For my final project, I would like to create a timeline of the history of Boston’s Combat Zone and a layered story-map of the Zone covering the years between 1955-1996. The timeline will discuss the Zone from its inception caused by the destruction of Scollay Square in 1960 to the falling of the Zone caused by the death of a Harvard football player, the crackdown by the Boston government on liquor licenses, and the spread of technology. The story-map will map a handful (most likely 15-20) of the Zone’s strip clubs and movie theaters by the years of their opening and closing. Each year a layer will be added to show the growth of the clubs/theaters and eventually their decline. I have already conducted a great deal of research for both portions of the project. For the timeline portion, I have created a collection of both primary and secondary source material such as books, newspaper articles, images, and videos of the Zone to discuss its history in a brief and entertaining way. For the story-map, I have been using Boston city directories as well as articles on the clubs/theaters to discover the years in which they opened and closed. Currently, I am running into the issue that not all of the city directories from the years that I need are available either online or in print at an archive. I am in the process of trying to find a solution to this problem, and if there is no solution trying to figure out a way to make the story-map work despite this lack of information.
