Boston · South of Downtown

Roxbury

Boston’s historic Black cultural center, Dudley/Nubian Square’s renaissance, and a deep food-and-music identity that’s shaping the city’s next decade.

Roxbury is Boston's historic Black cultural center and the neighborhood the city's musical and culinary identity owes more to than is usually credited. Nubian Square (the rename of Dudley Square in 2020) has been the hub of the renaissance over the last decade: new restaurants, a strong arts presence at the Bolling Building and the Hibernian Hall, and a creative community that's reshaping the surrounding blocks. The Franklin Park anchors the southern edge, and the Highland Park neighborhood preserves some of the oldest housing stock in the city. For visiting adults 21+, Roxbury holds a real licensed-cannabis presence that scales with the residential base, and Massachusetts's social-equity provisions in the cannabis program have prioritized Roxbury operators in license allocation. The day shape rewards the visitor who wants to see Boston beyond the standard tourist circuit: Nubian Square morning, lunch at one of the restaurants the renaissance brought in, an afternoon at Franklin Park or the Arnold Arboretum just south, and dinner that respects the neighborhood's sense of itself.