new home for “The Last Tenement.” Other areas would include a/an:
- Welcome/greeter station encompassing the Museum gift shop
- Striking, historical mural leading from the entry to the permanent exhibit introduction area
- New Main Gallery to house an augmented Last Tenement exhibit with previously unseen pieces from the Museum’s archives
- Immersion Room that presents recreated spaces and places from the neighborhood’s past on a rotating basis
The current permanent exhibit space would become a Program Gallery for Museum and community events as well as a research area. Temporary walls and removable panels would support smaller, rotating exhibits. Another idea intended to draw in passersby and boost community impact would utilize the large on-street window space for additional rotating exhibits.
Historical Demography & Economy Project
Led by volunteer Adam Tomasi, this project began in late October at the request of Director Sebastian Belfanti. At first, Tomasi sought to trace area population figures and trends from colonial times to the present-day West End. He has been digging deep into a variety of sources for his research. Those include: pre-1790 state reports, national census reports, scholarly writings by sociologist and author Herbert Gans, and information gleaned from the digitized collection of the Boston Public Library’s Leventhal Map & Education Center.
Now the project has evolved to examine the economic output of the West End over time, dating back to the ropewalks and tide mills of the mid-17th century through the end of the 19th century. Tomasi is also eager to compile what he calls “a people’s economy,” which would convey more anecdotal information about the kinds of small businesses, local shops, venues, and other sources of commerce in the neighborhood pre-urban renewal. He also hopes to learn about …
By Sue Minichiello Bringing the Museum's Vision to Life
Just like in the old days of the West End, it takes a village. So it is with the Museum’s ambitious renovation project.
Your tax-deductible donations are needed to help us achieve our vision of a new and improved Main Exhibit Gallery, Last Tenement exhibit, and Program Gallery. These changes will enable the Museum to increase public access to its precious archives, support individuals seeking to do research related to the neighborhood, and generate more revenue to deliver on its mission and protect its future.
To make a secure donation by a PayPal account, credit card, or debit card, please go here, click Donate,” and – under “Use this donation for” – select “Museum renovations and capital improvements.”
If you have related skills and would like to volunteer on the project, please email our volunteer coordinator.
If you would like to make an in-kind donation of services or materials, please send us an email with details on what you would like to offer.
Thank you in advance for your continued support!
What's on Your Wish List?
By Sebastian Belfanti
As winter arrives, The West End Museum is looking for new ways to engage with you.
We’re considering what types of programs we can offer remotely that can deliver widely appealing content related to the West End. As you may imagine, that can be a bit of a challenge. We’re up to the task, but we also want to make sure we focus our efforts on the programs that would be most meaningful to you.
What ideas do you have for how we can help you teach your kids history, share the West End story with friends, or provide a much-needed diversion?
Drop us a line to let us know what you’d like to see us do. It might just become the next program we release!
ICYMI: Judge Elijah Adlow
By Adam Tomasi
Since the beginning of April, the Museum has distributed weekly emails with relevant news and interesting historical spotlights. We hope you’ve been keeping pace, but know many of us have remote-communications fatigue. You can check out some of our historical spotlights on compelling figures connected to the West End — well-known and obscure — like Martin Lomasney, Hyman Gordon and his “Chemical Man,” and Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and George Ruffin. We’re also taking this opportunity to re-share one of our most popular spotlights, in case you missed it (ICYMI):
Elijah Adlow was born on August 15, 1896, in the old West End, to Nathan Adlow, who immigrated from Poland, and Bessie Adlow, who immigrated from Lithuania. Adlow’s great-grandfather lived in the old West End, and other …
West End Museum Winter Closure
On December 14, Mayor Marty Walsh announced that — in an effort to curb the rise in COVID-19 cases — Boston would return to a modified Phase 2, Step 2 of the state’s reopening plan, which includes closing down such sites as gyms, movie theaters, and museums. That plan went into effect on December 17 and will last at least three weeks.
Given the surge in the virus along with much-reduced capacity and minimal visitors, The West End Museum Board had previously decided to close the facility from December 19 through mid-January or longer, depending how things develop over the next month. Following the Mayor’s announcement, we closed two days earlier to comply with the mandate.
While closing had been a difficult decision, the leadership felt that doing so was the best option for serving the Museum community, keeping people safe, and preparing for a return to normal. While we’re closed, however, our work will continue. You’ll still get emails from us, and we will keep offering virtual tours of West End history, scheduled upon inquiry.