Located south of Copley Place in South End, this relatively level site occupies a three-acre block framed by diagonal streets and the linear Southwest Corridor Park. The enclave is marked by a mixed-income, residential complex, named to commemorate the 1968 protests held on the site.
In 1959 the Boston Redevelopment Authority announced plans for sweeping demolitions throughout the South End which led to large sections being razed in the 1960s. More than 3,550 families were displaced, approximately half of whom were African American. In 1968 activist Melvin H. “Mel” King organized a three-day protest, advocating for the construction of affordable housing units. Participants erected tented and wooden shanty houses on the site, which was named “Tent City.”
Following the protest, King formed the Tent City Task Force in 1969 and the Tent City Corporation in 1979. Leasing the site from the city, the Tent City Corporation engaged architects, Goody Clancy & Associates, and landscape architects, Halvorson Company, to design the residential enclave in 1988.
The site features a connected, residential complex that traces the northwestern, northeastern, and southeastern edges of the block. Echoing the neighborhood’s character of mansard roofs, bay windows and front stoops, the red brick with black trim’s facades rise incrementally in height from opposite ends with the tallest structures measuring twelve stories fronting Darthmouth Avenue. Here, the northwestern wing of the apartment building parallels the Southwest Corridor Park, which was designed in 1990 by architect Tony Pangaro and landscape architect Roy Mann. A triangular lawn, edged by sidewalks and an allée of Japanese zelkova trees, is nestled on the southwestern side of the building, accessed by a U-shaped street. The residential complex frames additional units, oriented around deciduous tree canopied courtyards, screening the adjacent streets from view.
The property is located within the South End Historic District, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
