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Rose Kennedy Greenway

The Rose Kennedy Greenway, completed in 2008, is a network of gardens and public spaces that sits atop a massive underground highway project.

Resources

More or Less in Common: Environment and Justice in the Human Landscape

What kinds of images come to mind when you think about the environment? Trees, water, green landscapes, and scenic vistas? But what about people—communities, housing, roads, neighborhoods, cities, schools, and factories? These are all a part of the environment too. And environmental issues can’t be set apart in a distinct category from social questions. Humans and the natural world are deeply connected, through the past, present, and future.
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Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy

The Conservancy has sole responsibility for managing all aspects of the Rose Kennedy Greenway, including horticulture, programming, public art, maintenance, and capital improvements.
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Essays

The Central Artery and Chinatown

by Theo Fox

This essay was written as a student project for HIST 7250: Practicum on the Place-Based Museum.

The 1.5 mile expanse of vibrant greenery and interactive structures which is the Rose Kennedy Greenway offers the oppurtunity for both visitors and locals alike to escape the weight of urban life in Boston, if only for an afternoon. Yet if we were to step back 30 years, the land stretching from Chinatwon to the North End would have looked quite different. The tantalizing aromas ascending from the lines of of local food trucks, the excited cheering from children after first seeing the fountains or the carousel, and the subsquent capitulation of loving parents in agreeing to ride said carousel, would all be gone. In their place, a cacophony of car horns and sirens would mix with the sickly-sweet scent of exhaust fumes, forcing the Rose Kennedy Greenway into becoming a distant memory of the future.

Constructing Destruction

Prior to the Greenway’s development, Boston’s Central Artery pierced through the heart of the city’s downtown neighborhoods like a barbed arrowhead, almost as destructive to remove as it was going in. The issues surronding the massive infrastrucral project far surpassed the purely aesthetic, as its history, from construction in the 1950s to the final piece of steel being removed in 2004, is marred with destruction. Just south of the Greenway’s current placement sits Chinatown, one of Boston’s staple neighborhoods which was both literally and figuratively divided by the Central Artery’s construction. Through a closer, albeit abbreviated look into the past of this neighborhood and its communal reaction to the project, we are offered the oppurtunity to better understand the stories of displacement and resistance which shaped the decades long discourse surronding the Central Artery.

Early Warnings

On a Sunday morning in the fall of 1950, the weekly edition of the Boston Globe was delivered to mailboxes and corner stores across the city. Page twelve of this paper contained a seemingly innocous article titled “Big Traffic Artery to Span City”, announcing the beginning of the Central Artery’s construction the following month. Model of the proposed Central Artery included in this Boston Globe edition (September 3, 1950)

The brief article laid out the timing of job opening releases, details on funding, and other pieces of mundane information. Towards the end of the article, a quote from Public Works Commissioner William Callahan is included, in which he assures that “some familes and some businesses will be hurt temporarily”, then goes on to describe those who will suffer as merely “victims of progress.” And yet, Callahan firmly states that “the people of the City of Boston will greatly benefit.” While the inhabitants of Boston, and those of Chinatown in particular would most certainly not benefit, Callahan was correct in asserting that there would be victims. In fact, throughout the four years it took to construct a majority of the highway, 20,000 Bostonians would be displaced, approximately 2.5 percent of the city’s population in 1850.

Finding Community, by Choice or Otherwise

Chinese immgration to the Boston area began to surge in the second half of the 19th century, with earlier immigrants coming directly from the southern provinces of China amid food shortages and overpopulation. Chinese immigrants were also brought from California to supplant local workers, primarily shoemakers, who had gone on strike. In large part due to local xenophobia and abject racism, the Chinese Exlusion Act of 1882 was passed by the U.S congress, stopping futher immigration. Despite the act’s passage, by the turn of the 20th century, over 1,000 Chinese, almost exclusively working-age males, were living in Boston, a majority of whom were living in the area between Essex and Beach Streets which would enventually be universally known as Chinatown. Late 19th c. Postcard of Harrison Ave in Boston’s Chinatown

It was not until 1943 that the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed, largely with the goal of strengthening ties with the Chinese government. Chinese immigration was still heavily restricted, allowing for 105 immigrants per year, some of whom included Chinese ‘war brides’ who had married American soldiers. Despite the restrictive laws and race-baced social exclusion Chinese immigrants had been perpetually facing, there was ample evidence of strong, unified community building. Laundries were the primary occupation for Chinese immigrants living in Boston dating back to the intial wave of immigration, and by 1900, nearly 90 percent of the Chinese inhabitants in Massachusetts were laundry workers, often working out of one- or two-man operations. As more famlies began to inhabit Chinatown instead of solely ‘male bachelors’, these laundry businesses became family affairs, further contributing to the growing sense of commmunity. Chinese grocery stores, schools, restaurants, and communal areas began appearing with growing frequency, and despite outside perspectives riddled with anti-Chinese sentimets, the unified identiy of Boston’s Chinatown grew stronger.

Deja Vu, from the El to the Central Artery

Half a century before the Central Artery cut through Boston’s Chinatown, the Washington Street Elevated railway was constructed, running directly through the heart of the neighborhood. The anti-Chinese sentiments which hung over the city like a sprawling cloud was used as justification for the placement of the railway, and the physical disruption it caused was expected to push the Chinese immigrants out of the city. While the project did bring squalid living conditions and dramitically decreased value for property owners, those who left the area were not Chinese immigrants who had begun to build a community. In fact, they were the only ones to stay, due in large part to the city’s exclusionary policies which would make finding a new home, a new job, and a new community nearly impossible. This resulted in a futher increase in the growing sense of community which shaped the neighborhood, even as the city they called home tried to push them out. Today, if a Bostonian was asked about the El, they would likely describe the luxury condos which were recently built in Boston’s South End, unaware of the past exclusionary associations with these two simple letters.

50 years after the construction of the railway, plans for the Central Artery project were announced. For the inhabitants of Chinatown, most of whom who would have had a personal connection to the detrimental effects of the El’s construction, refused to sit idly by while their community was once again torn apart. The proposed elevated highway would cut off Chinatown from the rest of the city, and required the destruction of residential homes and businesses. When combined with the ever-growing population of the neighborhood, a housing crisis was imminent. In response, the On Leong Merchants Association reached out to the state governer in attempt to save the neighborhood. While construction would still continue, changes to the plan were made which would save the neighborhood from reaching the same fate as the West End, which was completely destroyed during the project. While hundreds of inhabitants were still displaced, the core sense of community in Chinatown survived. The resistance displayed by indivduals and groups like the On Leong Merchants Association set the tone for the remainder of the century. The Central Artery was not the first, nor was it the last urban renewal project which would threaten the existence of Chinatown, and listed below are a number of sources which will guide you through later periods of displacement and resistance in much greater detail.

1993 Protest against the plans for the the Parcel C parking garage in Chinatown. These plans would be shot down as a result of the backlash.

And the Greenway?

While the Rose Kennedy Greenway has barely been discussed througout this essay, the essence of what it symbolizes should now be clear. Urban projects have consquences, and it is crucial to recognize that these consquences are not faced equally by all. The decision to construct the Greenway as a part of the Big Dig project was not an isolated decision made by urban planners, but the result of a century of resistance against destruction, resistance which is evident through the continued existence of Chinatown.

Sources

https://thewestendmuseum.org/history/era/immigrant-neighborhood/destruction-and-disappointment-the-legacy-of-bostons-central-artery/

https://graphics.boston.com/beyond_bigdig/news/artery_122902.htm

https://bostonglobe.newspapers.com/image/433522866/?match=1&terms=Central%20Artery%20Boston

https://ur.bc.edu/system/files/2025-04/bc-ir9100034.pdf

https://thewestendmuseum.org/history/era/immigrant-neighborhood/destruction-and-disappointment-the-legacy-of-bostons-central-artery/

https://bostonresearchcenter.org/digitizing-bostons-powerful-chinatown-neighborhood-history/

https://www.chinatownatlas.org/era/wwii-1970s/
Frostival and International Christmas Markets

by Emily Sandercock

This essay was written as a student project for HIST 7250: Practicum on the Place-Based Museum.

Today

Winter of 2025-26 saw the inaugural Frostival in Boston, with a temporary, cozy lodge in Copley Square and Ferris Wheel on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. This was the first Frostival in Boston, but winter markets like this have exploded in popularity around the globe in the 21st century. These markets celebrate an imagined past, incorporating elements of Victorian-era Christmas department stores, which themselves attempted to re-create idealized, medieval Christmas markets, while remaining firmly rooted in a globalized, 21st century world.

Medieval Markets

Various European cities, particularly in Germany and Austria, claim Christmas market traditions stretching back hundreds of years. The Nuremberg Christmas market claims an origin in 1530 (with the first written mention in 1678), while the Dresden market supposedly began in 1434, and the Vienna market marks 1296 as its beginning. Little is known, however, about the Christmas markets of the medieval era. They appear briefly in historical records. The Vienna market, for instance, was authorized by Albrecht I in 1296 as a Krippenmarkt, or December market. But little is known for certain about what day-to-day experiences of the markets would have entailed.

Riotous Christmas

More is known about Christmas festivities of the (relatively) recent past. During the 1600s and 1700s Christmas in what would become the United States of America was a communal holiday. It took place over several days, consisting of revelry, music, and dancing, which some of the more pious denounced. In 1659, for example, the Massachusetts General Court made it a criminal offense to celebrate Christmas, though of course the prohibition did not last, and by the 1700s Christmas celebrations were common in New England.

While gift giving was not as prevalent as it is today, gifts of cash from employers to employees and from enslavers to the enslaved were customary and expected. This expectation manifested in the mummer tradition, which involved crowds of merrymakers visiting the doorsteps of wealthy homes (or even invading them uninvited) to perform short, comic plays in exchange for tips. Today, the mummer tradition continues in Philadelphia with an annual New Year’s Day parade, but it also existed in Boston in the 1700s, where the performers were known as the Boston Anticks.

The mummers’ and Anticks’ plays drew from English pantomime tropes, which themselves descended from the Italian commedia dell’arte genre (which developed in the 1500s), featuring characters like the old men (vecchi), young lovers (inamorti), and servants (zanni). In England, the clown was added to the mix, with Joseph Grimaldi pioneering the pratfall in his act. Long before the 21st century Christmas traditions crossed borders, shifting and changing depending on their new cultural contexts.

The Victorian Era and the 1800s

Much of today’s Christmas developed during the Victorian Era (about 1837-1901), as industrialization and consumerism drove each other forward. This was when the first Christmas card was designed and sold, and when the jolly image of Santa Claus we know best today was created. Charles Dickens, in A Christmas Carol, solidified Christmas as a day for families to gather for a feast, in contrast to the communal partying that had characterized the holiday a century or two earlier. At the same time authors such as Walter Scott, wrote wistfully of the Christmases of days gone by. Scholar David Parker notes repetitions of the word ‘still’ in Victorian Christmas literature and sees in this an emphasis on keeping hold of the spirit of Chistmases past. Christmas celebrations, in this literature, are as much an ode to the past as they are a religious holiday or a reason for purchasing consumer goods.

Department stores, while selling consumer goods, tried to align themselves with visions of historical Christmases. The Wanamaker Building in Philadelphia was transformed, during the mid-1800s, into a “pseudomediveal wonderland” each Christmas season. Jan Ziolkowski argues that John Wanamaker’s version of Christmas was meant to evoke a particularly German, medieval Christmas tradition, to appeal to the many German immigrants then living in Philadelphia. The new Christmas cards were written in text reminiscent of a medieval tome, the first letter of each large and detailed. The Christmas markets we see today are a result of these long years of imitations and transformations, with contemporary European Christmas markets (which spearheaded the modern trend) shaped by US holiday consumer culture, itself influenced by 19th century ideas about the European medieval ages.

Today, Again

Modern winters (and, in the case of the southern hemisphere, summers) see hundreds of Christmas markets around the globe. They are separated by thousands of miles but often share common features. Stalls with wooden, triangular roofs and mulled wine. Hot chocolate and small trinkets. Boston is not the only city to have a market with a Ferris wheel. Warsaw have them as well. The Christmas market in Shanghai has bumper cars and artificial snow. There is Pokémon themed Christmas village in Yokohama. Like the pantomimes of the 1600 and 1700s, these markets cross borders and blend cultures. Like the department stores of the 1800s, they reach back to an imagined past. The winter Ferris wheel on the Rose Kennedy Greenway contains many strands of history that may not be evident at first glance.
The West End vs The Highway
by Scarlett Held

This essay was written as a student project for HIST 7250: Practicum on the Place-Based Museum.
Historic map of Boston and Mill Pond

Neighborhoods of The Past

Aerial view of the West End

The West End

Similar to most of Boston, the West End was once a marsh. The marsh was then dammed and developed to account for population growth. The West End has been an important neighborhood in Boston since the Revolutionary War, especially for African Americans, a large community of Irish, and other working class immigrants. Separated from the North End by Mill Pond, the West End was originally farmland, and then it became home to the transportation hub for the area. Workers from Beacon Hill and the waterfront moved to the West End after it was filled in with land. With the increase of immigrant populations to the area came the rise of tenement buildings and the poor living conditions within. Although it was home to such a diverse population of people, the West End did not have the luxury of Beacon Hill nor the waterfront access of the North End. When it came time to destroy neighborhoods, it is no surprise the West End was first to go. Despite the rich cultural history of the West End, there is little community left within the neighborhood today. So why is that legacy largely missing from the modern streets of the West End today?

Signage posted during redevelopment

Age of Highways

The 1950s saw extreme growth to the highway system, and cities around the country had to figure out how to make space for the new roads. Boston had a clear plan, tearing down historic working class neighborhoods. Among those lost were the West End, Downtown, and Chinatown. All of these neighborhoods were home to diverse working class communities. The Boston Housing Authority built its plan for urban redevelopment around tearing down the ‘slum’ that was the West End. Over 20,000 people were evicted from their homes to create the I-93’s “central artery”. They were given $1 and told they would get the rest of the value at a later date. When that day came all they got was at a fraction of the worth of the homes. Some of Boston’s oldest public squares Adams Square, Scollay Square, and Haymarket Square were completely destroyed to promote commuting between predominantly white suburbs and the city. The highway did not only destroy neighborhoods, it cut off the North End, an Italian neighborhood, from the rest of the city. The central artery segregated the neighborhood from the rest of the city by way of an elevated multilane highway. The communities lost during the era of development could never come back. Even as homes were rebuilt, families had been gone for generations. For those in power the 1950s were a period of ‘hatred’ towards the city of Boston. With the wealthy white populations moving into suburbs the focus of development was commuting. The old streets of Boston were seen as dirty and old, detrimental to the makeup of the suburbs. Fred Salvucci, who came up with the idea for the ‘Big Dig’, had this to say about this era in urban planning “…In the ’50s, we just knocked those buildings down. That’s a pretty vandalistic way to deal with what I think is a really great city.” Among the historic buildings razed, was the office where The Liberator was published, the paper that served as the heart of the abolition movement in the United States.

Destruction to make way for the highway

The Big Dig

Fred Salvucci’s grandmother lost her home when they built the Mass Pike, his brother in law was evicted from his home in the West End to make room for the central artery. When Salvucci grew up he would mastermind the burial of the elevated highway that later became known as the Big Dig. His goal going into urban planning was to build roads and tunnels that did not hurt people or destroy communities. The Big Dig changed a lot for the city of Boston, allowing the North End to rejoin the rest of the city and getting rid of a traffic-filled polluter, but it could not undo the damage previously done. Ian Cross interviewed Chinatown native Randy Tow about the rebuilding of previously destroyed neighborhoods, for his “The Big Dig” podcast with GBH News, “It was a good gesture. It was something better than not having anything you can never really replace a neighborhood. Nor is anybody asking you to do it. It’s impossible.” The 1950s were an extremely damaging time, a legacy Boston will be faced with forever. The Boston Redevelopment Authority apologized in 2015 for razing the West End. The city has tried to make amends for its actions, but some things are not so easily fixed.

Chinatown residents protesting highway ramp expansion

The Greenway and Today

With the highway now underground, what used to be the elevated highway is now a park. The city is now reconnected to the North End and its own waterfront. The 17 acre and 1.5 mile long park stretches between those lost neighborhoods. It can never replace the communities displaced in the 50s but it is a lot better than a highway. The Rose Kennedy Greenway is home to community events nearly every night of the week. From beer gardens, artisan markets, food festivals, and exercise classes the park is once again a place for people to come together. The West End is now home to TD Garden and Mass General Hospital. It is no longer rows of brick houses but instead high rise buildings, most of which are nonresidential. North Station, the hub of transportation in the city, is only a ten minute walk away from the Greenway. The West End Museum and the Last Tenement, another ten minute walk, are open to ensure the long history of the neighborhood is remembered.

Sources