Yawkey Way (now Jersey Street)
Jersey Street, formerly known as Yawkey Way, is a short urban street in Boston, Massachusetts, running along the western exterior of Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. The street's dual identity — carrying one name for decades as a tribute to a former team owner, then reclaiming its original designation — reflects broader civic conversations about history, legacy, and the responsibility of public commemoration. Situated in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood, the street functions as far more than a simple passage between blocks; on game days it transforms into a bustling pedestrian concourse, and its history mirrors the evolution of Boston itself as a city that continually reassesses its past.
History
Jersey Street's origins date to the nineteenth century, when the residential and commercial grid of the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood was first laid out. The street took its original name, Jersey Street, from that early urban planning period, and it served for many decades as an ordinary city block bordering what was then undeveloped or industrially used land. The construction of Fenway Park in 1912 dramatically altered the character of the street, transforming it from an ordinary neighborhood thoroughfare into among the most recognizable approaches to any sports venue in the United States.
In 1977, the City of Boston renamed the street Yawkey Way in honor of Tom Yawkey, who had owned the Boston Red Sox from 1933 until his death in 1976. Yawkey was for many years celebrated as a devoted steward of the franchise, and the renaming was intended as a civic tribute to his long tenure. However, Yawkey's legacy became increasingly contested over the decades that followed. Critics pointed to the Red Sox's history of being the last Major League Baseball team to integrate, a delay that many historians have directly attributed to decisions made during Yawkey's ownership. As awareness of this history grew, calls began to mount for the city to revisit the street's name.[1]
In 2017, the Boston Red Sox formally requested that the city change the name of Yawkey Way back to its original designation of Jersey Street. The organization cited concerns about the racial legacy associated with Yawkey's ownership era, acknowledging the team's painful history as the final franchise in Major League Baseball to add a Black player to its roster. The Red Sox, then under the principal ownership of John Henry, concluded that continuing to operate their home ballpark on a street named for Yawkey sent an unwelcoming message. The request was considered by the Boston Public Improvement Commission, which oversees street naming decisions in the city.[2]
The renaming was approved, and Jersey Street officially reclaimed its historical name. The decision was not without debate. The Yawkey Foundation, a charitable organization established through Tom Yawkey's estate and that of his wife Jean Yawkey, objected to the change, noting the substantial philanthropic work carried out in the Yawkey name across Massachusetts. Supporters of the renaming argued that charitable giving did not erase or diminish the significance of the team's integration record. The civic deliberation over the street's name became a case study in how American cities navigate the tension between honoring past figures and reckoning with the full scope of their legacies.
Geography
Jersey Street is a short block located in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, running roughly east to west along the third-base side and main gate entrance of Fenway Park. The street connects Brookline Avenue at one end to Van Ness Street at the other, giving it a modest footprint on the city map. Despite its brevity in length, the street occupies an outsized role in the daily and seasonal life of the surrounding neighborhood.
The surrounding area is dense with the infrastructure of urban Boston — transit stations, restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, and residential buildings all compete for space within a short radius. The Green Line of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) serves the neighborhood via the Kenmore Station stop, making Jersey Street accessible from much of the metropolitan area without requiring an automobile. The Fenway neighborhood itself is a mixed-use urban environment, home to students, young professionals, long-term residents, and the seasonal influx of visitors drawn by Fenway Park and the nearby Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.[3]
Culture
Few streets in Boston carry the cultural weight of Jersey Street on a game day. When the Red Sox are scheduled to play at home, the block outside Fenway Park fills with vendors, fans in team merchandise, street performers, and the ambient energy of anticipation. The street effectively becomes a pedestrian plaza in the hours leading up to first pitch, as the city typically restricts vehicle traffic to accommodate foot traffic. This transformation is a well-established feature of Boston's summer and autumn rhythms.
The cultural significance of the street is inseparable from the history and mythology of Fenway Park itself. Fenway, which opened in 1912 and is the oldest active Major League Baseball ballpark in the United States, is a site of intense collective memory for Boston residents and fans of the Red Sox worldwide. The exterior walls of Fenway that face Jersey Street — featuring the iconic manual scoreboard and the looming presence of the Green Monster visible above the left-field wall — have become subjects of photography, art, and popular culture. Walking Jersey Street is, for many visitors, among the first tangible encounters with a storied piece of American sports history.[4]
Beyond baseball, Jersey Street and its surrounding blocks reflect the cultural dynamism of the Fenway-Kenmore district. The area's proximity to several universities — including Boston University, Northeastern University, and Berklee College of Music — means that the street's cultural context extends well beyond sports. Restaurants and music venues in the neighborhood draw a diverse crowd year-round, not only during the baseball season. The street functions as a connective tissue between the sporting identity of the area and its broader role as an urban cultural hub.
The name change from Yawkey Way to Jersey Street itself became a cultural moment, one discussed in newsrooms, sports media, and academic settings as part of a national conversation about the naming of public spaces. The debate touched on questions of who gets commemorated in urban geography and what those commemorations communicate to residents and visitors who encounter them daily.
Attractions
The most prominent attraction associated with Jersey Street is Fenway Park itself. The ballpark, which has been the home of the Boston Red Sox since 1912, draws millions of visitors annually, including tourists who visit even outside the baseball season on stadium tours. The exterior of the park along Jersey Street offers some of the most photographed views of the structure, including the handoperated scoreboard embedded in the Green Monster and the ornamental brickwork that defines the ballpark's exterior aesthetic.
Several establishments along and immediately adjacent to Jersey Street have become fixtures of the Red Sox gameday experience. Bars, restaurants, and sports-themed retail outlets line the surrounding blocks, with establishments catering to the pre- and post-game crowds that flow through the neighborhood. Some of these businesses have operated in the shadow of Fenway for generations, becoming part of the fabric of Boston sports culture in their own right. The commercial ecosystem around Jersey Street is among the most concentrated sports-related retail and hospitality zones in New England.[5]
The street also serves as the site of commemorative statues and public art associated with the Red Sox franchise. These installations contribute to the street's function as an informal outdoor museum of the team's history. For visitors to Boston seeking to understand the city's deep relationship with baseball, Jersey Street provides a concentrated introduction to that history within a walkable urban environment.
Getting There
Jersey Street is among the more accessible streets in Boston for visitors relying on public transit. The MBTA Green Line's B, C, and D branches all stop at Kenmore Station, which is within easy walking distance of Fenway Park and Jersey Street. On Red Sox game days, the MBTA typically increases service frequency on relevant lines to accommodate the influx of fans, and the transit authority has long coordinated with the Red Sox and the city on crowd management logistics.[6]
For those arriving by automobile, parking in the immediate vicinity of Jersey Street is limited, as is typical of dense urban Boston neighborhoods. Several parking garages operate within a reasonable walking radius, and ride-share services are commonly used by visitors. The Massachusetts Turnpike (Interstate 90) provides regional highway access to the Fenway-Kenmore area, with exits connecting to Brookline Avenue and other nearby arterials. Cyclists traveling the city's expanding network of protected bike lanes can access the area via connections along Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue. Pedestrian access from the broader Back Bay and South End neighborhoods is also practical for those willing to walk twenty to thirty minutes from those areas.