West Roxbury

West Roxbury, located along the scenic Charles River, is a community of tree-lined streets and panoramic views, which has undergone tremendous changes since its incorporation as a town in 1851. Formerly known as "Westerly" or "South Street," West Roxbury has grown from a largely rural area, accessible only by train, into a charming neighborhood of Victorian homes that still offers many of the same advantages that attracted people a century ago--the quietness of small town life, with the attractions of big city living just a short distance away. West Roxbury is also the former home of Brook Farm, a utopian community founded by Reverend Ripley. Brook Farm was a center of literary achievement that attracted such foremost thinkers of the nineteenth century as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Horace Greeley.

Through powerful text and images, Boston historian Anthony Mitchell Sammarco shows the many changing faces of West Roxbury through the decades, creating a compelling visual history of this Massachusetts town.