Project Timeline
Written by Nicole Vetere
Edited by Jessica McCann and Cassandra Nicholson
Here you will find a basic chronology of the events that affected the Southwest Corridor and the Boston Contemporary Writers Program while informing the work done for Writing on the Line
1948 - William F. Callahan, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Works (MassDPW) releases the Master Highway Plan for Metropolitan Boston. This plan includes constructing an expressway that connects downtown Boston with the southwest suburbs.
1962 - MassDPW releases a report that proposes radical changes to the project. The Southwest Expressway is to be shortened and widened. These changes mean more destruction to the surrounding communities than originally projected.
1969 - The original completion date of the Southwest Expressway - this target was never met. Unforeseen difficulties and spiraling costs reaching $159 million (the original projected cost was $24 million) caused the date to be pushed back to 1975.
1970 - Governor Francis Sargent orders a moratorium on all new expressway construction. Protests and community resistance along with steadily increasing expenditures cause the Governor to reevaluate project plans.
1972 - Governor Sargent cancels the Master Highway Plan development in Boston. He announces that the Southwest Expressway is no longer going to be built; instead a plan for extending a public transportation route into the affected area is being carefully considered.
1987 - Texts for the Boston Contemporary Writers Program are selected by a panel of judges in tandem with neighborhood-specific consultations.
1988 - Installments of the Boston Contemporary Writers Monuments begin.
1990- Final Installments of the Boston Contemporary Writers Monuments are completed.
2008 - A curious group of English majors (plus one Journalism major) at Northeastern University undertake a "crazy but cool project" to investigate the monuments of the Boston Contemporary Writers Program. Under the auspices of their Professor, they produce and publish Writing on the Line as their final project in the "Rhetoric and Poetics Senior Seminar" class. They are currently too cool for undergraduate school and looking for well-paying employers that value innovation, teamwork and creativity.
