Boston’s Lost Neighborhood: A visit to the West End Museum

The West End of Boston has a long and storied history. Charles Bulfinch, America’s first architect, designed buildings there. Primus Hall, an African-American who fought in the 5th Massachusetts Regiment during the Revolutionary War was born there. And immigrants — many many immigrants — first Irish, then Jewish, the Italian, called it their first home in the New World. Perhaps most famous of these was none other than Leonard Nimoy, who grew up in the neighborhood, attended both the Elizabeth Peabody House and the West End House, and went on to international fame as Dr. Spock on the show Star Trek.

But perhaps the West End is most famous for no longer existing, having become one of America’s most distinguished victims of the 1960s Urban Renewal wrecking ball. Sebastian Belfanti, the director of the West End Museum, gives us an overview of the history and the place, and tells us about “The Last Tenement” in Boston, an iconic if lonely building standing just opposite the museum’s front door.