Off the Bricks

Banned in Boston · STOP 07 · Chinatown / old Combat Zone

When Scollay Square was razed, its trade moved here, and in November 1974 Boston made it official.

In November 1974 Boston stopped trying to ban its red-light district and zoned it instead: two blocks of lower Washington Street, and nowhere else. The planners' first improvement was a new name borrowed from the Revolution. A small plaza at Boylston and Washington carries it now, and the building across the street is worth looking up at.

This is stop 7 of Banned in Boston. Walk it - any two stops are free.

The plate

Two Blocks of Sin

Collected on site

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Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

2 Boylston Street at Washington Street
Directions

1

BRA director Robert Kenney said the district would keep strip clubs and adult bookstores from spreading to other neighborhoods. The historian Stephanie Schorow on razing Scollay: 'You cut off the supply, but you couldn't cut off the demand.'

More footnotes on the story card, in the app.

Argue about it

Was Boston the first city to zone a red-light district on purpose?

Both sides, with their sources, are on the story card in the app.

Censorship, Legend busted, Plaque hunt, Hidden in plain sight

In these collections: Legends Busted

Near Chinatown · Near Boylston · Near Tufts Medical Center · Near Downtown Crossing · Near Park Street

Sources (7)