CONDITIONS
CONTEXT
HISTORY

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Click here for data from census tract 819. (From U.S. 2000 Census).

CONDITIONS:
Humboldt Avenue:
Humboldt Avenue is a main thoroughfare in the Roxbury Highlands northeast of Franklin Park. The avenue is flanked by residences, small businesses, light industry, a school, and parkland. Many abandoned buildings line the Avenue, some of which have been boarded up and painted with beautiful murals. The William Trotter School, which serves as a community meeting area, is located on Humboldt Avenue several blocks north of Franklin Park. The avenue is served by Bus 44. It terminates on the southern end at Seaver Street and Franklin Park.

New affordable housing:
In 2002, MassHousing was nearing completion of the construction of a cluster of affordably priced townhouses on Humboldt Avenue. In October of 2002, the new housing units and several surrounding homes were burned. Police have identified one man who may have started the fire. In the spring of 2003, MassHousing was reconstructing the burned housing, while surrounding burned homes languished - barely standing.

Roxbury Hills Commons: 
This area of Roxbury has a number of low-rise apartment buildings, several of which comprise Roxbury Hills Commons. Attractive, brightly colored homes at Roxbury Hills Commons line Homestead and Harold Streets. Managed by Cruz Management Company Inc., these nine buildings with multiple units have tidy grass lots and common areas with parking, playground equipment, and a pre-school. This area has lower residential density than the Elm Hill area immediately to the east.

Humboldt Avenue turnaround and parking lot:
Humboldt Avenue dead ends at Seaver Street and Franklin Park at a circular parking lot with a small grassy area in the middle. The park prevents Humboldt Avenue from being a heavily traveled cross-town commuter road. This parking lot is accessed by a gate that is locked up for most of the week. Although the parking lot is technically administered by the City of Boston Department of Parks and Recreation, the gate is controlled by the church across the street and has been for many years. The church opens the parking lot on Saturdays and Sundays for use by church members. The locked gate has concerned organizations such as the Franklin Park Coalition, which seeks to make Franklin Park optimally accessible to all who wish to visit, including those who would like to drive to the park. Parks Department officials consider the arrangement with the church a benefit because otherwise they feel the parking lot would become a "problem area" (Bernard Lynch, director of maintenance, Boston Department of Parks and Recreation).

Tiffany Moore Playground:
The Tiffany Moore Playground or tot-lot is a group of structures built of wood, red metal, and stone. The playground includes a spray pool in a naturalistic rock setting and a sandbox, as well as standard playground equipment. According to Christine Poff, director of the Franklin Park Coalition, this playground is used more intensively than the other play areas for children in Franklin Park.

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CONTEXT:
The ethnic and age composition of the communities on either side of Humboldt Avenue are very similar. In 2000, residents were between 76 percent and 78 percent African American, with 22 percent and 18 percent Hispanic residents. In both areas, between 33 and 34 percent of residents are under the age of 18.

However, according to both the 1990 and 2000 Censuses, there is a significant difference in economic status of the communities on either side of the Avenue. In 1990, the census tract east of Humboldt had a poverty level of 31.4% and a median household income of $16,106, while the census tract west of Humboldt had a poverty level of 19.6% and a median household income of $27,225, ($11,119 and more than 59% higher than the census tract to the east).

In 2000, the median household income for the census tract east of Humboldt was $18,571, while west of Humboldt the median household income was $37,500 (a difference of $18,929 or 102%). East of Humboldt Avenue, 33% of individuals live below the poverty line, while west of Humboldt Avenue, 12% live in poverty. The economic disparity between the two areas grew significantly between 1990 and 2000. The neighborhood east of Humboldt has a number of large apartment complexes -- particularly along Elm Hill Avenue.

The community east of Humboldt Avenue is characterized by greater density of housing units, including a tower owned by the Boston Housing Authority BHA). Much of this housing is subsidized for residents. The apartment complexes are numerous both along Elm Hill Avenue and along Seaver Street east of Humboldt.

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HISTORY:
As described in 1896 by Edwin Bacon, Humboldt Avenue had a metropolitan air with fine buildings and ambitiously designed homes. There were few or no street trees at the time, which made the avenue very hot in the summertime (Bacon, E., Walks and Rides in the Country Round About Boston, 1896). Development of Humboldt Avenue was driven to an extent by the development of Franklin Park in the late 1800s.

Humboldt Avenue and Elm Hill Avenue or "Sugar Hill" as it was known at the time, received the first wave of African American immigrants in the Heart of the City in the mid-1900s. In 1941, when he was 16-years-old, Malcolm X (then Malcolm Little) lived in Boston and worked at Townsend Drugstore on Humboldt Avenue. Malcolm X went on to found Muhammad's Mosque #11 on Blue Hill Avenue in 1953, and to become a great national leader.

Entrance to Franklin Park:
The Humboldt Avenue entrance to Franklin Park was a streetcar "turnaround" beginning in 1915, and later a bus stop until 1982. The Humboldt Avenue entrance was reconstructed in 1985 and part of a new wall was built. Clean-up of the area was done by a Franklin Park Coalition work crew comprised of 14 neighborhood teenagers. The MBTA and Boston Parks Department dedicated a total of $175,000 to rebuild the entrance. The Humboldt Avenue/ Tiffany Moore tot-lot at the corner of Humboldt and Townsend was renovated in 1995 at a cost of $324,000.

The Tiffany Moore Playground, which is located next to the Humboldt Avenue entrance, commemorates the life and death of a 12-year-old girl from Dorchester, who was killed in 1988 in the cross-fire of a drive-by shooting on Humboldt Avenue. Tiffany's death precipitated the Boston Police Department's first public acknowledgement that there was a gang problem in Boston (See entries on Crime and Growing youth population).

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