Boston Guide
The southern districts
The parts of Boston most visitors see only comprise a small portion of the city. To the south of the city center lies a vast spread of residential neighborhoods known collectively as the southern districts, including largely Irish South Boston, historical Dorchester and Roxbury, and pleasant, trendy Jamaica Plain. JFK-junkies will be rewarded by Dorchester's worthwhile John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, and no one should miss Jamaica Plain's superb Arnold Arboretum, with its world-renowned array of bonsai trees; the two combine to make a terrific half-day outing, and are easily accessible by the T.
Once rural areas dotted with the swank summer homes of Boston's elite, in the late-nineteenth century the southern districts became populated by middle- and working-class families pushed from increasingly crowded Downtown. Three-story rowhouses soon replaced mansions, and the moniker "streetcar suburbs" – after the trolley that debuted in 1899 and connected these once remote areas with Downtown – was coined as a catchall for the newly redefined neighborhoods. Following World War II, each was hit to varying degrees by economic decline, and the middle class moved farther afield. Today, the districts retain a vibrant immigrant, blue-collar, young family and student population – all seeking the lower rents and less-harried vibe that accompanies life lived just outside a major city.