Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

Jamaica Plain, more commonly known as "JP", is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. It was originally part of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and then part of the town of West Roxbury, Massachusetts when that was established in 1848. West Roxbury (including Jamaica Plain) was annexed to Boston in 1874. According to an official city estimate, it had a population of 38,196 in October, 2003.

History

One of the original streetcar suburbs, by the 1850s Jamaica Plain included massive summer "cottages" near Jamaica Pond belonging to Boston's oldest families, middle-class single-family homes, and immigrant worker "triple decker" housing. In the 1880s, philanthropist Robert Treat Paine (1810-1905) pioneered affordable housing concepts for lower- and middle-class workers with his Workingmen's Building Association and a 114-house development between Round Hill and Sunnyside streets. JP was the home of almost a dozen breweries which relied on the relatively pure water of Stony Brook. By 1896, the Thomas G. Plant Shoe Factory at Centre Street and Bickford Street proclaimed itself to be the largest shoe factory in the world.

Related Topics:
Streetcar suburb - 1850s - Jamaica Pond - Middle-class - Triple decker - Robert Treat Paine - Breweries - Thomas G. Plant Shoe Factory

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By the end of the 19th century, the annexation by Boston had provided municipal services to the neighborhood, and it began to experience a rapid growth in population. This was fostered by the creation of Forest Hills Cemetery, Arnold Arboretum, and the Emerald Necklace -- a series of parks and parkways designed by Frederick Law Olmsted on the western and southern sides of Jamaica Plain.

Related Topics:
19th century - Forest Hills Cemetery - Arnold Arboretum - Emerald Necklace - Park - Parkway - Frederick Law Olmsted

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During the 20th century Jamaica Plain transformed from a streetcar suburb to a more urban neighborhood, with a heavily Irish-American population. Prohibition brought an end to the breweries and the depression launched a significant public housing development effort on Heath Street and later at Bromley Park, eventually creating over 1,000 government-subsidized housing units for the poor.

Related Topics:
20th century - Prohibition - Depression

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Significant portions of the neighborhood adjacent to the Boston & Providence Railroad were demolished in the 1960s for an interstate highway project that was defeated by resident activists. The areas demolished for the interstate right-of-way were rebuilt as the Southwest Corridor linear park. The MBTA Orange Line reopened through this corridor in 1985, replacing an elevated train along Washington Street.

Related Topics:
Boston & Providence Railroad - Southwest Corridor - MBTA

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In the 1970s it was better known for its arson and petty crime than for its parks, but had become a more diverse and aging community. A dramatic fire in 1976 destroyed the Plant Shoe Factory and its adjacent park, creating a crater of rubble that remained for nearly two decades.

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The 1990s brought significant redevelopment to JP. Residents began to take back the parks, and Jamaica Pond became a rallying point with the Jamaica Pond Project's restoration efforts. Nonprofit housing groups bought up rundown houses and vacant lots to create low-income rental units. The Plant Shoe Factory site was redeveloped as JP Plaza, a strip mall, and later a supermarket and a new facility for the Martha Eliot Health Center completed the site's redevelopment. Boston Main Streets districts sprouted in three corners of the neighborhood (Hyde/Jackson Square, Egleston Square, and Centre/South), bringing the tools of neighborhood revitalization to local business owners. By the turn of the century, the neighborhood was experiencing rapid gentrification, and had a growing lesbian and gay population, as well as a large community of political activists, artists, and young families -- while also experiencing a loss in low- to moderate-income housing.

Related Topics:
Gentrification - Lesbian - Gay

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