Like many other parts of Boston, The South End used to be a body of water. In the early 1820s, developers who saw the great potential of Boston decided that the city needed more land, so they created a landfill. The South End is was actually built up and created prior to the Back Bay. During this time, Beacon Hill was becoming so overcrowded with people, that Boston needed to create a larger residential neighborhood. Among the first to reside in The South End were business owners, a mayor and middle-class families. For a very short period of time, the South End was a rather wealthy, up-and-coming neighborhood. After a while, many of the original inhabitants moved out of The South End to some of the newer Boston neighborhoods, and in moved a multitude of immigrants. Financial decline in the neighborhood continued to allow for poor, low class families moving in and an increase in the number of tenements. The South End slowly became a center for many African Americans as well as homosexual men. The South End became one of the poorest neighborhoods in all of Boston, as well as one of violence. Today, there is little sign of past hardships as the 1990s forced a huge redevelopment movement. Today, the South End is home to many of Boston's upper-middle-class families and working singles. It also has Boston's largest gay population and has a sizable Latino, African-American, and Caribbean population. Many consider the South End to be Boston's most diverse neighborhood on many fronts: ethnically, racially, and socio-economically. This can evidenced in the phenomenon of luxury lofts located directly across the street from subsidized housing (yes, we mean "the projects"). Redevelopment in the 90s (which continues to this day) has brought wonderful changes to the South End, including the great bistros, art, ballet and parks, however, it still maintains a tinge of its rougher past. In any case, it is a definite must-see, especially for those wanting to venture outside of Boston's typical tourist destinations.