WEST ROXBURY 2000 Census of Population and Housing Summary File 3 (SF3) Data
Report # 585 WEST ROXBURY 2000 Census of Population and Housing Summary File 3 (SF3) Data THOMAS M. MENINO, MAYOR CITY OF BOSTON Report Prepared By: Boston Redevelopment Authority Eswaran Selvarajah Rolf Goetze Mark Maloney, Director Jim Vrabel Clarence J. Jones, Chairman Research Department Consuelo Gonzales Thornell, Treasurer Greg Perkins, Interim Director Joseph W. Nigro, Jr., Co-Vice Chairman Michael Taylor, Co-Vice Chairman Report # 585 Christopher J. Supple, Member December 15, 2003 Harry R. Collings, Secretary A Publication of Research Department, Boston Redevelopment Authority West Roxbury Originally part of the Town of Roxbury, West Roxbury was primarily a farming area with a village at the intersection of today's Centre and Spring streets. In the 1840s, Brook Farm was established in West Roxbury, a utopian community, which influenced writers like Emerson and Hawthorne and attracted visitors from as far away as Europe. The area was also the home of Unitarian minister and abolitionist Theodore Parker, who preached at a church located at the corner of today's Centre and Corey Streets. Construction of the Boston and Providence Railroad in 1848, and streetcar lines in the 1880s, prompted increased residential development. With Jamaica Plain and Roslindale, West Roxbury seceded from Roxbury in 1851 and incorporated as the independent town of West Roxbury, then became part of Boston in 1874. Ever since, it has been suburban of the city's "streetcar suburbs," containing block after block of single family homes. West Roxbury's commercial area is located along Centre Street. Its open space is made up of various neighborhood parks and playgrounds, part of the Stony Brook Reservation, and the recently opened Millennium Park, built on the former city landfill.
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