A late 1950s urban renewal project razed a large Italian and Jewish enclave and displaced over 20,000 people in order to redevelop much of the West End and part of the neighboring Downtown neighborhood.

After that, the original West End became increasingly non-residential, including part of Government Center (formerly Scollay Square) as well as much of Massachusetts General Hospital and several high rise office buildings.

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.

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.

Many would soon move to the nearby Beacon Hill, turning the West End into an African American community and stopping point for new immigrants.

[4] Another early West End building is the Charles Street Jail (1851), designed by Gridley James Fox Bryant, which was renovated into the Liberty Hotel.

[6][7][8] In the early 19th century the West End, along with Beacon Hill's north slope, became an important center of Boston's African American community.

This encouraged middle and working class free African Americans to move into the nearby North slope and West End.

The wealthy and middle class business men were almost entirely gone, but many African Americans remained in the neighborhood, making it one of Boston's most diverse.

They made their home in the neighborhood, constructing health centers, libraries, labor unions, loan societies, orphanages, and synagogues.

Over the Vilna Shul's ark is the double hand symbol for the Kohanim, the ancient Israelite priests, which was the source for the Star Trek Vulcan salute.

The Vilna Shul also has pews salvaged from the former Twelfth Baptist Church on which once sat former African American slaves and volunteers in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment popularized by the movie Glory.

[14] By the end of the 1950s, over half of the neighborhood would be completely leveled to be replaced with residential high rises as part of a large scale urban renewal project.

The large-scale renewal of the West End was first proposed in the 1930s by Nathan Strauss Jr., among others, shortly after the National Housing Act of 1934 was passed.

The working class residents of the West End felt strong ties to the community and so the plan would not become politically feasible until the 1950s.

[15] When the John B. Hynes administration came into power in 1949 city officials recognized that the federal government's Housing Act of 1949 presented the opportunity to remake parts of Boston.

The West End's narrow streets were a fire hazard and many of the buildings were not up to code, with approximately 80% of them substandard or marginal.

[10] Tenants were assured that affordable housing would be found for them, and many were led to believe that they would be able to move back into the West End after the project was complete.

The plan involved completely leveling a 46-acre (190,000 m2) portion of the West End, displacing 2,700 families to make way for 5 residential high rise complexes that would contain only 477 apartments.

The Save the West End committee was formed with the support of Joseph Lee to organize protests against the new development.

[10] A photographer for a local newspaper was even assigned to go to the West End, overturn a trashcan, and take a picture of it to create the impression of a blighted neighborhood.

The entire net cost of the project was $15.8 million, not including the additional loss of tax dollars for the years that the West End was vacant.

[10] Many former residents share their memories and grief through the West Ender Newsletter, published with the tag line, "Printed in the Spirit of the Mid-Town Journal and Dedicated to Being the Collective Conscience of Urban Renewal and Eminent Domain in the City of Boston.

The residential areas that have been rebuilt are primarily upscale highrises, though the neighborhood is currently making strides to re-establish the close knit community that once was.