OK Boston folks

First, what is up with this rain? I think somehow I got transported to Kansas City, this is a typical midwestern thunderstorm.

Second, tell me about the West End. We looked at an apartment complex today and are seriously considering moving there when the lease is up in the Back Bay apartment my husband is renting now.

The rent is pricy but really–where isn’t it pricy in Boston? We like that each apartment has a balcony. It’s difficult enough to ditch the house and the yard and the two car garage, so having a balcony would be really nice. But we hadn’t even looked at the West End until today, and know nothing about the area.

Appreciate your thoughts :wink:

The West End? I don’t think I’ve ever heard a neighborhood around here referred to as the West End.

I don’t know about Kansas City, but I’ve seen a Minnesota thunderstorm. This was hardly a drizzle.

Fair enough, I’m talking about near the Charles River, west of the North End and north of Beacon Hill. It could also be described as being in the center of Mass General, the Garden and Gov’t Center. That help a bit?

Mostly I was surprised at the thunder. Somehow I didn’t expect that.

The West End is the old name for the neighborhood they flattened in the '50s. The new name is Charlesbank Something, or Charles River Something. Or, in the common parlance, the “if-you-lived-here-you’d-be-home-by-now” apartment complex.

And no, I don’t know a ton about it, except that it’s wicked convenient to everything downtown.

I used to commute by car from the North Shore to Northeastern U and Wentworth Institute via Storrow Drive from 1957 thru 1962 and I saw the old West End before it was demolished as the first urban renewal project of the Boston Redevelopment Authority. It was replaced by Charles River Park with the first 3 high rise apartment buildings. I used to work at an engineering firm in Downtown Boston with a guy who had worked for the BRA and was a stakeholder tenant of one of the units.

Yes, the Storrow Drive frontage, before all the recent tunnelling, etc., was the site of the first “If you lived here you’d be home now” sign, probably in the world. Later, in 1972, I lived on the top floor of a 10-story older apt house on the top of Beacon Hill on Bowdoin Street, overlooking that neighborhood and the State House roof!. I could walk thru the lobby of the Suffolk County Courthouse to get to my job at 1 Boston Place.

It was great as I parked my car on the North Shore and walked or MTA’d everywhere except on weekends if I wanted to take the 1-hour bus ride from Haymarket Square to Marblehead. BTW, for the first 6 months at that apt., I parked my car in the Haymarket Square garage for $30/month, come-and-go-at will. I know this is TMI, but your post brought back memories of a more hectic but enjoyable time of my life. I left the top story of the Pru Tower and the 20th floor of 1 Boston Place for the rural min-urban midsouth 30+ years ago and have few regrets, especially for the 16-mile, 60-minute commute which now takes 2 minutes, something you may now be able to approximate in Downtown Boston.

For a history of the West End read "The Urban Villagers, by Herbert J. Gans, and for an e- tour, go to

Oh, what are the rents there now? I paid $125/month in the posh place I had on the hill. “Those were the days, my friend.”

Well it shocks my midwestern sensibilities, but the apartment we looked at yesterday is 1010 square feet and runs $2350 a month. Base price is $2150 but this one is more because ya know, it has a view. Parking is another $290/month in the garage.

Leonard Nimoy used to live in that neighborhood. The Mugar Omni Theater at the Museum of Science dropped it for a while, but they’ve re-instated the vocal intro to their theater by Nimoy. Originally it went:

Nimoy: “Welcome to the Mugar Omni Theater”

Guy’s Voice: “Wow! Leonard Nimoy! Hoe’d they get him?”

Nimoy:“He Grew up three blocks from here.”

(The current version uses the same Nimoy clip, but has a woman’s voice saying “Leonard Nimoy! He was Spock on Star Trek.” It bugs me that they feel they have to explain it now. And get off my lawn.