Immigrant NeighborhoodLGBTQ+West Boston An old street map of the North Slope of the West End of Boston. Labelled "Faces and Places" with numbers throughout the map.

Faces & Places: LGBTQ+ History in the West End

This is a self-guided version of our Faces & Places: LGBTQ+ History in the West End walking tour. From the late nineteenth century onward, this neighborhood was a hub for LGBTQ+ people in Boston, even when much of their history and activities flew under the radar. This area featured speakeasies, raids, Boston marriages, early publication of queer literature, famous gay bars, and AIDS epidemic protests. This tour will focus on the faces and places of the queer community in the West End and how they shifted over time.

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Art & LiteratureImmigrant NeighborhoodLGBTQ+ A photograph of a man in three-quarter profile. Nearly everything is in darkness except his face, turned to look at the camera, and his hands in the bottom right corner.

F. Holland Day

F. Holland Day was a publisher and photographer who lived in the historic West End around the turn of the 20th century. Though he never described himself in so many words, he may have had same-sex relationships with other men and is generally seen as traveling in LGBTQ+ circles during his life. In addition to his significance as an artist, he also had a close relationship with an Italian immigrant family, the Costanzas, from the Upper End of the West End while he lived on the north slope of Beacon Hill.

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