Boundaries

In October 2006 (when the economy was still decent and real estate was hot), I wrote a post about the incredibly shrinking Roxbury. Basically I was pissed that as my neighborhood started becoming more popular and gentrified, parts of it were being marketed as being in the South End. I've got nothing against the South End, but let's keep it real and call the area what it is: Roxbury!

Anyway, Charles Swift came to the rescue and broke it down. He explained how the city's neighborhoods were originally defined and where the boundaries had been established. Like most native Bostonians, I didn't forget the issues of boundaries, how they're established, and why they changed, I just buried them. They resurfaced, however, when I went to a lecture by Representative Byron Rushing at the end of March on the history of Roxbury from pre-colonial days to the mid-20th century. During the lecture we were shown several maps, four of which are presented above (click on each to enlarge).

The first map is from 1849 and illustrates the boundaries between all of the towns around Boston. Dorchester and Roxbury were both much bigger than their current sizes and included most of what is in today's city of Boston. West Roxbury and "Jamaica Plains" were just little villages on the way out of the urban area. The second map is basically a colorized version of the areas shown in the first. The third map is from 1853 and shows how Roxbury split to become two towns: Roxbury and West Roxbury. As Rep. Rushing stated in his lecture, the residents of rural West Roxbury wanted to split from Roxbury because it was more urbanized and working-class. They also believed that too much of their taxes were going toward the urban area. Finally, the 1883 annexation map shows when various neighborhoods became part of the City of Boston. Both this map and the previous one have the southern boundary of Roxbury running along today's Seaver and School Streets. As Charles Swift wrote, Mission Hill was never its own neighborhood, even though it's considered to be one now.

So what happened? How did Mission Hill become known as its own neighborhood? Well, according to Rep. Rushing, that's when race and class come into play. Just as West Roxbury formally broke off from Roxbury because of class issues, Mission Hill became identified as its own neighborhood in the 20th century as demographics shifted. Rep. Rushing explained that as Roxbury's population shifted from being largely Jewish to largely Black, Mission Hill residents began speaking of their neighborhood as being "Mission Hill" rather than "Roxbury." He didn't specify a period of time when that developed, but I'm guessing it happened during the redlining days in Boston real estate, which I think were from the 1950s through the 1970s. Strangely, I grew up on Mission Hill and always thought of it as being part of Roxbury, as did most of my friends who also lived on the Hill (regardless of their races or social class). I don't know how that understanding reached us, but it did. I also find it interesting to see that South Bay, part of the South End, and part of the Longwood Medical Area are historically part of Roxbury, too.

Anyway, for those of you interested in hearing Rep Rushing speak more about history of Roxbury, he's giving two more lectures in May, one on Roxbury's religious history and one on social activism in Roxbury. They're both free and very interesting.

Comments

[MarkB]

Mission Hill is part of Roxbury, like Uphams Corner is part of Dorchester or Forest Hills is part of Jamaica Plain. The question is, when did people start claiming that Mission Hill is indpendent of Roxbury. I'd put that during the gentrifying/studentifying years, probably starting in the 1980s, after the long-time residents had moved out. I'd blame both greedy real estate agents and local activists. A separate "neighborhood" gets more attention than a part of another district. It's still Roxbury to me.

[flightjkt]

Interesting post - I've yet to hear anyone talk about Mission Hill as not being a part of Roxbury, but I'll take yr word for it. (BTW, there was an interesting echo of this situation a few years back w/the financially fueled creation of "the Seaport District" as not being a part of South Boston.)

My question would be this: what effect do you think the Charles Stuart murder had on the identity of Mission Hill, or did it have any effect at all?

[3D]

I lived on Mission Hill at the time of the Charles Stuart murder. Before we learned that Stuart was the murderer, the neighborhood suddenly was seen as a dangerous place by outsiders. Residents started avoiding certain blocks and the cops were everywhere stopping young Black men randomly. After we learned the truth, it took a while for the stigma of that episode to fade completely.

Although Mission Hill is part of Roxbury, I still see various efforts to claim it as somewhere else. Real estate agents try to advertise it part of JP or the Fenway (depending on which side they're on), and the Longwood Medical Area is slowly encroaching upon it. When I was a kid, there was an unspoken agreement that the LMA's institutions wouldn't cross the eastern side of Huntington Ave. Now they have a presence on there and Wentworth is building a dorm just outside Brigham Circle. Last week I also saw that my old apartment building rebranded itself as "The Longwood." It seems like the "line" between the LMA institutions and the neighborhood has blurred and is shifting from Huntington to St. Alphonsus. I definitely see an effort to remake the neighborhood and set it apart from the rest of Roxbury.

[femmme]

This is a very interesting and informative post. I remember when I was at BC I took a class called Boston neighborhoods in which we learned all about the neighborhoods then drove around and saw them. This wasn't even ten yrs ago and still there are changes from that.

I believe most of the changes also just are evolutionary with the changeover of population and many students who have no idea what they are talking about.

[Can-Can]

Roxbury is definitely shrinking depending on who talks about it. The post office folks had something to do with it when zip codes started coming in - they delineated areas according to whim. When I lived on Elm Hill Park - half of the people said it was Roxbury - another half said it was Dorchester - the post office sometimes called it Grove Hall Center, etc.
Racism and classism have all played a part in the redefining of neighborhoods. The dire state of newspaper reporting which means that we have a lot of cub freelancers who don't know a thing about the city about which their reporting. One day in the same issue of the Globe, I saw one neighborhood described as being different by three different reporters. At any rate - I rely on my husband who grew up here and who is president of the Roxbury Crossing Historical Trust to give me the real skinny. I also know that my Roxburyness comes with me whereever I live - now in "Dorchester Center" a designation that only appears on bulk mail.