1900-2000

By the 1940s the population stabilized, but the damage to the neighborhood’s reputation was done. In 1950 the Boston Housing Authority applied for federal funds for a plan to redevelop the West End. There was opposition over the following years, but it made little difference, and by November of 1958, 2,700 households were gone. Though the displaced families were promised subsidized housing, no record of this offer survives. By the summer of 1960 the West End was rubble. In the end a total of fifty two acres were destroyed, and many former and helpless West Enders ended up in substandard housing.