Oral history interview with David L. Myers. Myers, an architect and South End resident, began working on the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA)’s “South End project” in 1964 under planner Dick Greene, taking over from planner David Crane’s unexecuted “Commonway Plan.” He notes that planners spoke with hundreds of residents and neighborhood associations to gain community approval, and that the plan cost the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) millions of dollars in grant funding. He describes his perception of changes in the South End throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including an influx of families and renters, more cars, and a “suburban” feeling. He discusses his perception that the South End was relatively unsafe in the 1960s and describes multiple robberies his family experienced. He also describes “ugly” new constructions in the South End that he believes did not fit the neighborhood’s character, including Methunion Manor. In comparing the South End to the West End and Castle Square, Myers expresses gratitude that the South End was not similarly demolished. Topics also mentioned include Charlestown, Fenway, Back Bay, the Waterfront, the Financial District, the Leather District, Copley Square, Washington Street, Shawmut Avenue, Tremont Street, Dartmouth Street, the Southwest Expressway (now the Southwest Corridor), the South End Bypass, Columbus Street, Worcester Street, Harvard Square, Broad Street, Berkeley Street, Clarendon Street, Dartmouth Street, Franklin Square, the Prudential Tower, the Public Works Department, the Charles E. Mackey School, Harvard University Graduate School Of Design, the Cosmopolitan Neighborhood Association, the Claremont Neighborhood Association, and urban planner and Ed Logue.
