Cultural Cornerstone

Cultural ornerstone: Otis House and Boston’s West End

by CARISSA DEMORE Team Leader for Preservation Services

DRIVING INTO BOSTON FROM ANY direction, one of the first things you notice is the cranes. In the past decade, Boston has experienced a frenzy of major construction projects that keeps developers, architects, regulatory agencies, community advocates, and cultural and civic organizations in protracted negotiations to secure the city’s future. Ultimately, these projects represent unparalleled investment in the neighborhoods where they are built, but it can be challenging to ensure that the investment is beneficial to the local community.

Historic New England’s Otis House (shown above) sits in one of these communities,

between Boston’s West End and Beacon Hill at a rapidly changing section of Cambridge Street, quietly reflecting more than two centuries of urban evolution.

The West End has undergone transformational redevelopment many times in its history, including when Otis House was constructed in 1796 as one of many new, refined houses near Bowdoin Square. The neighborhood continued to change as Boston expanded and the governing elite moved to the south slope of Beacon Hill, then into the Back Bay neighborhood. It is even possible to trace this migration through Harrison Gray Otis’s construction of three successive houses, the first on Cambridge Street, the second on Mount Vernon Street at the top of Beacon Hill, and the third at the base of the south slope of Beacon Hill, facing the Boston Common.

By the nineteenth century, the West End and the north slope of Beacon Hill were home to many in Boston’s Black community, such as Eliza Ann Gardner, who lived with her family at 20 North Anderson Street. Gardner’s childhood home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. As an adult, Gardner became an important abolitionist and advocate for women’s equality. She was a founding member of the Woman’s Era Club, established in the late nineteenth century during the nationwide Black women’s club movement. The first civic organization of its kind in Boston, the Woman’s Era Club gained national prominence for its advocacy work. Gardner’s home has since been demolished and that section of North Anderson Street is once again the subject of redevelopment interests.

Waves of immigration starting in the mid-nineteenth century resulted in increasing numbers of eastern and southern European immigrants taking up residence in the West End,

LEFT By the 1820s storefronts had been built in front of Otis House. When Historic New England acquired it in 1916, the property had been substantially altered. BELOW A 1960 view of the demolition of the West End, looking northwesterly from the roof of Otis House.

encouraging the development of new tenement buildings and commercial shops. As the religious makeup of the neighborhood changed, the 1806 Old West Church was converted in the 1890s to serve a new role as a branch of the Boston Public Library.

At the center of the neighborhood, Otis House adapted repeatedly to accommodate new residents and uses. By the time Historic New England acquired it in 1916, the building had been used as a single-family house, a two-family house, and a boarding house. Commercial storefronts filled the area between the house and the street. In 1925, Cambridge Street was widened and Otis House was moved back and connected to two tenement buildings on Lynde Street, creating the museum and side-entry courtyard that Historic New England’s museum visitors are familiar with today.

In the mid-twentieth century the West End was occupied primarily by immigrant families with strong social networks, living in an eclectic mix of buildings similar to those that still exist in Boston’s historic North End. Fueled by economic challenges, white flight to the suburbs, and systemic racism, Boston targeted the neighborhood for a new approach to expand private investment in the city and improve community services. Relying on the Housing Act of 1949 and the Federal Highway Act of 1956, the Boston Redevelopment Authority declared the West End neighborhood a slum and demolished the majority of its buildings to make way for high-rise apartments with convenient access to Government Center, the Financial District, and other parts of the downtown. Rather than improving the neighborhood for existing residents, that plan disrupted and displaced the West End community. Otis House and Old West Church were included in the Beacon Hill Historic District, dissociating them from the new development and further distancing the West End from its historical roots.

At the time, little was commonly understood about the negative impacts urban renewal would have on cities and few options were available to preservationists. Lacking the tools and the capacity to launch an effective advocacy campaign, and largely supported by those who were unconcerned about the demolition, Historic New England struggled to respond to the West End urban renewal program, aiding in the documentation of some buildings by the Historic American Buildings Survey (commonly known as HABS) while also quietly postponing or relocating events and activities until the dust settled.

Ultimately, urban renewal in the West End would serve as a kind of warning for other communities, attracting advocates such as Jane Jacobs, who later contrasted the liveliness of Boston’s North End with the sterility of the West End in her famous 1961 book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. This period of sweeping demolition and community displacement helped galvanize a national historic preservation movement and the development of policy and regulatory tools to protect historic places and community character. Today, as the neighborhood faces another generational wave of investment and redevelopment, Historic New England is in a much better position to advocate for outcomes that improve the vitality of our West End community.

Historic New England is deeply engaged in advocacy efforts along Cambridge Street, related to the expansion of the Massachusetts General Hospital campus between Grove and Blossom streets, the redevelopment of the Hurley Building at Staniford Street, and the reconsideration of the West End Branch of the Boston Public Library adjacent to Otis House. Together, these redevelopment schemes

Undated image of two people walking amid a demolition site in the West End. Between 1950 and 1974 urban renewal displaced approximately 3,000 families, demolished forty-six acres of older buildings, and received more than $28 million in federal funding.

represent some of the most significant investment in the West End since the middle of the twentieth century. They also bring increased interest in the neighborhood and revive discussions about other projects, such as the Red/Blue Connector of the MBTA, which would link the Red and Blue public transit lines. Historic New England has an important responsibility in the community relative to these projects—as the owner of the oldest building in the West End, as one of the oldest cultural institutions in the neighborhood, and as an organization that is uniquely positioned to convene design, planning, cultural, and civic partners on issues of neighborhood livability and historic preservation.

As Historic New England undertakes this work, Otis House presents itself as a vehicle to inform these conversations and inspire better redevelopment beyond our boundaries. In addition to engaging with community stakeholders in advocacy related to other redevelopment projects, we have already begun a careful assessment and process of reimagining Otis House as an even stronger neighborhood anchor and a gateway to all that Historic New England has to offer. We are excited to think creatively about enhanced uses for the building— expanding on what people already love about the site and exploring opportunities for innovation and collaboration.

Boston’s skyline may be defined by cranes and new glass high rises, but the city is best recognized by its history, its neighborhood character, and the energy of its diverse communities. Historic preservation plays a key role in ensuring that Boston retains its unique sense of place and nowhere is that clearer than when you look at Otis House in the West End. We look forward to sharing our thinking as redevelopment and reimagining continue. Most importantly, we look forward to listening to you, our community, about what role Historic New England should play at the heart of a twentyfirst-century West End neighborhood transformation.

Photograph taken from inside the Hurley Building looking across the courtyard of the State Services Buildings complex.

An Urban Renewal Do-Over

Having used the West End urban renewal project to gauge the effort needed to accomplish the city’s goals, Boston embarked on a second phase of redevelopment in the 1960s and early 1970s to create Government Center. Today, the success of the Government Center master plan of architectural giant I. M. Pei and the significance of Paul Rudoph’s Brutalist-style State Services Buildings complex are the subject of regular public debate; most recently, the redevelopment of the Charles F. Hurley Building on Staniford Street proposes to address certain shortfalls of the existing structure.

Over the next few years, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts plans to redevelop this 3.35-acre site through a public-private partnership. The transformation aims to accomplish three main goals: 1. To address, cost effectively, the capital renewal needs of an outdated state asset, including enhancing the energy efficiency of the building. 2. To consolidate state employees who are working in various leased downtown spaces into state-owned property in Government Center. 3. To restructure the site from an imposing super-block into a pedestrian-friendly part of a vibrant neighborhood.

Representing controversial policy decisions, thought-provoking architectural innovation, and vast amounts of embodied carbon from their production and maintenance over time, the preservation and adaptive use of aging urban renewal projects raise complex and important questions for their communities and historic preservationists.