Urban Planning


Muriel and Otto Snowden promoted the Washington Park Urban Renewal Area (WPURA) to television viewers in an all-out effort to encourage citizen participation.

The Work and Study Project involved youth in the rehabilitation of Upper Roxbury. In its first year (1964), the program was co-sponsored by Freedom House, BRA, and the American Friends Service Committee, and it focused on painting houses on Dale St.

In subsequent years, a collaborative developed among Freedom House, BRA and Northeastern University in which high school and college students painted houses and tutored school children.

Unidentified members of the Roxbury Youth Council Clean-up Campaign crew on a lot.
Several college students work on painting a large house as part of Freedom House's Roxbury Work Study Project.
A student in the Roxbury Work Study Project Tutorial raises his hand for Cheryl Evans.


Lewis Jr. High School students submitted over 200 essays in a contest sponsored by the CURAC Education Committee. The committee provided tours of Washington Park and information about urban renewal to elementary and high school children. This essay, “Urban Renewal in Roxbury,” written by eighth-grader Brenda Bugg, won first prize.