The brownstone apartment where my daughter's boyfriend lived was in Roxbury, a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the site of some dubious fame. Most people are familiar with the alarming news stories eminating from here - one of Boston's most crime-ridden areas. The clash of different cultures can be as close as next door, or across the street. The twisted lanes and narrow alleyways have been there since 1640 - more than a century before the Revolutionary War. Early British settlers found it too difficult to till the stone-strewn soil, and thus named it Rocksberry. It is common to find puddingstone in the area, a type of conglomerate rock where different types of stones are embedded in a larger rock. Puddingstone was mined here and used to create the foundations of the buildings.
The long history of Roxbury makes it one of the oldest occupied towns in the country, and it has changed gradually with the waves of new inhabitants for over 375 years. Before anyone dreamed of separating from England, wealthy settlers quickly established plantations on the unclaimed land. The treasurer of the early Bay Colony William Pynchon (yes, an ancestor of the author Thomas Pynchon, and also the actress Fay Wray) settled in Rocksberry, but the land was not good for farming. He moved west and established Springfield Massachusetts. William seems to have been a compassionate man, for he advocated trading with the local natives. His philosophy differed greatly from those of the men running the Connecticut Colony, so instead he did business with the Massachusetts Bay Colony, even though he was located far away from Boston.
In addition to farming, this early settler wrote the first book that was banned in Boston. His thoughts angered the Puritans, and eventually he returned to England, leaving his vast settlements in the Pioneer Valley to his children and their families. He also seems to have left a legacy of free thinking that was passed to writers in the central Massachusetts area centuries later.
Back then, Rocksberry was stuck out in the bay, off an isthmus, and in a good location for shipping and fishing. As the city of Boston grew, the coast was filled in. Today Roxbury is about three miles from the water. In the 1840s, the neighborhoods in Roxbury were split up. Where there was one town, now there were several neighborhoods, including Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, and Franklin Park.
The early settlers were replaced by indigent populations. Irish, German, and new waves of English settlers established neighborhoods in Roxbury, and became proud citizens. They were not happy in the 1950s when the migration of black people from southern states brought busloads of indigent workers who were happy to do any job they could find. The new neighbors were different. They cooked different food, they wore strange clothes, they played jazz and laughed loudly. Many of them could not read and write, but their church congregations became a powerful force, and Roxbury was a proving ground for civil rights, and integrated public education.
The latest wave of immigrants came from Puerto Rico. Their tastes and styles are reflected in the small boutiques and bars on the crowded streets. At night, dark and narrow alleys shelter drug users and criminals. Roxbury is home to a strange and dangerous combination of people - clashes occur often, sometimes with tragic results.
Today, the name of Rocksberry seems more apt than ever - a conglomeration of antique and modern and everything in between. Cultures from all over the world reside here in a single neighborhood, each distinct and different, like puddingstone.
