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Events
Mar. 1 | 2012 Franklin Prize
Nominations for 2012 John Hope Franklin Publication Prize for the best-published book in American Studies due
Mar. 1 | 2012 Romero Prize
Nominations for 2012 Lora Romero Publication Prize for the best-published first book in American Studies due
Mar. 1 | Community Partnership Grants
Applications for the 2012 Community Partnership Grants Program to assist American Studies collaborative, interdisciplinary community projects due
Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
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Goldstein, Karin. "From Pilgrims To Poverty: Biography Of An Urban Renewal Neighborhood in Plymouth, Massachusetts," American and New England Studies, Boston University, June 2006.
In 1962 Plymouth, Massachusetts, approved the clearance of 30 acres along Summer and High streets—one of the oldest neighborhoods in British North America—for urban renewal. The dissertation analyzes the evolving neighborhood as an artifact, using maps, documents, buildings and archaeological finds to trace the Summer/High Street area from colonization in 1620 through 1970, when redevelopment was completed. As the Pilgrims expanded their settlement, the land along Summer Street was used as farmland. With the absorption of Plymouth into Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1692, the town became a county seat and regional center. Fields became house lots and craft shops as Plymouth’s economy expanded. Plymouth’s post-Revolutionary wealth as a port stimulated the construction of new roads like High Street, with substantial houses. Growth was complete by the mid-19th century, with the laying out of Edes and Willard streets by local industrialists. Around 1890 neighborhood occupants changed from homeowners to low-income tenants, many of them immigrants. By the Depression, many of the run-down structures were in poor condition. The Plymouth Colony Trust, a preservation effort begun by Charles Strickland in 1933, renovated several early houses to create a tourist attraction. In the post-war period, however, town leaders chose to raze the historic yet run-down neighborhood in favor of middle-income apartments and a tourist hotel. Plymouth’s was the 1000th Workable Program in the federal urban renewal scheme. By 1970, 105 buildings, dating from the 17th to the 20th century, had been demolished. The evolution of this unique neighborhood highlights the forces that led to redevelopment, and explores the significance of one of New England’s lost landscapes.
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