Building Boston in the 19th and 20th Century
May 10, 2005

A capstone conference for student research on Boston 's built environment from American Studies professor Lizabeth Cohen’s undergraduate history class. The conference was held May 10, 2005. Click on the title of the student paper to read the pdf version of it. For more information, please contact:

Lizabeth Cohen
Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies
Director, Charles Warren Center for American History
Department of History
Harvard University
201 Robinson Hall
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-1069
FAX 617-496-3425
cohen3@fas.harvard.edu

Building Boston in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Session I  (9-10:05 am)  Transportation and the Remaking of Metropolitan Boston
Andrew Kalloch, "A Historic First:  The Boston Garden, North Station, and the Making of the Gateway to New England"
Katie Sullivan, "The Revitalization of South Station, 1970-1995"
Nate Rogers, "'Outbound to Harvard and Alewife':  Demanding, Designing, and Building the Northwest Extension of Boston's Red Line"
Commentator:  Paul Groth, Warren Center Fellow, University of California Berkeley

Coffee Break (10:05-10:15 am)

Session II  (10:15-11:00)  Race and Neighborhoods in Postwar Boston
Jessica Rubin-Wills, "The Other Busing Story:  Neighborhood Identity and the Response to Court-Ordered School Desegregation in Dorchester and Roslindale"
Meghan Haggerty, "Understanding the Demise of West Broadway:  Design Failure and Historic Event Combine to Incite Youth Vandalism and Decay in a Boston Public  Housing Development"
Commentator:  Eric Avila, Warren Center Fellow, UCLA

Session III (11 am-12:10 pm)  Parks and Recreation in Greater Boston
Sarah Welch, "'Love That Dirty Water':  Boston's Use of the Charles River as Economic and Recreational Resource"
Liam Crane, "The Decline of Olmsted's Jewel:  Why Franklin Park Has Developed a Poor Public Image Over the Past Century"
Christine DeLucia, "Contested Ground:  The Role of Cultural Memory in the Redevelopment of Deer Island"
Commentators:  Martha McNamara, Warren Center Fellow, University of Maine and Ellen Stroud, Warren Center Fellow, Oberlin College

Lunch (12:10-1:00 pm)

Session IV (1-2:10 pm)  The Creation and Re-creation of Public Space in the Boston Area
Will Payne, "From Monumental Archtype to Silent Suburb:  Shifting Perceptions of Mt. Auburn Cemetery"
Josh Murray, "Hostile Takeover:  Understanding the Twentieth-Century Transformation of Copley Square Through the Lens of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and Copley Plaza Hotel"
Kayt Tiskus, "'It's in the Fenway Section of Boston, Isn't It?  Then Call It Fenway Park" (Initial Owner of the Red Sox John I. Taylor):  Structure and Community In and Around Fenway Park"
Commentator:  Jane Kamensky, Warren Center Fellow, Brandeis University and Paula Lupkin, Warren Center Fellow, Washington University

Session V (2:10-3:00 pm)  Boston Area Modernism
Brendan Mahoney, "Socialism or Modernism at the GSD...or Elitism?"
Danielle Travers, "Preserving Modernity:  Six Moon Hill vs. Barton Road"
Commentator:  Daniel Abramson, WarrenCenter Fellow, TuftsUniversity

Coffee Break (3:00-3:10 pm)

Session VI (3:10-4:00)  Urban Redevelopment in Boston
Peter Delbusto, "The New Dynamic Downtown:  The Rousification of Boston and Baltimore"
P.J. McCann, "From Neighborhood Clearance to Neighborhood Involvement:  Land Use Policy and Democracy in Boston"
Commentator:  Margaret Crawford, GSD

Graduate Paper

Benjamin Waterhouse, “Through the Ordinary Operations of Private Enterprise”: The Prudential Insurance Company’s Corporate Renewal in Boston"