The South End is a
neighborhood
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...
of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
. It is bordered by
Back Bay
Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and t ...
,
Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
, and
Roxbury. It is distinguished from other neighborhoods by its
Victorian style houses and the many parks in and around the area. The South End is the largest intact Victorian row house district in the country, as it is made up of over 300 acres.
Eleven residential parks are contained within the South End. In 1973, the South End was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Much of the South End was originally marshlands in Boston's South Bay. After being filled in, construction of the neighborhood began in 1849.
It is home to many diverse groups, including immigrants, young families, and professionals, and it is very popular with the gay and lesbian community of Boston.
Since the 1880s the South End has been characterized by its diversity, with substantial Irish, Jewish, African-American, Puerto Rican (in the San Juan Street area), Chinese, and Greek populations. In 2010, the population was 55.2% white, 13.3% Hispanic, 12.5% Black or African American, 16.2% Asian, and 2.7% other; 55.2% of its residents had a bachelor's degree or higher; the median household income was $57,699; the median age was 36; 65.6% were primarily English speakers; and 12.9% were primarily Spanish speakers.
The South End has five primary and secondary schools that offer
K-12
K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993, well known worldwide mainly for its heavyweight division fights and Grand Prix tournaments. In January 2012, K-1 Global Holdings Limited, a company registered in Hong Kong, acquired ...
education .
Geographical history
![BostonNeck](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/BostonNeck.jpg)
The South End lies south of the
Back Bay
Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and t ...
, northwest of
South Boston
South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. South Boston, colloquially known as Southie, has undergone several demographic transformati ...
, northeast of
Roxbury, north of
Dorchester, and southwest of
Bay Village. Despite the name, it is not directly south of the center of downtown Boston.
The land belonging to the South End has been part of the city of Boston since its creation, though at the time of first settlement it was smaller and surrounded by large tidal flats.
The neighborhood was expanded and developed by filling in the marshlands, part of a larger project of the filling of Boston's Back Bay and
South Bay from the 1830s to the 1870s.
Fill was brought in by trains from trenches of gravel excavated in
Needham, Massachusetts
Needham ( ) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. A suburb of Boston, its population was 32,091 at the 2020 U.S. Census. It is home of Olin College.
History
Early settlement
Needham was first settled in 1680 with the purchase of a ...
.
Nineteenth-century technology did not allow for driving steel
piles into
bedrock
In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet.
Definition
Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...
, and instead a system of submerged timbers provided an understructure for most South End buildings.
According to the Los Angeles Times in 2006, groundwater levels in Boston had been dropping for years, causing damage to some wood pilings by exposing them to air.
A series of
monitoring well
A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...
s have been drilled and the water level is now checked by the Boston Groundwater Trust, and can be adjusted by the introduction of water.
The South End was once bordered to the north and west by the
Boston and Providence Railroad
The Boston and Providence Railroad was a railroad company in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island which connected its namesake cities. It opened in two sections in 1834 and 1835 - one of the Rail transport in the United States, first rail ...
, which terminated at the B&P RR Station bordering the Public Garden. The railroad line is now covered by the Southwest Corridor Park and terminates at
Back Bay Station
Back Bay station (also signed as Back Bay · South End) is an intermodal passenger station in Boston, Massachusetts. It is located just south of Copley Square in Boston's Back Bay and South End neighborhoods. It serves MBTA Commuter Rail and ...
.
The primary business thoroughfares of the South End are
Columbus Avenue,
Tremont Street
Tremont Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts.
Tremont Street begins at Government Center in Boston's city center as a continuation of Cambridge Street, and forms the eastern edge of Boston Common. Continuing in a roughly so ...
, and
Washington Street. Washington Street, the original causeway that connected Roxbury to Boston, experienced considerable reinvestment in the 1990s. The street was once defined by the
Washington Street Elevated
The Washington Street Elevated was an elevated segment of Boston's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority subway system, comprising the southern stretch of the Orange Line. It ran from Chinatown through the South End and Roxbury, ending i ...
, an elevated train that was moved to below Southwest Corridor Park in the 1980s.
Currently, part of the
Silver Line, Boston's first
bus rapid transit
Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...
line, runs along Washington Street. The
MBTA Orange Line rapid transit train runs along the partially covered
Southwest Corridor.
Subdistricts
The
Boston Redevelopment Authority
The Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA), formerly the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), is a Massachusetts public agency that serves as the municipal planning and development agency for Boston, working on both housing and commercial de ...
identifies several subdistricts covering the southeast portion of the neighborhood:
*
SOWA
The SoWa Art & Design District (South of Washington) in the South End of Boston, Massachusetts, USA, is a community of artist studios, contemporary art galleries, boutiques, design showrooms, and restaurants. Once an area of neglected warehouse ...
(South of Washington Area), roughly between Albany to Washington and East Berkeley to Mass Ave.
* New York Streets, between Herald, East Berkeley, Albany, and Tremont Streets
* Back Streets, roughly between I-93, Harrison, East Brookline, and East Berkeley Streets
* Medical area, roughly between the highway,
Massachusetts Avenue Massachusetts Avenue may refer to:
* Massachusetts Avenue (metropolitan Boston), Massachusetts
** Massachusetts Avenue (MBTA Orange Line station), a subway station on the MBTA Orange Line
** Massachusetts Avenue (MBTA Silver Line station), a stati ...
, Franklin Square, and East Brookline Street
Parks
A series of eleven residential parks are located across the South End. These residential squares vary in size, and take inspiration from English-inspired residential squares first laid out by Charles Bulfinch downtown. The South End also has newer parks, including
Peters Park Peters Park may refer to:
* Peters Park (Atlanta), a failed project to build one of Atlanta's first garden suburbs, now the site of the Georgia Tech campus
* Peters Park (Boston), a neighborhood in Boston
Boston (), officially the City of ...
, and a series of sixteen community gardens and pocket parks operated by the
South End Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust
The South End Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust (SELROSLT) is a membership-supported, non-profit organization that owns, protects, and manages 16 community gardens and pocket parks in the South End, Boston, Massachusetts, South End and Roxbur ...
.
History
Residential history
As the South End geographically grew from filling in land north and west of "the Neck", the city of Boston envisioned a large inner city residential neighborhood to relieve the crowded downtown and Beacon Hill neighborhoods. The city also hoped for a large and stable tax base. Architect
Charles Bulfinch
Charles Bulfinch (August 8, 1763 – April 15, 1844) was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first American-born professional architect to practice.Baltzell, Edward Digby. ''Puritan Boston & Quaker Philadelphia''. Tra ...
laid out some of the first filled land.
He designed a large residential park called Columbia Square
located at the present
Franklin and Blackstone Squares
Blackstone and Franklin Squares are public parks located in the South End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.
Description
The two squares are separated by Washington Street and bounded on the north by Brookline Street, to the east by St Ge ...
. Bulfinch's plan was to route traffic around the square, not through it. Eventually his plan was abandoned and Washington street was allowed to once more divide the square creating today's separate squares.
Many rooming houses on the Back Bay side of the South End had no bathing facilities; roomers went to public showers to bathe. Filled land in the South End was originally eight feet above sea level, but is now four feet, as fill settles. The original shore line of Boston Neck crosses in front of 40 St. George Street, and tapers to the narrowest point on the Neck at Dover Street. Blackstone and Franklin Square are solid land on the original neck, but clam and snail shells are just beneath its surface, as high seas would occasionally overrun the Neck. Massive granite blocks of original sea wall can be seen on the Harrison Avenue side of the Joshua Bates School.
A burgeoning middle class moved to the South End including business owners, two mayors, bankers, and industrialists. Though the neighborhood's status as a wealthy neighborhood was relatively short-lived, myths of a dramatic
white flight
White flight or white exodus is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the United States. They refer ...
in the 1880s are not entirely true. A series of national
financial panic
A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and man ...
s (see e.g.,
Panic of 1884
The Panic of 1884 was an economic panic during the Depression of 1882–1885. It was unusual in that it struck at the end rather than the beginning of the recession. The panic created a credit shortage that led to a significant economic decline i ...
,
Economic history of the United States
The economic history of the United States is about characteristics of and important developments in the U.S. economy from colonial times to the present. The emphasis is on productivity and economic performance and how the economy was affected by ...
), combined with the emergence of new residential housing in Back Bay and
Roxbury fed a steady decline of whites of
English Protestant ancestry. Whites remained in the neighborhood, but increasingly they were
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and recent immigrants.
By the close of the nineteenth century the South End was becoming a
tenement
A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...
district, first attracting new immigrants and, in the 1940s, single
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
men. The South End also became a center of
black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
middle class Boston life and culture. The largest concentration of
Pullman Porter
Pullman porters were men hired to work for the railroads as porters on sleeping cars. Starting shortly after the American Civil War, George Pullman sought out former slaves to work on his sleeper cars. Their job was to carry passengers’ bag ...
s in the country lived in the South End, mostly between Columbus Avenue and the railroad bed. As the decades progressed, more buildings became
tenement
A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...
s and by the 1960s absentee landlordism was rampant and the neighborhood was one of the poorest of the city.
The first
settlement house
The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and s ...
s in Boston were in the South End: the South End House, Haley House, Lincoln House, the Harriet Tubman House, and the Children's Art Centre. In 1960 these settlement houses merged to form
United South End Settlements
The United South End Settlements (USES) consist of four settlement houses, founded as part of the Settlement movement to provide services such as daycare, education, and healthcare to improve the lives of the poor, and a children's museum dating b ...
.
Urban renewal
![2010 ColumbusAve Boston](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/2010_ColumbusAve_Boston.jpg)
The South End was one of many large-scale landfill projects in Boston to create new residential districts.
Construction started in 1849, it was built on tidal marshes that surrounded Boston Neck.
The street plan for the South End was to pattern the 18th-century English models, it would have blocks of townhouses overlook small parks in the centers of the residential streets.
The parks were built to make the South End more beautiful and make it feel like a community.
These townhouses quickly became the predominant form of housing, builders produced blocks of houses for the middle-class families.
From 1850 to 1880, these townhouses started to get built, with the typical townhouse having a mix of architectural styles.
The South End also became a popular hospital district with the first being the
Boston City Hospital
The Boston City Hospital (1864–1996), in Boston, Massachusetts, was a public hospital, located in the South End. It was "intended for the use and comfort of poor patients, to whom medical care will be provided at the expense of the city, and . ...
which attracted other hospitals to the area.
One of the hospitals that came into the South End was the
Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital
Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital was a homeopathic institution in Boston, Massachusetts, at which the first successful kidney removal in New England was performed. Established by an act of the Massachusetts legislature in 1855, the hospital ope ...
that was built in 1875.
It used fresh air cures and home remedies to heal their patients but if one of the patients needed surgery they were sent to the
Boston University School of Medicine.
The Boston University School of Medicine first came into the South End in 1874 accompanied by the New England Female College, which was the first college in the region that accepted women.
By the late 19th century the South End was becoming increasingly populated by African Americans who were coming from the South.
Even though City Hospital admitted black patients, they didn't allow them into their training programs or hire black professionals.
By 1908 a black physician from Alabama named Dr. Cornelius Garland opened his own hospital called Plymouth Hospital and the Nurse's Training School.
By 1929, Plymouth Hospital closed down because City Hospital started to accept people of color into their medical and nursing programs.
The connection of Boston and
Albany, New York
Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...
by railroad (by some of the various companies that would later merge into the
Boston and Albany Railroad
The Boston and Albany Railroad was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York, later becoming part of the New York Central Railroad system, Conrail, and CSX Transportation. The line is currently used by CSX for freight. Pa ...
) was celebrated in 1841 as a way to keep Boston competitive with New York City as an Atlantic port. Just south of the Boston and Worcester Railroad (where the Massachusetts Turnpike is now) in the next decade arose the New York Streets district, a residential area of the South End where the streets were named after cities on the route to Albany. Albany Street still exists (though it now ends at the Turnpike rather than Kneeland); connecting Albany Street with Harrison Street from north to south were Seneca, Oneida, Oswego, Genesee, Rochester and Troy Streets (Troy became the modern Traveler Street).
Starting in 1955, nearly all of the buildings in the New York Streets district were bulldozed as part of an
urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
project to clear "slums" and make room for industrial activity in a period marked by urban decline. The resulting
superblock was redeveloped into the headquarters for one of the city's newspapers.
The
Herald-Traveler Corporation spanned from the then newly minted Herald Street to Traveler Street until 2012, when it moved to the
Seaport District
The Seaport District, or simply the Seaport, is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. It is part of the larger neighborhood of South Boston, and is also sometimes called the Innovation District. The Seaport is a formerly industrial area that ...
in
South Boston
South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. South Boston, colloquially known as Southie, has undergone several demographic transformati ...
. Redevelopment as mixed-use area known as Ink Block, featuring apartments, a grocery store, restaurants, and other retail.
Other populated sites in the South End received similar treatment, particularly the early high-rise, high density Cathedral Housing Projects adjacent to
Holy Cross Cathedral
Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects ( ...
and the high- and low-rise redevelopments like Castle Square from 1964-1966.
The South End is not only residential, it is also commercial. Since it is located where there was access to railroads and port facilities it attracted a lot of manufacturers.
Albany Street, which is along the Roxbury Canal, became occupied by warehouses and factories.
By the 19th century, it became the center of Boston's furniture and piano-making industry.
Today, the South End has many new developments that will add not only residential space, but also commercial space. According to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) there is a new project being constructed that will be built on Albany Street. According to the Expanded Project Notification Form this new development will "include two hotels: a 16-story select service hotel, which will have a restaurant on its first floor; and a 9-story extended-stay hotel. The hotels together will have approximately 408 rooms. While the split between the two types of hotels has not been finally determined, current plans anticipate approximately 210 rooms in the select service hotel and approximately 198 rooms in the extended-stay hotel. The select-service hotel will include an approximately 4,000 square-foot (approximately 267-seat) restaurant on its first floor. A 3-level, above-ground parking garage with approximately 137 parking spaces will serve both hotels."
By creating this new project it will provide about 200 new jobs for construction workers once they start building, it will also "employ approximately 200 employees (full-time equivalents) in management, operations, customer service, retail, and food service functions."
Jazz mecca
![2011 SouthEnd Boston 5576671995](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/2011_SouthEnd_Boston_5576671995.jpg)
Until the 1950s, the South End and bordering Roxbury was a
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
mecca, with clubs such as the Royal Palms, Eddie Levine's, the Pioneer Club, Handy's Grille, Tic-Toc, Connolly's, Estelle's, the Hi-Hat, The Savoy, The Cave, Basin Street, Louie's Lounge, and
Wally's Paradise. Wally's is the only venue to have survived to the present day.
From 1915 to 1970 the
American Federation of Musicians
The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM/AFofM) is a 501(c)(5) labor union representing professional instrumental musicians in the United States and Canada. The AFM, which has its headquarters in New York City, ...
Local 535 was the top black musicians' union in the country, with local and national musicians such as
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...
,
Cab Calloway
Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, conductor and dancer. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalist ...
,
Chick Webb
William Henry "Chick" Webb (February 10, 1905 – June 16, 1939) was an American jazz and swing music drummer and band leader.
Early life
Webb was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to William H. and Marie Webb. The year of his birth is disputed. ...
,
Earl Hines
Earl Kenneth Hines, also known as Earl "Fatha" Hines (December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983), was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. He was one of the most influential figures in the development of jazz piano and, according to one source, " ...
, and
Jimmie Lunceford
James Melvin Lunceford (June 6, 1902 – July 12, 1947) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader in the swing era.
Early life
Lunceford was born on a farm in the Evergreen community, west of the Tombigbee River, near Fulton, Mi ...
. Its offices were originally above
Charlie's Sandwich Shoppe (whose walls are lined with photographs of the jazz stars who ate there), but moved to 409 Massachusetts Avenue ''circa'' 1930. In 1970, it and the white union (Local 9) were ordered to merge by the courts (Boston Musicians Association Local 9-535) and most of the black musicians left.
Education
![Boston University Medical Center 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Boston_University_Medical_Center_01.JPG)
The South End has five primary and secondary schools, providing education from kindergarten through grade 12. The McKinley South End Academy is four schools in one. It is a special education school that focuses on behavioral, emotional and learning needs.
Also in the South End there is the Josiah Quincy Upper School that holds grades 6 to 12. It balances the requirements for core subjects with the requirements of world languages, the arts and physical education.
There is also the Blackstone Elementary School that holds over 500 students from diverse backgrounds.
The Blackstone holds pre-kindergarten to grade 5, these schools that are found in the neighborhood of the South End belong to the Boston School systems.
Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology is a four-year school for students who want to get a degree in the technical field. It is also conveniently located in the South End. It is also home to Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology; established in 1908, BFIT is one of New England's oldest colleges of technology, started with a bequest from Benjamin Franklin and a gift from
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
.
Community resources
The South End is conveniently located within the radius of three public libraries. The South End Branch has a diverse collection of popular and scholarly materials for adults and children.
This library offers local history documents, DVDs, CDs, and audiobooks for adults, and recurring programs for children.
Programs for adults include monthly book discussion groups and a weekly English conversation class.
A community center that is located right in the South End is the Blackstone Community Center located on West Brookline Street, the hours of operations vary depending on the day.
The Blackstone Community Center is one of 35 community centers that are for youth and families and it is the only one that serves the South End and lower Roxbury neighborhoods.
The mission of Blackstone is to enhance the quality of life for Boston residents by "supporting children, youth, and families through a wide range of programs and services.
The Blackstone offers many programs to children and adults.
Two major hospitals that are located in the South End are
Boston Medical Center
Boston Medical Center (BMC) is a non-profit 514-bed academic medical center in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest safety-net hospital and Level I trauma center in New England.
BMC employs 1,466 physicians—including 711 residents and f ...
and
Boston University School of Medicine.
The South End also has the South End Community Health Center. The South End Community Health Center is a board governed non-profit "comprehensive, health care organization for all residents of the South End and the surrounding communities", according to their homepage they "are committed to providing the highest quality, culturally and linguistically sensitive, coordinated health care and social services to every patient, regardless of their ability to pay".
They offer many different kinds of services from Adult Medicine, Behavioral Health, Dental Care to Nutrition to name a few.
The South End is host to numerous community organizations including South End Community Health Center, South End Baseball, Youth Enrichment Services, the
South End Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust
The South End Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust (SELROSLT) is a membership-supported, non-profit organization that owns, protects, and manages 16 community gardens and pocket parks in the South End, Boston, Massachusetts, South End and Roxbur ...
,
Mytown
Mytown was an Irish boy band formed in 1996 by members Danny O'Donoghue, Dermot Browne (World's Apart), Mark Sheehan, Terry Daly and Paul Walker. They released one album, the epomynous '' Mytown'' and had a number of singles before splitting up ...
(an organization training youth to lead walking tours on neighborhood and Boston history), the
South End Historical Society The South End Historical Society or SEHS, is a non-profit community organization founded in 1966, and dedicated to the preservation of the built environment and revitalization of the South End neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. ...
, Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion, and United South End Settlements.
The Animal Rescue League of Boston, founded in 1899 by Anna Harris Smith is located in the South End at 10 Chandler Street. The Animal Rescue League of Boston features an animal shelter, an animal cruelty investigation and prosecution law enforcement department, a rescue department, an animal behavior department and an outpatient veterinary facility, Boston Veterinary Care.
Diversity
The South End's population has been diverse since the 1880s when
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
,
Lebanese,
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish,
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
, and
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
populations began to settle in the neighborhood. In the 1930s a substantial immigration from
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
's
maritime provinces
The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of Ca ...
found economic opportunity in Boston, and homes in the South End neighborhood.
Beginning in the 1940s, particularly after the end of WWII the South End's rooming houses became home to growing numbers of gays and lesbians. The environment of single sex rooming houses provided homes and social cover for unmarried GLBT people. In the late 1940s a growing population of Hispanic people began settlement. At first much of this settlement was centered around the
Cathedral of the Holy Cross.
Today the neighborhood remains diverse, integrating people of nearly every race, religion, and sexual orientation.
Income levels are anecdotally reported as stratified: a concentration of the wealthy and the poor. However, neither the U.S. Census or City of Boston reports on income of this specific neighborhood. Though
gentrification
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...
is sometimes cited as a reason for flight of poorer and non-white residents, the neighborhood has maintained racial and income diversity due to a large number of subsidized, publicly owned, or otherwise low-income housing units and a homeless shelter. Subsidized below market rate housing developments such as Methunion Manor, Cathedral Housing (
public housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...
project), Villa Victoria, Tent City, Lenox St Apartments, Camden, Camfield Gardens, 1850 Washington St, and Mandela Homes vary considerably and represent evolving attitudes in public housing design and governance.
Although all neighborhoods in Boston suffer from crime, the city has a comparatively low incidence of
street crime
Street crime is a loose term for any criminal offense in a public place. The difference between street crime and white-collar crime is that street crime is often violence that occurs in a public area whereas white-collar crime is non-violent crim ...
. The South End is large enough that some parts can be known for street crime while others are
family friendly
A family-friendly product or service is one that is considered to be suitable for all members of an average family. Family-friendly restaurants are ones that provide service to families that have young children. Frequently, family-friendly produc ...
. Those parts include the Villa Victoria Affordable Housing, the Cathedral Housing Projects, and some areas west of Mass. Ave. The South End has more public
playgrounds
A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people w ...
per square foot than other Boston neighborhoods. The South End is known as an increasingly
upper middle class
In sociology, the upper middle class is the social group constituted by higher status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term ''lower middle class'', which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle-class strat ...
neighborhood, although is still home to many lower income residents. Some long-time residents are being pushed out by rising rents and property taxes. Because of a strong low-income agenda from the city, its recent (until the 1970s) history of impoverishment, and the presence of several low income housing projects, the South End will likely remain economically and racially diverse.
The South End used to be known as a
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
, artistic, and cultural neighborhood, although rising costs in the neighborhood threaten this character. Unlike in cities such as
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, there are no city policies to help artists keep their long-term studios. Art galleries, however, are flourishing even though there are not many. GardenMoms, now one of Boston's most popular online parent groups with over 2500 members citywide, was started by several South End moms in 2002, and helped confirm the role of families as a growing and important facet of this community. (It is named after the South End cafe it started in, The Garden of Eden.)
Demographics
According to the 2010 Census, the total population of the South End is approximately 24,577, which is a 12.2% increase from 2000.
The South End is made up of 55.2% White, 13.3% Hispanic/Latino, 12.5% Black or African American, 16.2% Asian, and 2.7% Other.
Within the South End 33.8% of the population is between the ages of 20 through 34 years old, 8% are under 9 years old.
5.9% of South End residents are 10–19 years old, 31.2% are 35-54, 10.5% are 55-64, and 10.6% are 65 and older.
The median age for the South End is 36 years old.
About 55.2% of the population holds a college degree in the South End, with 29.2% having a bachelor's degree and 26% holding a graduate degree.
The primary language that is spoken in this neighborhood is English with it being at 65.6%, followed by Spanish at 12.9%, Chinese 10.4%, French 2.7%, Portuguese 1%, and other languages 7.4%.
The median income of the South End is $57,699, with 10.9% of the population making between $50,000 and $74,000 each year.
There are 12,831 households in the South End, with 23.3% of the residents living in a family that includes a wife and a husband, and 47.4% are living alone without a family.
As of 2010, 45.2% of the residents are without vehicles but on the other hand 54.8% do own vehicle.
Approximately, 34% of the South Ends uses public transportation which doesn't include using a taxi.
The South End has about 58.1% of its population working in the Management, Business, Science, and Arts field with 79.1% of the labor force being between the ages of 20 to 34 years old.
The 2010 Census states that 72.6% of the South End population has lived in the same place for the past year while 12.8% have moved to a different location but the same county, 7.5% moved from a different county to the South End, and 5.9% moved from a different state to this location.
Public transportation
While no Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (
MBTA) trains run directly through the South End, the neighborhood is close to subway stops, including
Copley,
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...
, and
Prudential stations on the
Green Line and
Ruggles,
Massachusetts Avenue Massachusetts Avenue may refer to:
* Massachusetts Avenue (metropolitan Boston), Massachusetts
** Massachusetts Avenue (MBTA Orange Line station), a subway station on the MBTA Orange Line
** Massachusetts Avenue (MBTA Silver Line station), a stati ...
, and
Back Bay
Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and t ...
stations on the
Orange Line.
Commuter rail
Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...
service on the
Franklin
Franklin may refer to:
People
* Franklin (given name)
* Franklin (surname)
* Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class
Places Australia
* Franklin, Tasmania, a township
* Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...
,
Needham, and
Providence/Stoughton lines is available at Ruggles and Back Bay stations. Back Bay station is also served by the
Framingham/Worcester Line
The Framingham/Worcester Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system runs west from Boston, Massachusetts to Worcester, Massachusetts through the MetroWest region, serving 17 station stops in Boston, Newton, Wellesley, Natick, Framingham, Ashlan ...
. These commuter rail lines all continue to
South Station
South Station, officially The Governor Michael S. Dukakis Transportation Center at South Station, is the largest railroad station and intercity bus terminal in Greater Boston and New England's second-largest transportation center after Logan In ...
.
The
bus rapid transit
Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...
Silver Line routes SL4 and SL5 between
Nubian Square
Nubian Square (formerly Dudley Square) is the primary commercial center of the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located at the intersection of Dudley Street and Washington Street. It has long been the center of African American cult ...
and downtown Boston run on
Washington Street through the South End, with multiple stops between
Lenox Street and
Herald Street.
The neighborhood is served by multiple local MBTA bus routes. Major routes include route on
Tremont Street
Tremont Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts.
Tremont Street begins at Government Center in Boston's city center as a continuation of Cambridge Street, and forms the eastern edge of Boston Common. Continuing in a roughly so ...
and route on
Massachusetts Avenue Massachusetts Avenue may refer to:
* Massachusetts Avenue (metropolitan Boston), Massachusetts
** Massachusetts Avenue (MBTA Orange Line station), a subway station on the MBTA Orange Line
** Massachusetts Avenue (MBTA Silver Line station), a stati ...
.
Gallery
1950s images
File:Boston Herald Traveler Building.jpg, Boston Herald Traveler Building circa 1952–1956
File:Southwesterly from the Railroad Bridge on Harrison Avenue.jpg, Southwesterly from the railroad bridge on Harrison Avenue Showing frontage on Motte Street with the building at 1000 Washington in the background, June 24, 1952
File:Rear of Houses on Harrison Avenue.jpg, Rear of houses on Harrision Avenue and Johnny Court from Pine Street, c. 1952–1958
File:Tot Lot on Troy Street.jpg, Tot lot on Troy Street c. 1952–1958
File:Shawmut Avenue, southerly from the corner of Tremont Street.jpg, Shawmut Avenue, southerly from the corner of Tremont Street, December 4, 1956
File:Don Bosco Technical High School, Warrenton Street.jpg, Don Bosco Technical High School, Warrenton Street December 4, 1956
File:Northeasterly from roof of 100 Arlington Street.jpg, Northeasterly from roof of 100 Arlington Street December 4, 1956
Contemporary images
Image:Columbus and Dartmouth1.jpg, Columbus Avenue and Dartmouth Street, leading into the South End
Image:Appleton and Dartmouth.jpg, Walking down Lawrence Street
Image:Warren and Dartmouth.jpg, Walking down Dartmouth Place
Image:Warren and Dartmouth2.jpg, Side streets in the South End
Image:Union Square Boston MA.jpg, Union Park Street homes
Image:Union Park2.jpg, Union Park Street
Image:2012 SouthEnd Boston 6837599327.jpg, Worcester Square
Image:Tremont and Union2.jpg, Union Park and Tremont Streets
Image:Tremont Clarendon.jpg, Tremont Street
Image:South End John Hancock Tower.jpg, Clarendon Street with John Hancock Tower
200 Clarendon Street, previously John Hancock Tower and colloquially known as The Hancock, is a 60-story, skyscraper in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. It is the tallest building in New England. The tower was designed by Henry N. Cobb of ...
in background
References
Further reading
Leading business men of Back Bay, South End, Boston Highlands, Jamaica Plain and Dorchester illustrated. Boston. Mercantile Pub. Co., 1888.
* Krieger, Alex, and David Cobb. ''Mapping Boston.'' The MIT Press: 1999. .
* Griffin, Arthur, and Esther Forbes. ''The Boston Book.'' Houghton Mifflin Company: 1947.
* Goodman, Phoebe. ''The Garden Squares of Boston.'' University Press of New England: 2003. .
*
External links
Pictures
*
Boston Pictorial Archive Boston Public Library. Images of the South End, Boston.
Records
*Th
are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA.
*Th
are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA.
*Th
are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA.
*City of Bosto
Boston LandmarkSouth End Landmark District
Digital Resources
Global Boston: The South End
Organizations
Official SoWa District Website
Eight Streets Neighborhood Association, South End
St. John the Baptist, Hellenic/Greek Orthodox Church of the South End
The Animal Rescue League of Boston
Ellis Memorial & Eldredge House
A Short History of Boston's South End
{{Coord, 42, 20, 37.86, N, 71, 4, 18.71, W, name=South End, Boston, display=title, type:landmark
Neighborhoods in Boston
South End
Gay villages in Massachusetts
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
LGBT culture in Boston
National Register of Historic Places in Boston