West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston bordered by Roslindale to the northeast, the Town of Dedham to the west and south, the Town of Brookline to the north, and the City of Newton to the west. West Roxbury is often mistakenly confused with Roxbury, but the two are not connected. West Roxbury is separated from Roxbury by Jamaica Plain and Roslindale. It is often referred to as a suburb within the city.
West Roxbury's main thoroughfare is Centre Street, lined with local restaurants and commercial establishments. Today, the neighborhood's tree-lined streets and mostly single family homes give it a suburban feel in an urban setting. Life in the neighborhood centers on civic activism, local politics, parishes, and youth athletic leagues. West Roxbury is home to many of Boston's civil servants. The community boasts a significant proportion of persons of Irish descent as well as a smaller number of more recent Irish immigrants.
West Roxbury is home to District E-5 of the Boston Police Department and two Boston fire stations, Ladder 25 & Engine 30 on Centre Street and Engine 55 on Washington Street. The Needham Branch of the MBTA Commuter Rail network has three stations in West Roxbury (Bellevue, Highland and West Roxbury). Several MBTA bus lines run through and/or terminate in West Roxbury. A large Veterans Affairs hospital is located opposite the Charles River on the VFW Parkway near the Dedham line. This hospital has undergone several expansions over the last twenty years. West Roxbury is home to several houses of worship, including three Catholic parishes, several churches of various Protestant denominations and a Jewish temple.
The neighborhood was home to an experimental transcendentalist Utopia community called Brook Farm, which attracted notable figures like Margaret Fuller and Nathaniel Hawthorne whose 1852 novel The Blithedale Romance, is based on his stay there. .
Like its neighboring communities, West Roxbury's residential development grew with the construction of the West Roxbury branch of the Boston and Providence Rail Road; the area grew further with the development of electric streetcars.
Read more about West Roxbury: Demographics, Theodore Parker Church, Westerly Burying Ground Conflict and Secession, Boston United Hand in Hand Cemetery, Government and Infrastructure, Events, Notable Natives, Sites of Interest, Image Gallery
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—Jessamyn West (1907–1984)