The conversion of the larger residences in the triangular shaped block along Huntington Avenue into hotel apartments and flats indicates an increase in the demand for housing. In 1919, the Wigglesworth and Worthington Street row houses extended to the full length of the block and third stories were added. The 1919 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map [13] indicates that a majority of these rows houses were occupied by single families. This might indicate a desire for more living space and that families were growing. Also, three new streets, Carmel, Pontiac and an extension of St. Alphonsus, are constructed on the southwest side of Tremont Street between Burney Street and Huntington Avenue. This created access to more land for housing. A series of new flats were put up on these blocks as well as several new stores facing Tremont Street. In order to make possible all this new construction, the Roxbury Stone Company’s quarry was replaced with J.C. Coleman & Sons Company Contractors.

The 1919 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map [14] shows that Bumpstead Street was renamed St. Alphonsus Street with the newly constructed St. Alphonsus Hall. This building is on the property of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church that was renamed Mission Redemptorist Catholic Church, the namesake of Mission Hill. The construction that was underway in 1888 is now a completed Parochial School. With these new buildings and an extension of the convent, the church has almost completely enclosed a portion of the block.

The most drastic change on the 1919 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map [15] was the demolition of the entire block from the church property to Philipps Street. The resulting open land was now the City of Boston Playground. In 1919, the playground occupied the entire block from the church to Faxon Street except for a few flats and single family homes along the periphery. At a time when writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson praised the open landscape and disease spread in the crowded cities, open lawns and parks were seen as the “ideal place to nurture children.” [16] A possible reason for the parks’ location may have its proximity to the school, which would have been the destination of many children, and its central location within the neighborhood.

The narrow streets and tightly packed rows houses left little leftover space when automobiles became available to the common man. Ransom E. Olds began producing automobiles for 500 dollars in 1900 and “by 1913 there was one motor vehicle to every eight people.” [17] This necessitated a new type of building and garages began to show up on the 1919 Sanborn Fire Insurance map. [18] On the corner of Worthington and Smith Streets a garage with the footprint about the size of four row houses had the capacity to hold 60 cars.