West End, Boston

West End
Neighborhood of Boston
(2009)
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
County	Suffolk
Neighborhood of	Boston
Time zone	Eastern (UTC-5)
Area code(s)	617 / 857

The West End is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, bounded generally by Cambridge Street to the south, the Charles River to the west and northwest, North Washington Street on the north and northeast, and New Sudbury Street on the east.Beacon Hill is to the south, and the North End is to the east. A late 1950s urban renewal project razed a large Italian and Jewish enclave in order to redevelop the area.

The West End occupies the northwest portion of the Shawmut Peninsula. Much of the land on which the neighborhood lies is the product of land reclamation. Beginning in 1807, parts of Beacon Hill were used to fill in a small bay and mill pond that separated Beacon Hill and the West End from the North End. Today the neighborhood consists primarily of superblocks containing high rise residential towers. The West End borders the Charles River between the Longfellow Bridge and the Charles River Dam Bridge. The Charlesbank Playground runs along the bank of the river, but is separated from the rest of the neighborhood by Storrow Drive, a large crosstown expressway.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Boston's waterfront and North End were becoming overcrowded, and many of the city's well off residents took the opportunity to develop the area now known as the West End. At that time, the area was separated from the older neighborhoods by a small bay. The architect Charles Bulfinch was responsible for much of Boston's architectural character at the time, and played a large part in this new development of the West End.

...
Wikipedia