Talk:South End, Boston

Founding Date
Way back in 2008 it looks like there was a trivial vandalization of the page moving the founding date back twenty years. Then in 2009, somebody pushed it back further another 100 years. The South End was underwater in 1728, and the NRHP filing says it wasn't even planned until 1848. 96.37.24.92 (talk) 19:13, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

Map request
A map is needed to show the present boundaries of the neighborhood and major thoroughfares. This will also help confirm that the neighborhood includes areas southeast of Washington Street, the former South Bay. -- Beland 01:45, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Questions
-- Beland 02:10, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
 * The article says the South End was a jazz mecca "until the 1950s" but when did this era begin?
 * Why did gay men end up in the South End in the 1940s? Dishonorable discharges from the military during WWII from the Port of Boston?  Why did they accumulate in this neighborhood, the single-sex residence buildings?

Removed reference template
I've added the books I refered to in writing my edits. Nearly all of what's here is based in these books. This includes architecture, social development, architecture, and most of the demographics. Current events, like the existance of the land trust, the histroical society, or emergng new retail is harder to source, but self evident.CApitol3 14:24, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Wow, this article has really come a long way since I started it! I'm rather proud. If anyone wonders, back in the day no one had heard of the South End, and as I was renting out apartments, I wanted people to have a description online that they could find. Bit of a historical note - someone else would have started it pretty soon in any case. Charlesaf3 (talk) 04:35, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Many rooming houses on the Back Bay side of the South End had no bathing facilities; roomers went to public showers to bathe. Filled land in the South End was originally eight feet above sea level; it's now four feet, as fill settles. The original shore line of Boston Neck crosses in front of 40 St. George Street, (formerly James Street), and tapers to the narrowest point on the Neck at Dover Street. Blackstone and Franklin Parks are solid land on the original neck, but clam and snail shells are just beneath its surface, as high seas would occasionally overrun the Neck. Massive granite blocks of original sea wall can be seen on the Harrison Avenue side of the Joshua Bates School. — Preceding unsigned comment added by JamesSutton (talk • contribs) 01:58, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

More urban renewal
Comparing this 1852 map and this 1957 aerial photo to the modern street grid, it looks like the area between Washington, Herald, East Berkeley, and Tremont was another victim of urban renewal. I'd never heard of any bulldozing in the South End before adding the section on urban renewal further south; getting the complete story on this would be very interesting. -- Beland (talk) 04:41, 1 October 2012 (UTC)

Urban Renewal Part II
I made a few edits the urban renewal section to clear up some confusing language and clarify that the "New York Streets" slum clearance was a distinct action from the redevelopment of nearby Castle Square and the construction of the cathedral housing project. Also removed a reference to the Ward 8 cocktail being named for the area - the generally accepted folk etymology of that is that it's name comes from the home ward of Martin Lomasney, in the West End. Here's a map of Boston from 1888 that would confirm that Ward 8 is indeed the West End. Regardless, the cocktail has nothing to do with the South End or the NY Streets Urban Renewal Project, I could add more at a later date, there's a bevy of old BHA and BRA reports from that era that I have. I didn't add it, but it's worth mentioning that the area west of Mass Ave was traditional the borderland/transition zone to Lower Roxbury and had much of the same housing stock as today's South End. That area was leveled due to spurts of arson, urban decay, construction of housing projects, and for the Southwest Corridor/I695 highways projects. I didn't include it because, while it was considered at least tangential to the South End at one point, most would place the area solidly in Lower Roxbury today. — Preceding unsigned comment added by CantabTT (talk • contribs) 03:16, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

Changes to the South End
I added a lot of more information to the lead section because it didn't have enough information on it. It only had one sentence that started the page so I decided to give more information. I also added a demographics section to tell the race of the population and the median income. Since the page did have a little information on it but it didn't have it's own lead. I also added a community resource section because it also didn't have one and I thought it would be useful information to have. Another section I added was transportation because it also didn't have that so it would be easier for people to know how they can get to this community. I added more information to the urban renewal section because it was missing some information. I gave education it's own section because it didn't show the schools and institution that the South End had. Also added more information on the retail and entertainment section because it didn't have a lot of information of restaurants and bars that could be found here.

This is being done for coursework in the Wikipedia Edu. Program so I would appreciate edit suggestions to me rather than just change.


 * Thank you for pitching in. I do have a few suggestions, since you asked. I'm speaking for myself, not in any official capacity.
 * Don't use lots of words when a few will do. People are impatient and don't want to wade through bloated paragraphs. Try to avoid redundancies, like "still remained". Don't repeat phrases needlessly, as in "The South End this. The South End that."
 * Stick to the facts. An encyclopedia shouldn't sound like a sales brochure.
 * Someone else has already tagged this article, pointing out the use of I, we, and you. The phrase "you will find" came up a lot, I noticed. "You will find many parks in the area" sounds like it was copied from a travel brochure.
 * Choose verbs carefully. Don't just use "hold" for everything: the neighborhood "holds" many parks, the school "holds" grades 1-8, etc. If you're not sure how to phrase something, it can help to look at a similar article, especially one that's considered "good" or "B-level".
 * "Its" is possessive. "It's" is a contraction of "It is".
 * When you comment on a talk page, please sign your comments. Type four tildes (~) in a row, and this will magically turn into a signature and timestamp.
 * Hope this helps and doesn't sound too snooty. I am far from a perfect editor myself. Rosekelleher (talk) 19:05, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Notable people
Should we add a list?

People who grew up in the South End

 * Mary Antin, author and activist
 * Allan Crite, artist
 * James Michael Curley, politican
 * Sammy Davis Jr., entertainer
 * Jovita Fontañez, politician
 * Harriet Boyd Hawes, archaeologist
 * Jack Levine, artist and key figure in the Boston Expressionist movement
 * Kahlil Gibran, poet
 * Mel King, politician
 * George H. Tinkham, politician

People who lived or worked there at some point
--
 * Louisa May Alcott, author
 * Alexander Graham Bell, inventor
 * Gridley James Fox Bryant, architect
 * Lucretia Crocker, educator
 * Richard Cushing, Cardinal, Archbishop emeritus of Boston
 * Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science
 * Frieda Garcia, community activist
 * Kahlil Gibran (sculptor)
 * Adoniram Judson Gordon, founder of Gordon College and Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary
 * Childe Hassam, Impressionist painter
 * Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader
 * Anna Cabot Lowell, writer
 * Louis B. Mayer, film producer
 * Louise Chandler Moulton, poet
 * Ambrose Ranney, politician
 * Alexander H. Rice, politician
 * Byron Rushing, politician
 * Susie King Taylor, the first Black Army nurse
 * Joseph L. Walcott, first black nightclub owner in New England
 * Justin Winsor, historian
 * John Quincy Adams, Governor of Massachusetts, lived at 4 Union Park — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.169.236.51 (talk) 02:29, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

-- Rosekelleher (talk) 00:51, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:South End (disambiguation) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 18:47, 15 January 2020 (UTC)