Richie Nedd was one of the historic West End’s Black residents and a board member of The West End Museum before his passing in 2011. Nedd’s article for the June 1998 issue of The West Ender, “A Black Man’s View of the West End,” features he and other Black residents coming together in reunions of hundreds of West Enders after urban renewal.
Inspired by his experiences at the West End House and Hale House, Joseph Rosen became one of the country’s leading engrossers, thanks in part to the kindness of James Jackson Storrow. He inscribed over 125,000 diplomas during his career, mainly for Harvard graduates, but he also produced honorary degrees for dignitaries such as the Roosevelt’s, Kennedy’s, and Winston Churchill. Despite his success, he never forgot the opportunities he received in the West End and found ways later in life to honor the West End House and its great benefactor.
Easily missed as one trundles down Cambridge Street or behind the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House, Ridgeway Lane in the historic West End is one of Boston’s longest and narrowest streets. Often mistaken for a simple alley, it has served ropewalk workers, residents, Suffolk University students, and the occasional criminal on the run for over 250 years. As one walks the length of this dark road, surrounded by brick on both sides and heavy paving stones below, it is hard to imagine much life here. Yet, hidden, urban pathways like Ridgeway Lane hold many stories worth telling.
Susan Paul (1809 -1841) worked as an abolitionist, educator, and author from the north slope of Beacon Hill in the West End. She fought against slavery in every aspect of her professional life through her education of African American students, the inspirational music performed by her choir, and her landmark work, The Memoir of James Jackson, the earliest known prose narrative and biography by an African American woman in the United States.
In 2015 Converse Inc. moved its world headquarters to Lovejoy Wharf in the West End. Its 214,000 square foot facility was a major part of an effort to rejuvenate the former industrial area bordering the Charles River and the North End. This was, however, not the first time a business founded by members of the Converse family chose the West End as an advantageous place to set up business.
In 1923, Annie, Jennie, and Rosie Klayman emigrated from Poland to reunite with their parents who lived on 16 Anderson St. in the West End. After arriving, the Klayman sisters were nearly deported because of restrictive immigration quotas, until President Calvin Coolidge intervened to let them stay in the United States.
Raymond Reddick, a lifelong Boston resident who is now 74 years old, has spent decades collecting, documenting, and speaking to different audiences about his extensive African-American family history with deep ties to the historic West End. After his grandmother, Ruthena Felton King Reddick, passed away in 1985, Ray began his ongoing genealogical research, which started with stories from family members and countless boxes of family artifacts in his possession. Ray Reddick approached The West End Museum to collaborate on a project that highlights his nineteenth-century ancestors — West Enders and Black Bostonians — captivating lives. Northeastern University’s Reckonings project has collaborated with Reddick and The West End Museum to produce, after a series of oral history interviews, a two-part, co-created report that spotlights Ray Reddick’s family history.
Raymond Reddick, a lifelong Boston resident who is now 74 years old, has spent decades collecting, documenting, and speaking to different audiences about his extensive African-American family history with deep ties to the historic West End.
