West End, Boston

The West End occupies the northwest portion of the Shawmut Peninsula. Much of the land on which the neighborhood lies is the product of land reclamation. Beginning in 1807, parts of Beacon Hill were used to fill in a small bay and mill pond that separated Beacon Hill and the West End from the North End. Today the neighborhood consists primarily of superblocks containing high rise residential towers. The West End borders the Charles River between the Longfellow Bridge and the Charles River Dam Bridge. The Charlesbank Playground runs along the bank of the river, but is separated from the rest of the neighborhood by Storrow Drive, a large crosstown expressway. ==Early days==

designed for Harrison Gray Otis in the West End. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Boston's waterfront and North End were becoming overcrowded, and many of the city's well off residents took the opportunity to develop the area now known as the West End. At that time, the area was separated from the older neighborhoods by a small bay. The architect Charles Bulfinch was responsible for much of Boston's architectural character at the time, and played a large part in this new development of the West End. Bulfinch spent much of his early career in the 1790s designing mansions, many of them in the West End and other Boston neighborhoods. One of the most famous examples of these was the first Harrison Gray Otis House. This historic building was the first of three that Bulfinch designed for the affluent lawyer Harrison Gray Otis, and is one of the few buildings that survived Urban Renewal in the West End. Other West End landmarks designed by Bulfinch were the Massachusetts General Hospital's domed granite building, built 1816–1825 (today known as the Bulfinch Pavilion), and the West End Market on the corner of Grove and Cambridge Streets. Constructed in 1810, this historic market did not survive the area's redevelopment in the 1950s. Bulfinch's architecture of newer large brick buildings with gardens attracted many of Boston's wealthier citizens. By 1810, the West End was inhabited by wealthy business men, merchants, and lawyers. Many would soon move to the nearby Beacon Hill, turning the West End into an African American community and stopping point for new immigrants. ==Ethnic history==

African American history (Boston Public Library) In the early 19th century the West End, along with Beacon Hill's north slope, became an important center of Boston's African American community. The mostly affluent and white inhabitants of Beacon Hill's south slope were strongly supportive of abolitionism. This encouraged middle and working class free African Americans to move into the nearby North slope and West End. After the Civil War, the West End continued to be an important center of African American culture. It was one of the few locations in the United States at the time where African Americans had a political voice. At least one black resident from the West End sat on Boston's community council during every year between 1876 and 1895. Among the many immigrant groups contributing to this melting pot were Armenians, Greeks, Irish, Lebanese, Italians, Jews, Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, Syrians, Ukrainians and many other Eastern Europeans and Southern Europeans. It was during this period that the neighborhood's population reached its peak at approximately 23,000 residents As a result of this immigration, the religious make-up of the neighborhood changed dramatically. Protestant churches moved away or shut down, to be replaced by Catholic churches and synagogues. For example, the old West Church, built in 1806 closed in 1892 due to lack of congregation. It reopened two years later as a library to better serve the new community. Jewish community By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Irish immigration had slowed and Eastern European Jews began to immigrate into the West End in large numbers. Many came to escape persecution in Lithuania, Russia, and Poland. They formed a community in the West End and became a significant part of the population by 1910. They made their home in the neighborhood, constructing health centers, libraries, labor unions, loan societies, orphanages, and synagogues. Actor Leonard Nimoy was raised in this community. The new Boston Synagogue, the 1919 Vilna Shul, and the African Meeting House which was the home of Anshi Lubuvicher from 1900 to 1972 are the only surviving West End synagogues. The Boston Synagogue is a newly merged congregation; the Vilna Shul at 16 Philips Street, which was outside the urban renewal demolition area, is now a synagogue museum, and the African American Meeting House is now a church museum. Over the Vilna Shul's ark is the double hand symbol for the Kohanim, the ancient Israelite priests, which was the source for the Star Trek Vulcan salute. The Vilna Shul also has pews salvaged from the former Twelfth Baptist Church on which once sat former African American slaves and volunteers in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment popularized by the movie Glory. The Vilna was the last of the approximately seven West End synagogues to stay open, closing in 1985. ==Urban renewal==

By the 1950s, Boston's West End had turned into a working poor residential area with scattered businesses with small meandering roads much like the North End. According to most residents, the West End was a good place to live at this time. and the population had dropped to around 7,500 residents. By the end of the 1950s, over half of the neighborhood would be completely leveled to be replaced with residential high rises as part of a large scale urban renewal project. Political background The large-scale renewal of the West End was first proposed in the 1930s by Nathan Strauss Jr., among others, shortly after the National Housing Act of 1934 was passed. When the John B. Hynes administration came into power in 1949 city officials recognized that the federal government's Housing Act of 1949 presented the opportunity to remake parts of Boston. The Boston Housing Authority (BHA) held responsibility for developing Boston's urban renewal plans and was designated the city's local public authority for federal funds. Implementation , stands in one of the Super Blocks that was created by that project As part of a plan to create a "New Boston", the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) and its 1957 successor, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), redeveloped neighborhoods throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The New York Streets section of the South End was redeveloped before the West End, and in the 1960s Scollay Square was leveled to create the brutalist Government Center afterwards. The motivation behind these projects was to replace neighborhoods that had been classified as slums with neighborhoods that would bring in increased tax revenues. It is estimated that before the renewal project, the tax revenue from the West End was approximately $546,000 a year. One of the main criticisms of the project is that the neighborhood was not considered a slum by the residents, and instead had a strong sense of community. A later mayor of Boston, Ray Flynn, described the West End as "a typical neighborhood" and "not blighted." The perception of the neighborhood as a slum was mostly held by wealthy outsiders and was enhanced by city policy. For example, the city stopped collecting garbage and cleaning the streets, leaving the neighborhood a mess. Many building owners were not adequately compensated for their property. Due to city law, as soon as tenement buildings were condemned by the BRA, the city became the legal owner. This meant that building owners had no income as rent was paid directly to the city. Soon owners became desperate to sell their property at severely reduced prices. The destruction of the West End community led to a strong distaste for urban renewal in Boston. ==Present day==

, located in the West End Today, the West End is a mixed-use commercial and residential area. A few non-residential areas were spared from the urban renewal of the 1950s, such as Massachusetts General Hospital, the Charles Street Jail, and the Bulfinch Triangle—a small section surrounded by Causeway, Merrimac, and North Washington Streets. Massachusetts General Hospital and the Charles Street Jail are located in the northwest section, while Government Center which was the former site of Scollay Square, comprises the southern section. Most of the northern section is covered by North Station and the TD Garden. The character of the area prior to the urban renewal can still be seen in existing commercial and mixed use building of the Bulfinch Triangle. Here there are a few pubs and restaurants that feed off the traffic traveling to and from Faneuil Hall and the Garden. The residential areas that have been rebuilt are primarily upscale highrises, though the neighborhood is currently making strides to re-establish the close knit community that once was. The West End Museum currently has a permanent exhibition outlining the history of the neighborhood and its residents, while the West End Community Center hosts classes and events, in addition to putting on the annual West End Children's Festival. 42 Lomasney Way One of the survivors of the West End's redevelopment phase is 42 Lomasney Way. Originally constructed in the 1870s, the building survived multiple redevelopment attempts, as well as two fires. Called "The Last Tenement" due to it being the only tenement structure still located in the West End, it also has been home to an associate of the Angiulo Brothers crime family. ==Demographics==

According to the city of Boston, the total population was 4,080 as of the 2010 United States census. 75.2% of residents were white, 16.2% were Asian, and 8.4% were some other race. Housing in the West End was about 89.3% occupied. ==Notable people==

• Jules Aarons (1921–2008), photographer "remembered for his poignant portraits of Boston's West End" • James George Barbadoes (1796-1841), abolitionist • Jennie Loitman Barron (1891–1969), suffragist, lawyer, and judge • Bernard Berenson (1865–1959), art historian • Lawrence Berk (1908–1995), founder of Berklee College of Music • Hyman Bloom (1913–2009), artist and key figure in the Boston Expressionist movement • Kirk Boott (1790–1837), industrialist • Buddy Clark (1912–1949), singer • John P. Coburn (1811–1873), abolitionist • Thomas Dalton (1794–1883), abolitionist • Leonard Grimes (1815–1873), pastor, abolitionist • Primus Hall (1756–1842), civic leader • Joseph E. Levine (1905–1987), film producer • Barzillai Lew (1743–1822), Revolutionary War soldier • Thomas Melvill (1751–1832), American patriot • William Cooper Nell (1816–1874), abolitionist • John Boyle O'Reilly (1844–1890), poet • Thomas Paul (1773–1831), minister, abolitionist • Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (1842–1924) and her daughter Florida Ruffin Ridley (1861–1943), civil rights activists ==See also==