Expansions To cross Street

Black and white photo-cobbled street, Woman waiting to cross truck unloading in background of buildings A view along Cross Street (1949) (Boston City Archives)

A view along Cross Street (1949) (Boston City Archives)

Color photograph, Cross street view. modern street, same buildings from 1949.A view along Cross Street (1949) (Boston City Archives)

The same view, 73 years later (2022) (Author Photograph)

Black and white newspaper photo of North Street Boston with dotted lines of proposed construction. Caption reads; Street widening operations for approach to Boston gates of tunnel leading to East Boston and North Shore from atop the Ames building. A view along Cross Street (1949) (Boston City Archives)

Visual for proposed changes to streets in the North End (Boston Daily Globe, 1920) 

Though some would consider Cross Street congested today, this congestion is not exclusively a modern problem. Cross Street has long been the subject of widening efforts, with one project of note being carried out in the early 20th century. In 1916, a proposal was made that targeted the specific block that I am studying, from 26 to 54 Cross, which is flanked by Salem, Cross, Endicott, and Stillman streets. This article describes it as “undoubtedly the most congested block in the North End,” the home of 1000 persons, all housed in crowded tenements split up by blind, narrow alleys. This made the occupancy of the block 600 persons to the acre. According to this proposal, the hazards posed by these strenuous housing conditions necessitated the widening of all four streets and the razing of the central tenements in order to make space for a playground, which would be eventually be realized in 1920 as Cutillo Park (Boston Daily Globe, 1916). Though nothing initially came of this proposal, an architect named Ralph Adams Cram proposed a few years later that the city should approve a project that would raze tenements in the North End in order to widen congested streets, with Cross Street being one such example. He alluded to the awful conditions in the area, apparently “worse than the trenches in France” (Boston Daily Globe, 1920). However, despite acknowledgment of the situation, the city ultimately decided that other expansion efforts, focused on Stuart Street and Exchange Street, were more important than those regarding Cross Street (Boston Daily Globe, 1920).

In 1933, however, these efforts to expand Cross Street and its neighboring areas would be realized. Based on an article written as the project was being carried out, Cross Street was expanded from being 25 feet wide to 90 feet wide, in order to meet the capacity of inbound highway traffic (Daily Boston Globe, 1933). Construction began with the demolition of parcels all along this stretch, followed by the installation of plumbing conduits. A traffic tunnel was also proposed as a part of this project (Daily Boston Globe, 1933). Another article written in the same year lauds this project as relieving the North End of congestion that was “choking” it (Philpott, A. Daily Boston Globe, 1933). The streets were not only being expanded, but also being bolstered by a mile-long traffic tunnel that would accompany them. Both changes were made to provide relief for the market district and revitalize the North End as a whole. However, although the author of this article says that citizens of the North End were "appreciative" of these changes, I wonder how many people and businesses were displaced in order to make way for these sweeping urban improvements. 

Black and white photograph of empty street, stripped to dirt with scattered sawhorses. Caption-T-33 Cross Street widening from North Street to Commercial Street, November 1933

Photo of construction along Cross Street, 1933 (Boston City Archives)

Yellowed landscape -oriented map of North Street from near cross to commercial street

An illustration of the initially proposed North End expansion, in its entirety. (Digital Commonwealth)

Though the construction of the Central Artery, as well as the subsequent "Big Dig" project to reverse this project, have both been the subject of much scholarship in recent years, there have been other notable construction projects throughout Boston's history. One particular example was the widening of streets in the North End, including Cross Street. This change assisted with congestion which had long plagued the North End (Boston Daily Globe, 1920; Daily Boston Globe, 1933), clearing massive sections of land where buildings once stood. Change is a constant in urban landscapes, especially those of Boston's size, but it is vitally important to consider the displacement which accompanies this change, and the negative impacts of these changes that may seem unequivocally positive on the surface.

Works Cited (APA)