Founded in 1630 (contemporaneously with Boston),
West Roxbury, Massachusetts was originally part of the town of Roxbury and was mainly used as farmland. West Roxbury seceded from Roxbury in 1851, and was
annexed[1] by Boston in 1874. The town included the
neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain and Roslindale.[2]
Bordered by Roslindale, Hyde Park, Dedham and Brookline, West Roxbury's main thoroughfare is Centre Street, lined with local restaurants and commercial establishments. Today, the neighborhood's tree-lined streets and mostly single
family homes give it a suburban feel in an urban setting.
Life in the neighborhood centers on political and civic activism as well as local
parishes and youth athletic leagues. West Roxbury is home to many
of Boston's civil servants. The community boasts a significant proportion of persons of Irish decent as well as a smaller number of more recent Irish immigrants.[citation needed]
The Roxbury Latin School was founded in 1645 and has been located on Saint
Theresa Avenue in West Roxbury since 1927. The school's endowment is estimated at $143.8 million, the largest of any boys' school in the United
States.
The neighborhood was home to an experimental transcendentalist Utopia community called Brook Farm, which attracted notable writers like
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau.[3]
Like its neighboring communities, West Roxbury's residential development grew with the construction of the West Roxbury branch
of the Boston and Providence Rail Road; the area grew further with the
development of electric streetcars.
Theodore Parker Church
At Centre and Corey Streets, the Theodore Parker Church features seven stained glass windows made by the Tiffany Studios
between 1894 and 1927. The original church, designed in 1890 by Alexander
Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr., is now a parish hall. Henry Seaver designed the current church in 1900. Theodore Parker (1810-1860), an advocate of progressive religious ideas, abolitionism and women's
suffrage, was minister of this Unitarian congregation from 1837 to 1846.
Westerly Burying Ground conflict and secession
Westerly Burying Ground (currently at Centre and Lagrange Streets) was established in 1683 to permit local burial of residents
of Jamaica Plain and the western end of Roxbury. When West Roxbury was
still part of Roxbury, the town’s first burial place was today’s Eliot Burying Ground, near the present-day Dudley Square. This
was a long distance to travel for the inhabitants of West Roxbury and in 1683 the town selectmen voted to establish a local
burying place, now known as Westerly Burying Ground. A conflict between the rural and more urbanized parts of the town led to the
split of West Roxbury from Roxbury proper in 1851.[4] West Roxbury became part of the City of Boston on January 5, 1874.[5] Westerly Burying Ground served as this community’s burial place well into the
nineteenth century. The oldest graves contain many of the town’s earliest and most prominent families. Eight veterans of the
American Revolution and fifteen veterans of the American Civil War are also buried here. The site is significant for its large collection of three
centuries of funerary art. One-third of its extant gravestones date from the eighteenth century; almost half date from the
nineteenth century and only about twenty bear twentieth-century dates. Another distinguishing feature of Westerly Burying Ground
is the number of individual mound tombs found here. Mound tombs at other burying grounds are typically larger, built to contain a
number of bodies. The oldest gravestone, from 1691, commemorates James and Merriam Draper, members of a prominent West Roxbury
family. Headstones provide an historic record of three centuries of West Roxbury residents and also illustrate the skills of
local stone carvers.
West Roxbury Library
In 1876, the Boston Public Library created a delivery station when it took over
the collection of the West Roxbury Free Library. In 1896, it became a full branch of the Boston Public Library. In 1921-22, a new
library building was built at the present site. In 1977, a devastating fire destroyed the neighboring West Roxbury Congregational
Church and the land was deeded to the Trustees of the Boston Public Library for the purpose of an addition to the Branch
building. On September 24, 1989, the new addition was opened
to the public.
Natives of West Roxbury
Sites of interest
Image gallery
Westerly Burying Ground, general view
|
Westerly Burying Ground, close-up 1
|
Westerly Burying Ground, close-up 2
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Theodore Parker Church (Unitarian)
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West Roxbury Free Library, 1921-2 wing
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West Roxbury Free Library, 1989 wing
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Centre Street, West Roxbury's main artery
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Saint Teresa of Ávila Church (Roman Catholic)
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References
Further reading
- Anthony Mitchell Sammarco, "West Roxbury (Then & Now)", Arcadia Publishing,
Portsmouth, NH, 2003. ISBN 0738512478
- A hundred comparative historic photos, 1850–2000, of the area around Centre Street.
External link
Coordinates:
42°16′45″N, 71°08′58″W
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