Boston Marathon Memorial, City Archives Stored in West Roxbury

Old Irish Almanacs, hundred year old newspapers and historic city  documents are just a few of the over a million materials that can be found at the city of Boston’s  Archival Center in West Roxbury.

The center, located on Rivermoor Street off VFW Parkway holds books and documents from as early as the 1700s through present time that the Boston Public Library can no longer hold in any of their locations.

The city acquired the property and building in November 2004 and the Boston Public  Library began moving materials to the West Roxbury location in 2010.

Mary Frances O’Brien, Chief of Public Services said the Boston Public Library has always been in a search for space.

“We have materials that are rarely used but are important in the context they have,” she said. 

Guests can request materials from the archival collection which will be retrieved by staff and delivered to the central library on Bolyston Street or to a branch location, O'Brien said.  If a large collection is requested, users are welcome to use the Archival Center’s reading room  in West Roxbury by appointment.

In addition to just books and documents, the Archival Center  now holds all the materials from the Boston Marathon memorial from Copley Square.

The hundreds of ribbon, running sneakers, teddy bears, Boston caps and notes that were placed at the memorial in Copley Square following the marathon tragedy in April, have now been transferred to this Archival Center.

The memorial Marathon materials are City of Boston Archives and cannot be requested by patrons.

The center also houses more than one million library materials, including books, journals, newspapers, maps, films, and archival materials dating back centuries, all of which is vacuumed and cleaned before being stored.

The scope of resources available at the Archival Center include the Alice M. Jordan Collection of children’s literature; state, federal, and local documents; and unedited local news footage from the 1960s and 1970s, including coverage of demonstrations, elections, snowstorms, and floods.

The Archival Center is located at 201 Rivermoor Street.  It is open, Monday - Friday; 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. by appointment.