The MBTA gives a nod to the old West End

A new sign at the former Science Park T station pays tribute to a neighborhood trying to reclaim its heritage. (Jim Davis/Globe Staff)

More than 50 years after bulldozers flattened the brick tenements of the West End, the neighborhood finally has its very own MBTA stop.

New signs were hung yesterday at the Green Line trolley stop formally known as Science Park. The new name: Science Park/West End.

But that West End designation won't show up on any maps for the T. It is a symbolic local change that will be visible only in the 30-plus signs on the trolley platform and at the bottom of the green stairs that lead some 50 steps up to the station at the foot of the Charles River Dam.

Nonetheless, defenders of the West End are delighted that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is making the nod to the neighborhood's original name.

"I think it's absolutely wonderful," said Louise Thomas, a past president and founding member of the West End Civic Association, which requested the name change as part of a push for a station renovation slated to include two elevators.

Beyond the trolley stop, there is a broader effort to reclaim the West End name for the neighborhood, which stretches from North Washington Street to the foot of Beacon Hill. Since urban renewal unleashed bulldozers in the late 1950s, the area had been predominantly called Charles River Park after the towering apartment complexes built along Storrow Drive.

The campaign for the West End name has been built on small victories. Four years ago, the West End was recognized as a distinct neighborhood on the city's website. Then came the official city signs on Staniford Street that marked the entrance to the West End.

Now on Portland Street, Johnnie's on the Side restaurant boasts on its website that its location is in the "renewed West End." The goal, supporters say, is to give the area a name carrying the same cachet as the South End and North End, neighborhoods with similar urban roots that have blossomed with upscale shops and restaurants.

For the MBTA, the bestowing of a secondary local name to stations is becoming increasingly common as a part of other, larger renovations. The designation Boston Public Library was added to the local signs on the Green Line at Copley Station. On the Red Line, the label Peabody Square was added to signs at Ashmont Station.

"They are looking to try to build their identity," said Daniel Grabauskas, the MBTA's general manager, of the effort in the West End. "We thought it was easy since we are making the other improvements. . . . The West End has kind of gone by the board, and they are trying to bring it back. I think that's great."

The gesture is appreciated by James Campano, 68, who remembers the razing of his boyhood home, a cold-water flat in a brick tenement at 32 Poplar Street, which is now a parking lot for a high rise.

"You can't bring the old neighborhood back," said Campano, who runs the West End Museum on Lomasney Way. "But at least it's not Charles River Park anymore."

Andrew Ryan can be reached at ARYan@globe.com.