City PlanningImmigrant NeighborhoodPolitics & Law Photograph showing a two story brick building with two garage doors next to a sign stating "Sewer Dept. District 8".

Mass General Hospital and a Controversial West End Land Sale in 1931

In 1931, Mayor James Michael Curley planned to sell 50,000 square feet of city land, on North Grove Street in the West End, to Massachusetts General Hospital. Because this land was used by the Public Works Department for sanitation in the West End, residents – and city councilor John I. Fitzgerald – strongly opposed the sale. Fitzgerald, associated with West End boss Martin Lomasney, successfully advocated for the proceeds of the sale to be allocated for continued sanitation services in the West End.

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City PlanningNeighborhood LifeNew BostonUrban Renewal Photograph of a city block of three story brick buildings with cars parked along the curb

Minot Street

The Lost Streets of the West End: Minot Street was one of the dozens of narrow, residential, West End streets razed by redevelopment in the 1950s. While the two street blocks on the northern side of the redevelopment zone were changed profoundly by urban renewal, the site’s rich history represents the constantly shifting geography of the Boston cityscape over the past two centuries.

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