March 2014 Newsletter

By Sue Minichiello

The West End Museum will host its inaugural Irish Heritage Month celebration on Monday, March 31, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Former Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn (1984-1993) —who left City Hall to serve as the United States Ambassador to The Vatican [1993-1997]—will attend as an event honoree. The Museum will also honor Martin Lomasney and Daniel Whelton.
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Before Boston’s Old West End was razed in the name of 1950s urban renewal, displacing tens of thousands of immigrant families, the neighborhood was home to many Irish-Americans who blended with a myriad of other ethnic groups, giving the West End its unique character. The Museum’s Irish Heritage Month celebrates those Irish immigrants and the contributions they made to the West End.

“The West End was one of Boston’s first Irish immigrant communities, dating back to the 1840s where it was a refuge for those escaping the potato famine and economic hardships in Ireland,” according to Duane Lucia, West End Museum President and Curator. “As guardians of the history and culture of the West End, it is imperative that we formally recognize and honor the legacy of Irish immigrants in the neighborhood.”

​As Mayor, Ray Flynn worked tirelessly to knit together the neighborhoods of the City of Boston, especially in the tumultuous years after busing. In the West End, Flynn pressed for completion of a long-awaited residential building at 150 Staniford Street. The building included a number condominiums set aside for former West Enders to purchase at below-market rates, thus enabling some displaced residents to return to the old neighborhood. Later, the West End Museum was chartered at the site. Now, the Museum is honoring Flynn for this crucial contribution, along with his Irish heritage and his work on behalf of all Boston neighborhoods and at the Vatican.

Martin Lomasney is one of the central figures in West End lore. Born in Boston in 1859, he was the son of Irish immigrants who fled to the U.S. during the great potato famine. Martin and his brother Joseph started the Hendricks Club in 1885, which politically represented not only the thriving Irish immigrant community, but also a new wave of Jewish and Italian immigrants. Martin became the undisputed boss of Boston’s Ward 8—which encompassed the Old West End—from about 1885 until his death in 1933.

Daniel Whelton became the first native-born Irish-Catholic Mayor of Boston and remains the youngest person to hold that political office to date. While living in the West End, Whelton became an associate of Lomasney’s, joining the Hendricks Club and beginning his political career by registering new voters in the neighborhood. Whelton also served as Chairman of Boston’s Board of Aldermen and on the City’s Common Council.

By Michael Hochman

One of the most important aspects of The West End Museum’s mission is to provide the public with access to its extensive and ever growing archive collection. And so it is in the spirit of this mission that our website, www.thewestendmuseum.org, is being updated with increasing and more comprehensive displays of past exhibits, videos and other archival materials.

In the “Archived Exhibits” section of our “Archive” main menu, we have past exhibits posted and categorized by the year in which they were originally shown at the Museum. Our latest addition is our elaborate Parkman-Webster Murder Case exhibit. Click on it and the exhibit is right in front of your eyes, with each richly styled panel available for consumption. Click on the panels and you’ll experience the exciting exhibit in the comfort of your own home or on the go.
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We are also excited to announce that the entire run of the West Ender Newsletter will soon be available for the first time ever! The West Ender has been a staple of the community since its inception in 1985 and it continues to uphold the culture and history of the West End neighborhood. We will not only have every issue available online, but we will also add new issues as they become available.

Along with a growing online archive, The West End Museum’s website has now become a true multimedia source for everything West End! Check out our video clips under the “News and Publications” section and learn about various topics, from the demolishing of The Madison Hotel to interviews with Leonard Nimoy and his time growing up in the West End. You can also find press releases and articles about the Museum and its multitude endeavors.

We will continuously enrich the website with quality content in order to maximize a fulfilling experience for both members and non-members alike. As the Museum continues to grow, we are confident in our ever-increasing ability to share the history of the West End and Boston alike with the masses.

By Michael Hochman

For our Volunteer Spotlight this month, we place our focus on Professor Lois Ascher. Professor Ascher teaches courses in urban culture studies as well as in English at Wentworth University. Aside from having the distinction of being the first female professor at Wentworth, Professor Ascher is Secretary of the West End Museum Board of Directors.

One of Professor Ascher’s signature courses, Boston Voyages by Book and Foot, looks at Boston historically, culturally, architecturally and technologically. Through that course, Professor Ascher often brings her students on site when studying different aspects of the city, and when she was investigating Urban Renewal, she learned of The West End Museum. One day, Professor Ascher decided to bring her students to the Museum for an on-site class. “Within a few minutes of walking through the door, the greeting was so warm and the atmosphere was so warm, that I knew I wanted to become more involved with the Museum,” explains Professor Ascher. “I walked out of there really feeling a connection and that I wanted to give back to the Museum.”
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Professor Ascher found that the Museum was a great place for students not only to learn about Urban Renewal, but to also get involved with the history of the city. Many of her pupils are architectural students, and some of their work has contributed to the Museum directly, such as Jim Cleveland’s creation of a scale model of the rope walks for the Rope Walks of the West End and Beyond exhibit.

Professor Ascher has devoted a lot of time to the Museum outside of Wentworth as well. In 2012, she worked with Museum President Duane Lucia on the Moving Forward Looking Back exhibit. She eventually became part of the Museum’s Advisory Board, and then moved to the Board of Directors. She is still part of the Board of Directors while in her Secretarial position. In her current role, she serves as a link between the two boards. She is also tasked with organizing records and ensuring that taxes and other business and financial responsibilities are fulfilled.

Professor Ascher is truly an essential member of our team, and her passion for the Museum and its mission is second to none. In the future, she hopes to increase her students’ involvement with the organization by having them visit and work on a Museum related project, whether it be archival, model building or research related. Professor Ascher claims that she and her students benefit greatly from the Museum. It’s safe to say that the Museum also benefits greatly from her volunteering and enthusiasm.