History of West Roxbury: Part III

Posted by: Robert Holley
Posted on: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Categories: Lifestyle, History Of..., West Roxbury

The West Roxbury Branch of the Boston and Providence Railroad was completed in 1848, fourteen years after the railroad was established, with stations at Central (later known as Bellevue), West Roxbury Village, and Spring Street.boston-providence.jpg The town was comprised of three sections: West Roxbury Village, or what is now the Centre Street area; Mount Bellevue, which was literally named for the beautiful views afforded by the hill; and Germantown, a section near the junction of Washington and Grove Streets that was settled by Germans from East Dedham. It was said that in “1851, there were two churches, two grocery stores, and one small dry goods store, and for many years after conditions remained unchanged.”

However, it was the West Roxbury Branch of the railroad that brought the middle class to West Roxbury, and initiated the great changes that were to take place between 1860 and 1900. Some of the estates remained well into the twentieth century — most notably the Codman Estate (later the campus of the Roxbury Latin School ) and the Cabot Estate (the site of the present Saint Theresa’s Church ).  It would be the real estate developers who subdivided the farms and created new neighborhoods. This transformed the once rural countryside into urban streetscapes that would become known as “Streetcar Suburbs.” The close proximity of West Roxbury to Boston, with travel made easier by the railroad and the West Roxbury and Roslindale Street Railway, proved far too much of a temptation for the developers, and the push for annexation to the city of Boston became the primary topic of discussion.

Boston had already annexed the once independent city of Roxbury (1868) and the town of Dorchester (1870), and the filling in of the marshlands west of Arlington Street in Boston had created the new “Back Bay” neighborhood, but the steadily increasing population continued to demand more space. West Roxbury (along with the city of Charlestown and the town of Brighton ) was annexed to Boston on May 29, 1873. Thus, the town of West Roxbury ceased to exist twenty-three years after it was founded, and now became a neighborhood of the city of Boston.

The resulting change in West Roxbury was swift and decisive. The opponents to the annexation saw their property soar in value and the proponents began the further subdivision of the farms and estates to attract new residents to the neighborhood. By the last decade of the nineteenth century, the population was served by a street railway line operating between Forest Hills and Dedham. The Boston Elevated Railway had completed the elevated railway that connected Dudley Street in Roxbury to Sullivan Square in Charlestown in 1901. This line was extended to Forest Hills in 1909, and created a passenger terminus for the streetcars that connected Dedham along Spring and Grove Streets and Centre Street. With the increased ease of transportation, West Roxbury became a desirable and accessible neighborhood that would continue to increase steadily in population.

With the increase in population came new schools and churches, along with new streets and major roads, such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars Parkway. The housing boom took place initially in the 1920s and early 1930s, but would double after World War II, due in part to the automobile and to the Veterans Bill that allowed for low interest mortgages for veterans. Today, West Roxbury is a thriving neighborhood of Boston, with open space along the Charles River and Mount Bellevue. charles-river.jpgWith a large number of cemeteries, such as the Saint Joseph’s, Gethsemane, and Mount Benedict Cemeteries, and the Jewish cemeteries of Adath-Jeshurun, Baker Street, and Boston United Hand in Hand, the open green space once so attractive to our ancestors remains, but perceived and utilized in a different manner.

It is a thriving community of people who strive to make it a pleasant and friendly neighborhood that offers the best of qualities of suburban living without leaving the City of Boston.

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One Response to “History of West Roxbury: Part III”

  1. Tim on June 13th, 2007 6:09 pm

    Excellent post Robert!

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