Roxbury real estate comes of age

Once a stand alone city, Roxbury MA was annexed to Boston in 1868 and now forms an integral part of the Boston metro area. Predominantly African American with a small immigrant population, Roxbury has a strong culture and rich history that makes it one of Boston’s most fascinating neighborhoods. Roxbury has a long history going back to 1630, when it was one of the first towns established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Its prime location next to the narrow isthmus that once connected Boston to the mainland, open farmland, and ample supplies of timber and stone made the area highly desirable for the early settlers. Even after three centuries of development Roxbury still much open green space, a happy legacy of its early days as farming area and streetcar suburb. Franklin Park, an anchor of Frederick Law Olmstead's Emerald Necklace park system, sits between Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, and Roslindale and is home to the Franklin Park Zoo.

You probably won’t find too many luxury highrises in your search of Roxbury apartments for rent, but if you’re looking for charming and affordable apartments in Roxbury, you’ll be in luck. Roxbury wasn’t completely immune to the big rent increases that the rest of the city of Boston saw in the 1990s and early 00s, but it did have its own revitalization that made apartments in Roxbury more accessible to people of every income level.

Roxbury isn’t known for its fine dining and nightlife, but nearby Jamaica Plain offers plenty of great options, so a Roxbury MA apartmetn is never too far away from the action. Not that Roxbury is lacking its own cultural options. Among Roxbury’s art galleries and museums is the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, the Hamill Gallery of African Art.