The West End House of Boston was a Boys and Girls Club that provided services and programs to help urban and immigrant youth in the city of Boston to better their own lives through numerous and varied channels. The organization was founded in 1903 by children of Eastern European Jews, most of whom left Europe to escape the pogroms. The group of thirty-five boys named their club the Excelsior Club. The group met in whatever open spaces they could find and worked to enrich their lives through “moral, mental, and physical advancement” and to prepare for a productive and meaningful future.
The club sought aid and assistance from the Jewish Federation of Boston. They were given Mitchell Freiman as a temporary advisor as well as use of a room at the Federation’s premises. In 1906, after seeing a production of Hamlet performed by the club, philanthropist James J. Storrow and his wife Helen funded the club by paying for rent and maintenance for a meeting place and to keep Mitchell Freiman on as a full time director for the newly reformed West End House.
While the club was never explicitly open only to Jewish boys, it wasn’t until WWII that membership was represented by a broader demographic including non-Jews and women. Dramatic changes of the West End neighborhood during the urban renewal of the 1950s led to its closing. The West End House moved to Allston-Brighton where it continued to serve the large and diverse population of the children of immigrants present there. In 1976, it became the West End House Boys and Girls Club where it continues today.
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1903:
The Excelsior Club is established by thirty-five Eastern European Jewish boys.
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1906:
The club is reconstituted as the West End House following funding from James and Helen Storrow.
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1940s:
The West End House’s membership opens up to a wider demographic.
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1971:
The West End House moves to Allston-Brighton.
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1976:
Becomes the West End House Boys and Girls Club.
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Footnotes
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Information used in this finding aid is from the following sources:
Materials from the collection.
The West End House Boys and Girls Club. “History”. <http://westendhouse.org/history.html> 26 July 2012.
Ross, Michael A. Boston Walks’ the Jewish Friendship Trail Guidebook: Jewish Boston History. Boston Walks Publishing: Belmont, MA. 2003. p. 49-50.
From the guide to the West End House (Boston, Mass.), Records, 1909, 1981, (American Jewish Historical Society)
