Jamaica Plain, more commonly known as "JP", is an historic neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. It was originally part of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and then part of the town of West Roxbury, Massachusetts when that was established in 1848. West Roxbury (including Jamaica Plain) was annexed to Boston in 1874. According to an official city estimate, it had a population of 38,196 in October, 2003.
"Jamaica" may be an Anglicization of the name Kuchamakin, sachem (chief) of the Massachusett tribe.
Jamaica Plain was settled by the Curtis family, circa 1640. A number of the still-extant streets date to this era, including Centre Street, Day Street, and Perkins Street. Jamaica Pond is a spring-fed kettle pond and at one time was a major source of water and ice.
By the 1850s Jamaica Plain included massive summer "cottages" near Jamaica Pond belonging to Boston's oldest families, middle-class single-family homes, and immigrant worker "triple decker" housing. In the 1880s, philanthropist Robert Treat Paine (1810-1905) pioneered affordable housing concepts for lower- and middle-class workers with his Workingmen's Building Association and a 114-house development between Round Hill and Sunnyside streets. JP was the home of almost a dozen breweries which relied on the relatively pure water of Stony Brook. By 1896, the Thomas G. Plant Shoe Factory at Centre Street and Bickford Street proclaimed itself to be the largest shoe factory in the world.
Streetcars played a significant role in the neighborhood's growth by providing access to downtown along Centre Street and Columbus Avenue (then Pynchon Street) via Roxbury Crossing.
By the end of the 19th century, the annexation by Boston had provided municipal services to the neighborhood, and it began to experience a rapid growth in population. This was fostered by the creation of Forest Hills Cemetery, the Arnold Arboretum, Franklin Park and the Emerald Necklace -- a series of parks and parkways designed by Frederick Law Olmsted on the western and southern sides of Jamaica Plain.
During the 20th century Jamaica Plain transformed from a streetcar suburb to a more urban neighborhood, with a heavily Irish-American population. Prohibition brought an end to the breweries and the Depression launched a significant public housing development effort on Heath Street and later at Bromley Park, eventually creating over 1,000 government-subsidized housing units for the poor.
Significant portions of the neighborhood adjacent to the Boston & Providence Railroad were demolished in the 1960s, in preparation for bringing I-95 through the city. Many poor families were displaced and left homeless and sick. Eventually, public opposition shut the project down, and the areas demolished for the interstate right-of-way were rebuilt as the Southwest Corridor linear park. The MBTA Orange Line reopened through this corridor in 1985, replacing an elevated train along Washington Street.
In the 1970s JP was better known for its arson and petty crime than for its parks, but had become a more diverse and aging community. A dramatic fire in 1976 destroyed the Plant Shoe Factory and its adjacent park, creating a crater of rubble that remained for nearly two decades.
The 1990s brought significant redevelopment to JP. Residents began to take back the parks, and Jamaica Pond became a rallying point with the Jamaica Pond Project's restoration efforts. Nonprofit housing groups bought up rundown houses and vacant lots to create low-income rental units. The Plant Shoe Factory site was redeveloped as JP Plaza, a strip mall, and later a supermarket and a new facility for the Martha Eliot Health Center completed the site's redevelopment. Boston Main Streets districts sprouted in three corners of the neighborhood (Hyde/Jackson Square, Egleston Square, and Centre/South), bringing city funds and tools of neighborhood revitalization to local business owners.
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