On this walking tour we'll explore a new Boston neighborhood: the Ink Block District. Over the past five years, this marginal area in the South End at the edge of Chinatown has been transformed by hundreds of residential units in a dozen different buildings. This area, originally known as the New York Streets, developed in the latter 19th century as a neighborhood serving the railroad yards around South Station. The New York Streets, which resembled the North and West Ends, were demolished for urban renewal in the mid-1950s to provide sites for industry, including the Boston Herald plant. In recent years, the booming growth of Boston has spurred the redevelopment of underutilized areas. We'll visit and discuss the complex of new apartments, hotels, recycled churches, restaurants, offices, and the unusual 8-acre park under I-93 called Underground at Ink Block. We'll also visit parts of the South of Washington Area (SOWA).
