Roxbury, Mass.

Dudley Square, Boston

Roxbury is one of Boston's neighborhoods and one of the first towns founded in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  The city was annexed to Boston in 1868 and originally included the neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, West Roxbury, the South End, and a portion of the Back Bay. Dudley Square is Roxbury's commercial center, and is located at the intersection of Dudley Street and Washington Street.  

In the 19th century, as Boston's industrial economy took flight , Roxbury developed rapidly.  The northern section of the city became an industrial area, with a large population of English, Irish, and German immigrants, while the remainder of the town remained agricultural and saw the development of some of the United States first streetcar suburbs.  

The 20th century saw Roxbury as a center of Jewish life, with a large community developing around Grove Hall, Blue Hill Avenue, Seaver Street, and along Columbia Road.  An Irish community was also prominent with activities centered around Dudley Square, which quickly became a center of commercial activity in Boston. 

In the 20th century, with an influx of migrants from the Southern U.S. to the North, Roxbury became a center of African American cultural life.  

The 1960's and 70's saw Roxbury as the center of social unrest, redling and crime, contributing to the area's general decline.  The crack epidemic of the 1980's also hit Roxbury hard, earning it the reputation of one of Boston's toughest neighborhoods.  This reputation was not reversed until the late 1990's.  

Recently, Roxbury has seen major investment, largely centered around the relocation of the Orange Line, which has resulted in gentrification. 

In 1984, in response to neighborhood disinvestment and neglect, the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative was founded.  The initiative is a nonprofit community planning and organizing organization that approaches neighborhood revitalization through a comprehensive approach that includes economic, physical, human, and environmental growth.  Today, the initiative is a collaborative effort that includes 3,000 residents, businesses, and religious institutions dedicated to revitalizing the neighborhood while maintaining its original character and affordability.  The initiative is currently the only CDC that has been granted eminent domain authority over abandoned and dilapidated structures within its boundaries.  

The major accomplishments of the initiative has been organizing and empowering residents to create a shared vision of the neighborhood which prioritizes development without displacement and creates partnerships to strengthen the organization's power.  In 1987, the first comprehensive, community based revitalization plan was created by the initiative, which successfully established community control over a large amount of abandoned land in the neighborhood.  The comprehensive plan allowed the initiative to acquire this land and devote it towards a Community Land Trust that ensures community ownership and permanent affordability.