Urban Renewal in Boston

the West End and Government Center

Boston's West End is the most well documented neighborhood destroyed by urban "renewal," made famous initially by Herbert Gans's book, The Urban Villagers, 1962. Although approximately 63 percent of the families displaced by urban renewal were African-American or Hispanic, this Boston community was mainly inhabited by working class Italians. It was a little piece of Italy, with narrow winding streets alive with urban social life. Too crowded and unAmerican for the middle class tastes of City planners, it fell to the bulldozer in 1959 and was replaced by high rise, expensive apartment buildings.
Guided Tour
Thumbnail Index

Oak Street and Urban Renewal

Church Street Mall

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Main Index ~ Photograph Credits ~ Yale University Department of Sociology ~ Sociology Resources on the Web ~ Ordinary Culture

The Social Life of Cities.
Prepared by Joseph Soares, Department of Sociology
Copyright © 1996, Yale University. All rights reserved.
Web Design: Elizabeth Sommerfield, PC '96
Web Redesign: John Bullock, CC '99, 8/96; Sarah Nitterauer, CC '98, 2/97
Revised: February 7, 1997