The West End Renewal occurred in the late 1950’s, when the Boston Redevelopment Authority demolished several acres of the West End neighborhood, leaving thousands of residents without homes. This encouraged the idea of segregation, as many latinos and African Americans were forced to move into public housing, while whites moved from public housing into suburban areas. A lot of these residents had lived there for many years, and were being replaced by new highways, corporate buildings, and luxurious real estate. James Campano, a resident of the West End and a victim of urban renewal shared that, “when they took the West End, they claimed that there were like 2,000 code violations, but 90 percent of them were about not enough closet space...They stopped street cleaning, and garbage pick up became spasmodic. It started looking like a slum” (Toussaint). The codes that removed many families from the West End were simple codes, rather than those that pose an actual danger to the buildings’ residents, such as improper drainage or ventilation. This neglect from city services made the West End appear as a slum to the rest of Boston’s population, although it was quite the opposite to its residents. In comparison to slums today, the West End prior to 1955 was populated by people who were passionate about the area and their neighborhoods. In modern day slums, many of the residents could not care less about their neighbors or neighborhoods (Lebeaux). In the images provided by the West End Museum, the architecture appears to be very similar to that of the North End, including its smaller streets and compact buildings. The demolition sourced anger in the West End’s residents. The residents were neglected stakeholders, as the city chose to do what they thought would be best for its economy. While the city gained new highways, luxurious housing, and much more from this renewal, the cultures cultivated in this area were forever scattered and more often than not, no longer in unison.
Boston’s demolition of this melting pot neighborhood has decreased its artifacts regarding its vast population, and falsely depicts how the West End came to be. The city’s selective preservation played a large role in the destruction of this neighborhood, as Boston decided to completely erase what was the original West End. This removal did not preserve the different cultures or the livelihoods of the people. Instead, those affected by the Housing Act of 1949 were scattered about Boston, and lost the place they held near and dear (Campano). Today, the West End Renewal’s victims have created a museum to preserve how they experienced the West End, by including newspapers, trophies, historic photographs, and more. Currently, the museum fills ten shelves in a climate-controlled room. Since Boston as a whole neglected to preserve part of its own history, its past residents decided to take up this challenge on their own. With the residents’ assistance, Imagine Boston 2030, a city wide renewal project, is preventing erasing an entire culture, just as it had approximately 70 years ago. This inclusion of past residents is finally allowing the victims’ voices to be heard, although it is much too late.