Rails, Beer, and Reinvention

This walk reveals a side of Jamaica Plain built around industry, transit, and organized resistance. Beginning at Jackson Square, you will trace land once cleared for an expressway that residents defeated, then see how rapid transit, public paths, and community institutions emerged from the contested corridor. The route moves through Egleston Square’s old streetcar landscape and into the former Haffenreffer brewery, where brick industrial buildings now support brewing, workshops, artists, nonprofits, and small businesses. Along the way, pocket gardens and Spontaneous Celebrations show that reinvention happened through local stewardship and cultural organizing as much as through construction. Farther south, Green Street, Southwest Corridor Park, and the Arborway Bus Yard reveal both achievements and unfinished arguments about equitable transportation. Forest Hills provides a fitting finale, gathering trains, buses, bicycles, and pedestrians at a hub shaped by more than a century of change. This tour is ideal for urban-history enthusiasts, transit fans, architecture lovers, and travelers curious about how communities influence city planning. It is worth the walk because preserved factories and active infrastructure become evidence of who built Jamaica Plain, what was lost, and how residents fought to shape what came next.