Residents say the neighborhood feels a bit transient, but there are certainly some people who have lived there long-term. What was once a largely residential neighborhood has transformed into one that feels quite commercial today, with some of Boston’s most well-known landmarks, such as the TD Garden and Mass General Hospital, owning significant acreage. Unfortunately, those promises went unfulfilled, and herein lies the tragedy of Boston’s West End. Some were promised new, inexpensive housing, or told they could ultimately return to the neighborhood once it was completed. Tragically, many residents were left with nowhere to go. Residents received eviction notices by 1958, and despite plenty of protest, bulldozers showed up and the neighborhood was leveled into what resembled a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with just a few buildings spared. Of course, to outsiders, the densely-populated area may have seemed like a slum, but to the legions of working-class families who lived there, it was simply known as home. This demolition was known as urban renewal. They hoped that by wiping out the areas designated as “slums,” and replacing them with higher-end housing, new residents would drive up the city’s economy. But Boston was economically depressed, and officials conceived of an idea that would change the West End forever. Until the late 1950s, the West End was a residential neighborhood populated by many Italian and Jewish immigrants. But the West End, a small pocket that borders both Beacon Hill and the North End, is actually a fascinating (and incredibly controversial) neighborhood that tells the story of some of Boston’s greatest institutions-and its most blatant failures. After all, some people don’t even know where the neighborhood is. Tell someone you live in the West End of Boston, and you might get a confused reaction.
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