Beacon Hill: Journals

A report on “Architecture of Segregation,” a symposium which was recently held at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. The issues discussed at the forum ranged from the historic Boston city plan and the north slope of Beacon Hill, which was originally settled by free blacks in the 18th century, to the issue of black representation within the design disciplines.

The National Parks of Boston, which includes Boston African American National Historic Site, Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park, and Boston National Historical Park, allows us to reflect upon the heroic acts that led to personal freedom, civil and human rights, and environmental justice.

Preer, Robert. Boston Globe [Boston, Mass] 11 Apr 1999: 1

The writer discusses civic order on Beacon Hill, which was developed between the 1770s and the 1850s and is one of the most beloved neighborhoods in Boston. The order that Beacon Hill residents gave to their environment was not through the design or construction of individual buildings but through the careful appropriation of urban space. As a center of New England's abolitionist movement, Beacon Hill was a highly organized place with personal networks that provided fugitives with clothing, supplies, and housing. For runaway slaves, the complex tumbledown blocks of Beacon Hill were places whose physical properties helped make them a haven from a culture that sought violently to deny them their humanity.

Database: Academic OneFile

The revitalization of the Museum of Afro American History in Boston is discussed. By 1994, with no director, no endowment, and three 19th-century buildings in need of substantial restoration, the museum had slipped into obscurity. At that time, only the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill was open to the public, albeit with very few artifacts and no permanent exhibits; the other buildings—the Abiel Smith School and the African School and Church on Nantucket Island—were mired even deeper in a state of identity crisis. Through a system of overlapping strategies that included public relations, education, and a building-renewal program, the museum was able to secure financial support and loans from a variety of institutions, which will help it to teach about the lives of people of color in colonial New England. In addition, the African School and Church reopened in summer 1999, the Abiel Smith School reopened in September 1999, and the African Meeting House is to reopen in fall 1999.

Many people think the Beacon Hill Architectural Commission goes too far when it comes to preserving the historic and architectural integrity of the neighborhood. One case in point was when it tried to force a 92-year-old woman to reinstall some old, broken-down windows she replaced