The West End is tucked between
Beacon Hill and the
North End. Flanked by the Charles River, its borders are encompassed by
Massachussetts General Hospital and the Charles Street Jail, now the
Liberty Hotel, are located in the northwest section while
Government Center comprises the southern section. Most of the northern section is covered by
North Station and the
BankNorth Garden.
In terms of scenery, right by the Charles/MGH MBTA stop is a footbridge that crosses Storrow Drive over to the edge of the Charles River. There you can find benches with trees and peaceful views of the river just a stone's throw from whizzing traffic. The automobile bridge attached to it also allows foot traffic across the Charles into Cambridge. The
Charles River Park apartment complex further up Storrow Drive has some winding trails and tiny gardens scattered throughout. You'll be hard pressed to avoid the many ongoing demolition/construction projects as you walk around the area, but it's interesting for that very reason. There are crazy little boarded up buildings alongside popular and thriving restaurants and businesses. These very stark juxtopositions of beauty and eyesore create a unique location that's hard to forget.
This was originally a crowded, close-knit neighborhood of about 7,000, settled by Jewish, Italian, and Polish immigrants right on the water. The old neighborhood had narrow streets, packs of four-story tenements, and retailers on most corners. Few traces of the original landscape survive today. The four-story brick apartment building at 42 Lomasney Way, shrouded in billboards and encircled by streets, has managed to avoid the wrecking ball. There is the grand
Otis House on Cambridge Street, designed by Charles Bulfinch, built in 1796 and now open for tours. The
West End Public Library,
St. Joseph's Church, the
West End House in Allston-Brighton and the struggling, sparse
West End Museum on the ground floor of
West End Place, all remain as landmarks in a part of the city that refuses to be forgotten.
The West End is a touchy subject to those who lived there during it's 'urban renewal'. It was first left to rot in the 1950's when officials stopped collecting the garbage and modest homes were labeled slums. Then, in the name of progress, the city decided to level it. In 1959, buildings were destroyed and countless families displaced to make way for a high-rise complex of apartments (
Charles River Park with the infamous sign - `If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now') few of them could afford. Since then, massive public works projects - the Big Dig, the Green Line tunnel trenching, and the demolition of the old Nashua Street Registry of Motor Vehicles - have nibbled away at the area's turf. This razing of the West End was made famous by Herbert Gans's book,
The Urban Villagers in 1962.
