Needham Community Education

This walking tour of the West End traces a circle around the neighborhood while discussing the people and places of the area over the past 4 centuries. The history of the West End is one of continual change, American firsts, Boston innovations, and modern icons. The West End Museum, and this walking tour, celebrate the story of the neighborhood that led the way in Boston’s immigrant era, supporting thousands of the world’s “huddled masses” as they found their way from North End slums to the American Dream. By then, the West End had already produced America’s first native-born architect, provided a home for free Black citizens after the Revolution, and led the way in the construction of railroads, electric street cars, and so much more. The neighborhood changed dramatically after 1950. Two decades of Urban Renewal led to the clearing of more than half the neighborhood, and reinvention in its modern form.