As one of Boston’s oldest neighborhoods, Roxbury, located at the geographic center of Boston, includes a rich collection of historic parks, schools, churches, and buildings, with nine districts recognized by the National Register of Historic Places.
Roxbury is surrounded by the South End and South Boston neighborhoods to the northeast, Fenway/Kenmore, Mission Hill, and Jamaica Plain to the northwest, Dorchester to the southeast, and Mattapan to the southwest.
The neighborhood is a mosaic of several sub-neighborhoods, each with its own unique identity: Lower Roxbury, Madison Park, Dudley Square, Hampton-George, Mount Pleasant, Savmor, Shirley-Eustis, Quincy-Geneva, Highland Park and Washington Park. The housing stock includes a blend of single-family homes, historic brick row houses, Boston’s iconic “triple deckers” and multi-family housing blocks.
The neighborhood’s business districts include: Ruggles, Dudley Square, Grove Hall, Egleston Square, and Jackson Square. From its inception, Roxbury’s commercial heart has been Dudley Square and by the 20th century, this area was a vibrant mix of department stores, residential hotels, silent movie theaters and banks.
Roxbury has the potential to be a crucial economic and civic hub for the city once more, because of its easy connections to public transit and road networks, and closeness to many of Boston’s education institutions, life science centers, convention centers and the central business district.
The Crosstown Corridor, which runs along Melnea Cass Boulevard is a major gateway to the city. This corridor offers substantial development potential linking the Southeast Expressway, Newmarket Industrial Area, Boston University Medical Center, Dudley Square, Northeastern University and the Longwood Medical and Academic Area.
Roxbury and Dudley Square - recently renamed Nubian Square - have been the focus of many planning initiatives, including the City’s ongoing PLAN: Nubian Square Roxbury where it is working with the public to envision how the Square might evolve in the coming years, with several projects in the planning, approval, or construction phase.
Explore development in the Roxbury neighborhood on this page.