This examination of the emergence of the urban neighbourhood in the US in the late 19th- and early-20th centuries takes as a case study Boston's outer-city neighbourhood, Jamaica Plain. The author argues that a vital neighbourhood culture bound the residents together, with businesses, schools, clubs, charitable societies, and political organizations spinning a web of social ties that fostered a powerful sense of allegiance to the local community. However, ultimately political reformers and 20th-century mores disrupted the unity of the turn-of-the-century, contributed to a decline in the quality of urban life. This work offers a detailed look at the evolution of urban America.