During the 1960s, Boston’s economy declined, and many people migrated away from the city. The population decreased by -13% during these ten years. The Columbia Point Health Center opened in 1966 and was the first community health center in the country. Funding from state and federal agencies and increased private investment contributed to a rapid transformation of the old city. However, the city’s growing African American population was largely excluded from these alliances. African Americans demanded equal rights in housing, employment, and education during the 1960s. In 1974, a federal judge ordered busing students in the public schools, and subsequent court orders mandated integration of the city’s public housing.
Here are some fascinating photos that will take you back to 1960s Boston. Do you recognize any of these places from the 1960s?
#1 Massachusetts State Troopers John Riordan and Kenneth Maurais stand outside of the Swartz Lock Shop at 364 Massachusetts Ave. in Boston following a gambling raid on Oct. 26, 1961.
#2 Members of the Nationalist Party picket outside Edward M. Kennedy’s campaign headquarters on Tremont Street in Boston on June 30, 1962.
#3 Rush hour at the East Boston toll booth to the Sumner Tunnel on June 21, 1962, with no traffic tie up s to be seen.
#4 The exterior of the Bowdoin Square Fire House in Boston, May 26, 1962.
#5 Homeless people stand around a closed entrance to a subway station under Filene’s Basement in Downtown Crossing in Boston at night, September 1962.
#6 A man on a walk watches dawn from a bridge at the Public Garden in Boston, September 1962.
#7 A building is torn down on the India Wharf in Boston, July 1962.
#8 The Columbia Point housing project in Boston, June 28, 1962.
#9 The recreation area of the Columbia Point housing project in Boston, June 28, 1962.
#10 Rt. Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Diocess of Massachusetts, left, and Gov. John A.
#11 Early construction is under way on the Prudential Center in Boston’s Back Bay, May 20, 1962. The Christian Science building can be seen in the background.
#12 The aftermath of a 10-alarm fire in Charlestown, May 11, 1962. The first did $2.5 million in damage.
#13 Trinity Church in Copley Square on May 7, 1962.
#14 People watch a three-alarm fire at the MBTA Station on Dover Street in the South End of Boston, May 6, 1962.
#15 A group of residents from Columbia Point housing project in Boston picket to have the the nearby city and Mile Road Corp.
#16 Newbury Street in Boston’s Back Bay on April 18, 1962.
#17 Women picket for peace in front of the Mass. State House in Boston on Jan. 15, 1962.
#18 Picketing women march in front of the Massachusetts State House as part of an international demonstration, “Women’s Strike for Peace,” in Boston, Jan. 15, 1962.
#19 The former Engineers Club at Commonwealth Avenue and Arlington Street, which is set for demolition, Jan. 11, 1962.
#20 The former Engineers Club at Commonwealth Avenue and Arlington Street, which is set for demolition, 1962.
#21 The weather beacon atop the Old John Hancock Building at 200 Berkeley Street in Boston, in 1962.
#22 A new sign for Logan Airport in Boston, 1962.
#23 Pedestrians walk around the former “Newspaper Row” on Boston’s Washington Street on Nov. 29, 1961.
#24 Shoppers at Haymarket in Boston on Nov. 11, 1961.
#25 First Baptist Church in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, 1961.
#26 Riders of the MTA’s Highland Branch line crowd aboard a car at Park Street Station in Boston on Oct. 28, 1961.
#27 The East Boston entrance to the Lieutenant William F. Callahan Tunnel, Nov. 6, 1961.
#28 The Old North Church in Boston, 1961.
#29 An aerial view of the Government Center area of Boston, 1961.
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A disgrace. What the city did,to those people,is shameful.
#30 An aerial view of the central artery from where the ramp from Storrow Drive joins it in Boston, Sept. 28, 1961.
#31 An aerial view of the Government Center area of Boston, Sept. 26, 1961.
#32 The Arlington Street Church in Boston, 1961.
#33 J.W.S. Cox, left, and Ms. Helen Sherman, right, lean on a new fence put up at the T Wharf in Boston, Sept. 5, 1961.
#34 Signs hang on buildings in the T Wharf in Boston, Sept. 1, 1961.
#35 Workmen raze the upper portion of Our Lady of Cedars of Lebanon Church on Shawmut Avenue in Boston’s South End after it wads condemned by building inspectors on Aug. 29, 1961.
During reconstruction, Syro-Maronite services are being held at Cathedral of Holy Cross under direction of Rev. John J. Manning, who has been administrator of the church pending availability of a clergyman from Maronite Rite. When completed, the church will be a one-story structure utilizing the present lower chapel.
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#36 The Charles River Park apartment complex in Boston’s West End under construction in August 1961.
#37 Construction surrounds the Boston approach to the second East Boston tunnel, later known as the Lieutenant William F. Callahan Jr. Tunnel, on July 13, 1961.
#38 Men, machines, and material clutter the ramp leading to the new under-harbor crossing, the Callahan Tunnel, seen from Cross Street in Boston on July 13, 1961.
#39 The intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Chestnut Hill Avenue in Brighton, June 30, 1961.
#40 Firefighters battle a blaze at the shuttered Old Howard Theatre in Boston on June 20, 1961.
#41 The burned remains of the Old Howard Theatre in Boston, June 1961.
#42 The Clarendon Street Baptist Church in Boston’s South End, 1961.
#43 A Department of Public Works “Keep Boston Clean” float in the St. Patrick’s Day parade on Mar. 17, 1961.
#44 A parachutist floats down after jumping from an airplane over Boston Common on March 21, 1961.
#45 Airline passengers from overseas wait to be cleared by the U.S. Customs Department at Logan Airport in Boston on May 1, 1961.
#46 Demonstrators hold signs during a protest against Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro in front of the Massachusetts State House in Boston on April 23, 1961.
#47 Buildings on Howard Street are demolished to make room for Government Center in Boston on May 11, 1961.
#48 Snow on Chestnut Street in Boston on Feb. 6, 1961.
#49 Firefighters battle a three-alarm fire at the Howard Johnson’s hotel on Morrissey Boulevard in Boston, Jan. 25, 1961.
#50 Few people shop on Boston’s Washington Street on Jan. 21, 1961. (Photo by William Ennis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
#51 A fisherman secures a boat at T Wharf in Boston as tidal waters flood nearby houses on Jan. 20, 1961.
#52 Tremont Street is covered in snow after a near-record 12.2 inches covered Boston on Jan. 19, 1961.
#53 The scene outside of a gambling raid at Club Zara on Tremont Street in Boston, 1961.
#54 People walk over the frozen lagoon in the Public Garden in Boston, 1961.
#55 An anti-Nazi demonstration takes place on Tremont Street in Boston, 1961.
#56 The Arlington Street Church in Boston, 1961.
#57 State House in Boston, 1961.
#58 Members of the MSPCA visit Boston Police horses at Station 16 on Dec. 18, 1960.
#59 A snowy runway that a jetliner veered off of at Logan Airport in Boston on Dec. 17, 1960, as emergency crews work to shovel the plane out of the snow in background.
#60 Grove Street in Beacon Hill is covered in snow on Dec. 15, 1960.
#61 People on a train from Needham arrive at South Station in Boston on Dec. 13, 1960.
#62 People walk down a snow covered Washington Street in Boston on Dec. 13, 1960. Snow removal crews worked all night to make it easy to move through the shopping area.
#63 A girl wades through a snow drift in Park Square in Boston, 1960.
#64 Cars abandoned in the snow block the entrance to Morrissey Boulevard from Kosciuszko Circle in Boston at 3 p.m., 1960.
#65 Trees decorated with Christmas festival lights on Boston Common provide a fairyland foreground for the Mass. State House on Nov. 25, 1960. (Photo by Edmund Kelley/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
#66 Joy Street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston free of parked cars in November 1960.
#67 The exterior of Lemuel Shattuck Memorial Hospital in Bostons Jamaica Plain on Oct. 10, 1960.
#68 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, Aug. 31, 1960.
#69 Children play in the spray pool at the Columbia Point housing project in Boston on June 30, 1960.
#70 Traffic backs up as cars wait to enter the Sumner Tunnel in Boston on June 29, 1960. (Photo by Dan Goshtigian/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
#71 The color guard of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston parades on Boylston Street in front of Trinity Church in Copley Square in Boston on Jun. 6, 1960.
#72 Demonstrators hold signs while marching in front of the Cuban consulate in Boston in protest of Cuban Prime Minister FIdel Castro on June 5, 1960.
#73 Demonstrators hold signs while marching in front of the Cuban consulate in Boston in protest of Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro on June 5, 1960.
#74 Christ Church in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston on May 26, 1960.
#75 The triangular-shaped parcel of Park Department land at Commonwealth and Chestnut Hill Avenues in Boston, seen here on May 2, 1960, will be sold to a private firm for the construction of a 17-story, $3 million building.
#76 Swan Boat crewmen Gil McIntyre, of Brighton, and Kevin Sullivan, of West Roxbury, row through Boston’s Public Garden on April 21, 1960,
#77 The Dorchester Yacht Club in Boston on Apr. 2, 1960.
#78 The Dorchester Yacht Club in Boston, 1960.
#79 Conductor Harry Ellis Dickson of the Boston Symphony Orchestra applauds Massachusetts high school students who played alongside members of the world-famed orchestra in Symphony Hall in Boston on March 12, 1960.
#80 People shovel snow on Everett Street in Dorchester in Boston on March 5, 1960, after a snowstorm.
#81 Washington Street in downtown Boston is covered in snow during a snow storm on March 3, 1960.
#82 Snow covers a street in the South End of Boston on March 3, 1960.
#83 Looking toward Arlington, Medford, and Somerville from the top of Bunker Hill Monument, Feb. 5, 1960.
#84 Fire Alarm Operators take in sounding alarms in Boston, Jan. 7, 1960.
#85 Destruction of Boston’s West End for redevelopment on Feb. 16, 1960.
#86 The Blue Cross-Blue Shield building at 133 Federal Street in Boston. Jan. 7, 1960.
#87 An aerial view of a Harvard vs. Yale game in Boston, 1960.
#88 Active steam rises from the teapot signpost for the Oriental Tea Co. in Boston in the 1960s.
#89 Restoration takes place on the steeple of St. Stephen’s Church on Hanover Street in Boston’s North End on Sep. 18, 1964.
#90 An aerial view of the South Postal Annex after a fire in Boston, Jan. 8, 1965.
#91 Copley Square in Boston, Jan. 22, 1965. Trinity Church is in the background.
#92 Two ships are unloaded at Commonwealth Pier in Boston on March 2, 1965.
#93 Boston Police Headquarters on Berkeley Street in Boston, 1965.
#94 Schoolchildren from the Benedict Fenwick School pause to offer prayers outside the home of Reverend James J. Reeb.
#95 People sit along the Charles River on the Esplanade near Storrow Drive in Boston, 1965.
#96 A new high-rise luxury apartment building is proposed for the lot next to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Arlington Street in Boston’s Back Bay, seen here May 11, 1965.
#97 A new high-rise luxury apartment building is proposed for the lot next to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Arlington Street in Boston’s Back Bay, seen here May 11, 1965.
#98 A performer jumps rope on a horse’s back during the opening of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at Boston Garden, May 15, 1965,
#99 Roughly 1,000 delegates to the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in session in Boston gather in silent vigil outside the office of the Boston School Committee on May 25, 1965.
#100 The front of Boston City Hall on June 13, 1965. This building was City Hall from 1841 to 1968.
#101 The front of Boston City Hall on June 13, 1965.
#102 Buses are lined up in front of 366 Blue Hill Ave. in Boston to take children to schools outside their districts in Boston on Sept. 13, 1965.
#103 Cars and trucks drive on Northern Avenue in Boston, 1965.
#104 Students get off the bus from a suburban school at the end of the school day in Boston, 1965.
#105 The Charlestown Savings Bank on Tremont Street in Boston, 1965.
#106 An aerial view of downtown Boston, looking over construction site of the new City Hall, Faneuil Hall, and the Custom House to Boston Harbor, 1965.
#107 People protest housing redevelopment on Hefferan Street in the Brighton area of Boston in November 1965.
#108 The scene at 130 Boylston St. in Boston following a holdup at the Hammond Organ store, 1965.
#109 Washington Street in Boston at night, Nov. 10, 1965. Saxon Theatre is on right, Union Savings Bank on left. (Photo by Phil Preston/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
#110 A pedestrian walks through the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston, 1965.
#111 A view toward the site of the new Boston City Hall from Hanover Street in the North End, 1965.
#112 Looking down Boylston Street in Boston, 1965.
#113 Pedestrians and cars make their way down Boston’s Washington Street the night, 1965.
#114 People walk through Boston Common on March 21, 1966.
#115 The Congregation Adath Jeshurun synagogue in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, 1966.
#116 The sign out Back Bay Theatre in Boston, May 4, 1966.
#117 Meter maid Mary Martin makes her rounds in Boston on Jul. 7, 1966.
#118 The mostly deserted Government Center area of downtown Boston around 6 p.m. on July 11, 1966.
#119 Inside Castle Island’s Fort Independence shows boarded-up windows where vandals tore out toilet facilities two years before, seen here on July 12, 1966.
#120 Looking down on the construction of the new underground tunnel at Government Center in Boston on July 12, 1966.
#121 The Custom House tower stands behind a busy Faneuil Hall marketplace in Boston on July 16, 1966.
#122 A crowd gathers outside St. Brendan’s Church in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston.
#123 The Holy Trinity Church in Boston’s South End Aug. 7, 1964, surrounded by rubble from brick tenement buildings demolished amid area redevelopment.
#124 Construction continues on the toll road between Charlesgate East and West in Boston, blocking in part of the Muddy River, on June 15, 1964.
#125 The toll road construction looking towards Mass. Ave from Charlesgate East, which shows the Prudential Center in the background in Boston, June 15, 1964.
#126 Firefighters battle a large fire on Bellflower Street in Dorchester in Boston on May 22, 1964.
#127 The flower clock in Copley Square in Boston, May 21, 1964. The clock is a replica of a clock in Geneva, Switzerland. It is 25 feet in diameter.
#128 Worcester Square in Boston on May 7, 1964.
#129 Copley Methodist Church at the corner of Newbury and Exeter Streets in Boston, May 3, 1964.
#130 Trinity Church and the old John Hancock Building in Copley Square in Boston on April 4, 1964.
