CultureNOW - Cambridge Street: Peter Vanderwarker

Cambridge Street

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ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
"The ruthless demolition of Boston's West End neighborhood, in 1960, is regarded as one of the stupidest disasters in the history of American city planning. An entire neighborhood disappeared in a matter of months. Planners and politicians -- and the Globe, at the time -- argued absurdly that the "blight" of the low-income neighborhood might spread, like a disease, to infect the rest of the city. That was before it became clear, in examples ranging from Boston's South End to London's Covent Garden to the Marais in Paris, that decayed neighborhoods are capable of astonishing regeneration.

In the old photo, we're looking across Cambridge Street from the corner of Irving. On the left is one edge of the old West End, before it was demolished. The buildings are not remarkable architecture, but they have a pleasant human scale. That scale derives, in part, from the fact that most of the windows are just about the height and width of a human being. The windows become emblems, on the façade, of the human life inside.

A few buildings survived. The cupola of the Old West Church pokes up in the middle of the old photograph, and if you like to play "Where's Waldo?" you can find it in the new one. Most of the 2005 photo, though, is occupied by a handsome new structure. This is 175 Cambridge Street. It's an example of a growth spurt on Cambridge Street that was driven by the ever-expanding Massachusetts General Hospital. MGH itself isn't visible in our photo, but it was another survivor of the demolitions. Its labs and services now occupy every square inch of No. 175, except a retail strip along the sidewalk. The building looks like the institutional structure that it is, but its rhythmic glass bays and hatlike visor give it much more character than most buildings of its kind. The architect was the firm of Tsoi Kobus.

The old West End was a multiethnic mix, the first stop for many immigrants. After its demolition, it was mostly replaced by the pastel apartment towers of Charles River Park, which have names like Emerson, Whittier, Hawthorne, Longfellow, and Lowell. It was a clear example of ethnic cleansing. Today, 45 years after the loss of their homes, survivors of the neighborhood, who now are scattered throughout Greater Boston, still maintain a regular newspaper called the West Ender."

-Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, "CITYSCAPES - Go West: After urban renewal, character returns to Cambridge Street," Boston Globe, 5 December 2005

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Location

Cambridge Street & Irving Street
Boston, MA 02114
United States

Nearby Items

Vilna Shul		659 feet
Museum of African American History		795 feet
African Meeting House		817 feet
Old West Church		983 feet
Cambridge Street (Old West Church)		0.2 miles
Nursing Sundial sculpture at MGH		0.3 miles
The Ether Dome		0.3 miles