South End Interviews

Images of the Back Bay/Fenway Area

South Boston Alive

Ian Boyd

The heart of South Boston goes deeper than any physical characteristic you could find on a map. It lies in the people, their history, and their relations to the physical locations of the neighborhood. While Google Maps and Street View allow you to scour every inch of street from every imaginable angle, this is only a shallow visual facade of a representation of South Boston. The true nature of the neighborhood emerges upon talking to the residents. South Boston is defined by the people who live in it, the history they remember, and what every place in South Boston means to them.

The largest park of the neighborhood is called Independence Square. However, in keeping with the elusive nature of the area, it is known by a different name, "M Street Park," to the locals. Further investigation reveals even more that the encyclopedia does not. For example, a South Boston resident named James admitted in an interview that he was unaware that the Vietnam Memorial housed in M Street Park was the first in the entire nation. Yet, James went on to divulge information not found in official places. He explains, "After dark kids sneak into the park to do drugs and get themselves into trouble." James continues to analyze this underground knowledge, stating that "the Mafia was notorious in these parts, and even though Whitey Bulger isn't around heading the Winter Hill Gang anymore, kids still take after him and are swayed to the criminal lifestyle." The Vietnam Memorial has its own significance, but it takes on new meanings when it becomes the home environment of others.

Encyclopedic and historically established knowledge about an area does not necessarily reflect the mental outlooks of the people living there. James is not alone in his ignorance regarding the Vietnam Memorial. Five out of five residents interviewed did not realize that it had been the first in the nation. Among most of the South Boston population, the park and the memorial take on a different meaning. James is also not alone in his awareness of the illicit activity that occurs in the park after dark. Two other residents who were, like James, walking through the M Street Park, confirmed that such activitiy takes place. The three locals independently view the park as, to quote James, "pot-smoker's city." The fallacy of equating scholarly knowledge of an area with the knowledge of the residents is also present in the historical context.

The residents of South Boston view M Street Park as a night time drug area more predominantly than as the site of the first Vietnam War Memorial in America. A textbook or historical summary of South Boston would completely reverse the importance of those facts, not even mentioning the night time drug use. The historical significance of an event can likewise not reflect the mental perspective of the people living in that time. Modern historians can look at an event like the American Revolution or the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand with the scholarly knowledge of their after effects and lasting significance. A person witnessing the American Revolution or the assassination of Ferdinand would not be considering their potential long lasting impact. It is necessary to take into account the actual knowledge and perspective of the people in question, compared to the overarching scholarly analysis of their time period and area.

Broad historical details can be accurate and insightful in certain cases. South Boston has always been an Irish-Catholic neighborhood. All of the politicians from South Boston are Irish-Catholic, and almost all of the churches are as well. A resident named Michael was interviewed while leaving an Irish-Catholic church. He remarked, "Yea, I'm Irish-Catholic, so is my family, and so's the whole f***ing block." Michael was asked in a follow up question what effect being Irish-Catholic had on the use of profanity. He responded, "Christ, Whitey Bulger was raised Irish Catholic, and see where it got him. Being Catholic doesn't make you a saint." While the textbook and historical fact is accurate, there is more to the story. The majority of the population does identify as Irish-Catholic, but there are idiosyncrasies to the religion of a specific area. The people and environment of South Boston influence the meaning of being Irish Catholic in a different way then other people and places do. A single sentence claiming it is an Irish-Catholic neighborhood does not do these individual characteristics justice.

The character of South Boston emerges in the lives of the residents. The way they interact with and experience their neighborhood defines the area in its most humanized form. Interviewing live, local residents is a luxury historians cannot afford, and this is why it is so difficult to understand what ancient events or buildings mean to people at the time. We could look at ruins of South Boston and date the Vietnam Memorial as the first in the nation, and tally up almost all of the churches as Irish-Catholic, but the human essence of those details would be lost without the living memories and interpretations from the local residents. Fortunately we can collect their vivid stories before they, and even South Boston, become history.

Allston-Brighton: Some Things Never Change

Today, Allston-Brighton is a college town. The first activity one associates with Allston-Brighton is partying. If you find yourself on the green line on a weekend night be prepares to deal with herds of drunken college students jam packed onto the green line. Forget looking for a seat on the ‘T’ Try finding something to hold onto because chances are your just going to be packed in with them like a bunch of sardines. But don’t worry; the crowd definitely thins out when the T stops at Packers Corner and Brighton Avenue.

         Due to its demographics, Allston-Brighton is a full of many varieties of bars. I asked residences what their favorite places were in the area and almost every answer was some form of a bar. The most popular bars were the Model, the Siloet and Ellum Deep with Harper’s Ferry and The sunset following close behind.  

         Before Allston-Brighton became a “College Town,” it was a cattle town up until 1874 when the city was annexed into the city of Boston.  Then, in 1989 a powered trolley car made stops in the Allston-Brighton area. The area steadily became more suburban and more populated increasing from 6,000 in 1875 to 47,000 in 1925. (http://www.bahistory.org/HistoryBrighton.html)

         There is still a family suburban feel to the area today in lower Allston. Sherry, a Boston Public Librarian, says that, “Lower Allston is the undiscovered Allston.” She went on to say that because so many college students had moved into the Allston-Brighton, the families that were there were relocating to Lower Allston. Lower Allston is about a fifteen-minuet walk from the Green Line. The houses there were kept better than the college infested houses in Allston. Sherry also said that the restaurant scene is better there; that “it has more to offer families.”

         Things that it has to offer include Hooker park, which has just been renovated, the farmers market and Coolidge market, a cheap deli. 

It is also closer to Cambridge and Harvard’s campus. Harvard has been steadily expanding into lower Allston near Soldier’s Field where Harvard’s football stadium is located. It seems like the “family district” of Allston-Brighton has had to steadily down size with the increasing presence of Boston University and Boston College students and now with Harvard’s campus coming into their space.

The presence of college students is a common theme through out Allston-Brighton. Jay, an employee at Mr. Music says that, “Everyone stays the same age and I get older.” Although the students “bring a youthful energy,” he likes it best in the summer when the college students leave. Jay went on to discuss how Allston-Brighton was getting “a little more up-scale.” He showed us the comic book store. It was very rundown with several layers of green and gray paints visible. He explained that several businesses were getting renovated. He also said that due to “economic hardships,” several businesses were going out of business. He and his friend joked about how all the stores get replaced with Asian restaurants.

Over the years Allston-Brighton has cycled from being a college town to a family town and back again to a college town. Some residents there seem to accept it for what it is and appreciate all the benefits of living in a college town for example a variety of cheap restaurants and bars in exchange for the sometimes poor up-keep.

However, there are some residents who dislike the presence of the colleges. Several members of the community got together and formed their own blog concerning Boston University's expansion into Allston-Brighton. (http://allston02134.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html) 

There is also an article form the Boston Globe which discuses how Allston-Residents reacted to Boston College's proposal to expand their housing. At a meeting concerning the expansion residents all voted against the proposal. (http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/01/27/threats_taint_bc_dorm_debate/?page=1)

 Allston-Brighton residents don’t know or seem to care too much about the history of the area. Several of the interviewees agree that everyone seems to stay the same age and no one seems to stay for very long. It seems to me that Allston-Brighton acts like a transitional town for those coming into and out of the college industry whether they are students or teachers. 

Here's To Revere

A conversation on Revere By Jake Topkis and Margaret Bateman

Christopher Columbus stumbled upon America, confusing the foreign land as India. It’s safe to say that his folly was most profitable for the Spaniards. When we were sent on the mission to explore East Boston, we hopped on the Blue Line with the noblest intentions. We got off the train (our modern day ship) and assumed the foreign land of Revere as East Boston. The difference between our everyday encounter of the Financial District and our first time experience of Revere was astonishing. The streets were silent and the houses were grey. There was a playground and field cutting through the rows of residential homes. With our first impressions in tact, the idea of Revere as a ghost town rather than apart of Boston, we started our exploration.  

 

            Our project went awry without our awareness when we discovered that Revere actually is not within East Boston limits. This revelation was surprising and frustrating considering how much effort went into our Revere exploration. This unfortunate happening, however, led us to a rather interesting revelation when we began to consider what city limits and boundary lines actually mean to a neighborhood. Revere, as we originally understood it, very much belonged in Boston – and why shouldn’t it be? Because someone decided to draw a line in the sand and say it was outside Boston? We recalled the image of a Revere home completely adorned with Boston sports gear. This image inspired us to investigate into how Revere fits into Boston culturally and popularly despite the fact that a map might say differently. What we found was a map pre-1871 would not say different. We were intrigued to discover that Revere was a part of Boston 241 years! So, actually, the history of Boston has included Revere for well over half its existence. We agreed that this fact qualified the neighborhood for inclusion in this Representing The Real project. Basically: you can take Revere out of Boston, but you can’t take Boston out of Revere. We are now left wondering how many other neighborhoods of Boston have now been forgotten due to lines being abstractly drawn on a map...

 

We used our first hand experience with the residents of the neighborhood as a voice of the “essence” of Boston. When we first arrived in Revere, we thought we were East Boston. Jake took the initiative and decided to interview the first resident he could spot-- a 10 year old boy. After the interview, we traveled on to find more houses. We knocked on the door of one house and a 50 year old man answered. We discovered that we were in "Revere" and that he lived in the same house for 45 years, that his great grandfather built the house, and that the local park, Frederick's park, was named after his grandfather's uncle who died in WWI. He told us about the changing demographics of the neighborhood and about how the old neighborhood families were all dying off. He mentioned the decrease in the neighborhoods Italian population and the increase in the Middle Eastern and Hispanic population. We then found an Italian Restaurant and interviewed the owner’s wife. She too mentioned the decrease in the Italian population and rise in the Hispanic population. 

Our surprise came after the interviews, when we delved into the Internet for scientific statistics on the demographics of Revere. Of the 47,283 population, over 41,000 are White. That’s almost 90%! The way the locals were painting the picture, Margaret and I assumed the Middle Eastern immigration in the area was much more intense. In fact (according to the most recent census), the “other” category (which includes Middle Easterners) has only a 3,242 max population. This is such a small fraction, it’s surprising people noticed enough to comment on it to us. Jake and Margaret concluded that the neighborhood demographics really has not changed very much, only the perception of it by a few locals we selected. This recalls the historical problem known as the Empirical Fallacy. It is a mistake to think that questions will gain correct answers. We almost assumed our sample was the collective voice of Revere, when it really was not. 

            It was very nice to see connections already being formed between the residents. From young, to old. Rich history, to nearly none. It was not until much after we were told that Mr. Frederick was of the same family of Frederick’s that the park was named after that we considered questioning the accuracy of the data we got. We already proved after researching the census that the Middle Eastern population influx was much less dramatic than the picture painted by some of the residents. We have to conclude that we can not fully trust Frederick, or anyone with information simply because we don’t know who they actually are (agenda’s, bias’, misinformed, etc.) all we have is the popular diction spewed forth for us to dutifully write down. Recording primary sources is a bit more complex than we thought. Truth, or the closest we might get is found when we find multiple sources (scholarly and otherwise) giving the same information. We have not been able to find another source giving the origin of the name for Frederick’s Park.

Like Columbus, our encounter with the foreign land resulted in “profitable” lessons. After our journey through Revere, our encounters with the residents, and our research on the history of the neighborhood, our first impressions of Revere changed. We discovered that although the neighborhood is not “technically” apart of Boston, it still represents the real of the city. It is not a ghost town but another piece of Boston’s puzzle. We encounter the “College Town” of Boston everyday and are familiar with tall buildings and crowded streets. Revere serves as the other side of Boston we do not experience—the old families, small businesses, and quiet roads. What glues the two universes together is the name-brand identification with the city.  Go Red Sox!

Interviews:

East Boston: Revere/ Beachmont

A residential lower middle class area. A playground, school, park, and small shopping center (bakery, liquor store, middle eastern restaurant, roast beef diner.)

Beachmont Roast Beef Employee (female, 25): The restaurant has been around for 31 years (1978) and has very recently gotten a Facebook group where customers can go to find out more about the restaurant. A MySpace is pending.

• This online connection allows historians to interact directly with people in neighborhood-related groups in a medium that archives primary sources.

(This is very important for our project. It can provide contacts for residents of all neighborhoods. Each person responsible for a neighborhood should check facebook and myspace for "fan" sights of neighborhoods. Join the group and start a conversation thread with interview questions. Contact the creators of the group and ask them why they started the page.)

Address of Beachmont Roast Beef:

629 Winthrop Ave 

(between Bennington St & Crescent Ave) Revere, MA 02151 (781) 289-7968

Revere Resident 1 (male, White, ~50): Lived in Revere for 45 years, his family had for 100 years going back to his great grandfather (who built the house we visited). Fredericks Park was named after his father's uncle who was killed in WWI. Frederick’s Park is a popular place in Revere, he said it was his favorite. He has seen the demographics of the neighborhood change since he’s lived there. He saws the area used to be mainly Italian or Irish ethnicities, but now a Middle Eastern population has moved in and they have brought new businesses to the neighborhood.. His father is 80 and is one of the “original” people left from the neighborhood who has yet to die. His family used to be prominent in the area, now they’re just another house. Apartment complexes are relatively new, it used to be all houses. He mentioned that the sense of community has left due to the old families dying out. There is now a market and a drugstore. He used to hang on the popular street corner in town, and knew everyone. That is not the case today. His three favorite places in his neighborhood are the racetrack, beach, and park.

Neighborhood Child (male, Hispanic, ~10): He has lived here for 3-4 years. He feels it’s still a new neighborhood for him. He’s seen everything in the area become “more subtle” since he arrived. I believe he means that there is less going on. Everyone keeps to themselves mostly. When asked what three places in the neighborhood he would give people a tour of he could only respond with one: The park. This is the only place he goes for leisure.

Beachmont Italian Bakery Employee (female, wife of owner, ~60):The owner of bakery began working as a neighborhood ice cream truck driver for 40 years, 25 years in Beachmont. 17 years ago he started the bakery, which remains the only bakery in the neighborhood. The owner retired from the ice cream truck 5 years ago. The woman spoke with a thick Italian accent. She said she noticed a change in the neighborhood about 7 years ago when a large Italian population left. She mentioned the increase in a hispanic population. When asked what her favorite places were in neighborhood, she said she rarely leaves the story or socializes with others in the neighborhood.

Middle Eastern Restaurant Employee (male, Middle Eastern, ~40):Did not respond to questions. When asked to interview other employee, he mentioned that he did not speak english very well.

Liquor Store Employee (female, Asian, ~35): Did not respond to our questions. She had broken English and was busy at the counter.

Discovering Boston's North End

 By: Lindsey Hebell

This final project for Representing the Real was very unique in the fact that I felt like an actual historian. I not only gained a better understanding of my specific neighborhood, The North End, but also how it fits into the greater context of the city of Boston. The initial research I did before venturing out into my neighborhood was informative and interesting but rather routine. The real immersion and learning came when I went to the neighborhood and collected many primary sources myself. The common themes I found throughout my primary and secondary sources suggested that The North End has a rich history and that the neighborhood is forever changing. Many of the residents I interviewed suggested that less Italian families live there; instead young single people are replacing them. These findings have led me to the conclusion that the meaning and making of history is dependent on the demographics of a neighborhood.

            The history of the North End is complex and ever changing. It is interesting to note that it is the oldest neighborhood in Boston. One reason why it’s history is so rich is due to the melting pot of cultures that immigrated to The North End from colonial times up until the early 20^th century. The sudden influx of English, Polish, Russian, Jewish, Portuguese, Irish and Italian families made the neighborhood very ethnically diverse from the very beginning. In the early 1800s German, Russian and Polish families mostly dominated the neighborhood. Then, in the 1880s a sudden flood of Italian immigration occurred. From the 1880s onward, the Italians carved out their own community in The North End and have dominated the neighborhood.

            When I went to visit the North End on Saturday, April 25^th it was a beautiful ninety-degree day. A prime day for interviews because many people were out and about. My first stop was a drugstore Green Cross Pharmacy. I realized as soon as I walked in that I could probably get the point of view from an older resident since the store was quite dated. My assumption ended up being correct as I interviewed my first resident named Fred Giangregorio who was an older man probably in his late sixties or early seventies. He told me that he had lived in the neighborhood for 55 years and that he immigrated to the area because his mother was born here, moved back to Italy and then returned to Boston. When I asked him how the neighborhood has changed he commented on how the area use to have more Italian families and now instead there are a lot of young single people, as well as college students living in the area. He also noted how there use to be more schools and churches in the neighborhood when all the families lived there. The tourism from the 1970s he felt gained more visitors, especially tourists. When asked what his favorite places were in his neighborhood, Fred said that he mostly worked and did not go out much. However, when he does he enjoys the restaurants Lucia and Cantina Italiana. Fred’s picks for historic places to take visitors to included the Paul Revere House, Old North Church, St. Stephen’s Church and the new battery Warf at the end of Hanover Street.

            The next interviewee was a man named Adam, most likely in his late twenties with his toddler son Riorden. It was interesting to get an account of a new resident versus Fred who had lived in the neighborhood his whole life. Adam, his wife and son have lived in Boston for four years. During those four years they initially moved to The North End, to Cambridge and then back to The North End. I found this interesting and asked him why they moved back. He said it was because in Cambridge they did not like how everything was so spread out and liked how The North End was very compact and walk-able, so they moved back. When I asked Adam about how the neighborhood has changed I was not expecting a profound answer since he was a relatively new resident. However, he did give an interesting answer stating how the rent had gone up every year since they had moved there. He said it was a result of corporate consolidation because one company was trying to buy up multiple apartment complexes and drive up the rent. Adam’s favorite places in the neighborhood were Polcari’s, and old coffee shop, and restaurants Dolce Vita and Mamma Maria’s. When asked what places he would take visitors to he reiterated by saying the coffee shop and two restaurants along with the shooting of cannons at the Charlestown Navy yard. 

            Adam and Fred’s accounts were interesting to document back to back since they were in such juxtaposition of one another. Fred’s main observation of how his neighborhood has changed was the absence of Italians and an influx of young people. Adam is the epitome of what Fred was noticing. As a new resident, lacking Italian heritage, Adam is forever changing the history of The North End whether he realizes it or not. The fact that more Italians are leaving and non-Italians are moving in will eventually change the entire culture of the neighborhood. Traditionally Italians will get together and form strong community bonds through holiday celebrations or morning brunch at the corner café. With the flood of new ethnicities replacing the Italians the neighborhood will become more fragmented and less of a close-knit community.

            After speaking with Adam I came across a nice woman in her mid twenties named Melanie. Melanie has lived in the area for fourteen years and originally chose to live in The North End because she knew no one before moving to Boston and liked that it was known to be family oriented. She also said that it was known to be and still is one of Boston’s safest neighborhoods. When asked how the neighborhood had changed over the years, her reply was very similar to Fred’s, saying there are a lot more young people living in the area. She also said how older family owned coffee shops have gone away and more boutiques that are out of place have sprung up in their place. Her three favorite places in the neighborhood are Sulmona Meat Market because she believes that it personifies The North End, her front stoop because she “watches the world go by” and Galeria Umberto, which sells slices of pizza for 80 cents. Melanie said she would take visitors to Copps Hill Cemetery, The Old North Church and Prince Street where the great molasses flood of 1919 occurred.

Walking a little further down the block I stepped into a corner shop where I interviewed a man named Angelo who was probably in his early forties. He had lived in the area for 22 years but moved to Jamaica Plain after he got married. Even though he currently lives in JP, he continues to work in The North End. Similar to what Fred and Melanie said Angelo stated that the neighborhood has changed because many families have moved out and young people have moved in. Starting in the 1970s he says is when the slow increase of young people started. Also in the 1970s he said there was a bigger problem with crime and “punks versus punks” that caused trouble. When asked where he would take visitors Angelo said the area playgrounds and Bova’s Bakery that is open 24 hours. As for historic sights Angelo would show visitors the Old North Church, the Paul Revere House, Copps Hill Cemetery and the waterfront.

            Reflecting on Melanie and Angelo’s responses it was interesting to see how everyone’s responses to my questions were interconnected. Relating back to the changing of culture that I encountered with Fred and Adam, Melanie mentioned how there use to be more Italian owned cafes and now instead there are clothing and accessory boutiques’ that are out of place. Angelo also reiterated the common theme of changing culture when he mentioned diminishing Italian families. Both Melanie and Angelo changed the culture of the neighborhood in their own way. Melanie although a resident for 14 years is not Italian and moved to the area from the Midwest. Her lack of Italian heritage is obviously diluting the presence of Italy in Boston’s North End. Angelo, although Italian, is also changing the equilibrium of The North End by making his former home a place he visits for work. This also greatly affects the area’s populations because in the past people worked, shopped and lived all within one area. Today is the age of the commute and Angelo is a prime example of this. Without Italian families living their entire lives in the area, significant changes are occurring from storefronts to the population.

The last person I interview was by far the best and the most knowledgeable about the neighborhood’s history. In order to further investigate Melanie’s mention of the happenings at Prince Street I decided to ask a couple of men standing outside of a café if they could direct me to where the Great Molasses Flood occurred. They stared at me blankly and just when I thought I was out of luck a passerby said, “he does,” gesturing to her husband. I quickly became acquainted with David who agreed to show me exactly where the disaster took place. He has lived in The North End for about 35 years and settled in the area after he finished school at Boston Architectural College. He said he specifically chose to live in the North end because it was close to downtown and he is able to walk to work. When asked how the area had changed he said how it use to be about 85-90% Italian and now it was only about 30% Italian. He also talked about how gentrification and the influence of many surrounding neighborhoods have changed the demographics to what they are today: less Italians and more affluent white people. When I asked him what his favorite place in the neighborhood was he said at the baseball diamond down by the river where he use to play baseball. When I asked him where he would take visitors he said the Waterfront, Old North Church, Paul Revere’s House and Copps Hill Cemetery.

After the initial interview of the few short questions David was cordial enough to walk around with me for about 45 minutes telling me a lot of good rich details about the neighborhood. While walking by a playground on our way to Prince Street he pointed out how the entire area use to be a gas tank and then was later torn down and turned into a park. He also mentioned that the parking garage that was right next to the playground was the sight of the Brink’s Robbery in the 1950s, which when it happened was the biggest bank robbery to date. We then reached Prince Street where he gave me a little information about the 1919 tragedy. He told me how the molasses holding tank near the harbor was used to pick up molasses and then export it to Canada because at the time we were still neutral in WWI. It caused a lot of damage including bending the steel of the railroad tracks on the street that once ran between North and South Stations. After seeing Prince Street we walked past what he called the “spite house”. The spite house is the skinniest house in Boston and was built to block the view of the apartment building behind the house.

David was a great source to end my day of interviews with because I felt like he took all of my findings from the beginning of the day and tied them together. David was creating his own history through his own neighborhood while still staying connected to the greater history of Boston. His knowledge on the Great Molasses Flood of 1919 was extensive. The cliff notes narrative he told of the tanks eruption and the damage during and after the tragedy helped show that history’s events that affected the entire city was also a big presence in the history of The North End. Also, his mention of the gentrification of Boston also helped tie all of my information together. Gentrification could have caused these Italian minorities to move out and be replaced by more affluent white young people that have more money and are the cause for the current situation for The North End. This explains how surrounding neighborhoods and the city as a whole is affecting every aspect of The North End. In summary, the newcomer’s imposing affluence causes rent to be raised, more boutiques to be opened, the loss of traditional family owned cafes and restaurants and causes the loss of Italian families and diminishes the presence of the Italian culture.

Although we did not read anything in class this semester that specifically had to do with Italian culture I found many connections in Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer and A Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich to my research in The North End. First of all, Fischer’s story is very much rooted in The North End because Paul Revere lived in the area. Although Revere’s era was before Italian immigration occurred his legacy stays strong in the area as noted by almost everyone I spoke to in The North End that mentioned the Paul Revere house as a historical site. One thing that Paul Revere’s people and the Italians had in common was their sense of community and banding together like a family. Fischer explains this when he says, “…the sacred covenant and the rule of law, self-government and majority vote, fundamental rights and free association, private responsibility and public duty, the gospel service and the ethic of work, and a powerful idea of community.” This perfectly draws a parallel between the Italians and the colonial period. The Italians also believed in a strong sense of community, service to God (as seen by the multiple churches in the North End), as well as a strong belief in hard work. Corresponding consistencies between the Italian Immigrants and colonial America can also be drawn from Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s A Midwife’s Tale. The theme of community is again found between these two different times. The first man I interviewed, Fred Giangregorio, is similar to Martha Ballard in that he has lived in the same neighborhood his entire life. Fred seemed to be a strong believer in his Italian community and therefore seemed disappointed that young affluent people are taking over his neighborhood. Ulrich’s observation that, “Spinning, like nursing, was a universal female occupation, a 'domestic' duty, integrated into a complex system of neighborly exchange." Likewise, Fred is integrated into his community by proving the vital service of a pharmacy on main street in the heart of the North End. Although he is not physically healing people, running the pharmacy is Fred’s way of “nursing” his community.

With all of this helpful information from the residents I encountered I decided to dig deeper into some of the information that they glossed over for me. David, the last resident I interviewed, actually suggested a book to me called Dark Tide by Stephen Puleo. The book is fascinating because it includes many specific details about the Great Molasses Flood in 1919 that occurred on Prince Street in The North End. The story actually spans an entire decade beginning with the molasses tank’s construction in 1915 to the conclusion of the great civil lawsuit in 1925. The flood itself however is not widely known about, considered to be more a part of folklore than history. The fleeting attempts to mention the flood are the small plaque placed at the site by the Bostonian Society in the mid 1990s as well as the themed duck tour vehicle named “Molly Molasses”. Even after these fleeting references many people assume that the tragedy was an isolated incident that had no ties to the greater history of Boston. On the contrary, this incident was a very significant part of Boston history. It was considered a tragedy with twenty-one killed and 150 injured. The tank that was hastily built in 1915 is thought to be the cause of the flood although the exact cause is still unknown (Puleo).

An interesting bit of North End history that has been publicized recently by the Boston Globe, relating to the Old North Church. The church is a common historic site for tourists, however the hidden crypts below the church tell a much different story. Tourists have never seen this site and little is still known about the crypts. An archeologist named Jane Lynden Rousseau from Harvard’s Peabody Museum is working to tell the story of the long forgotten tomb. According to the Boston Globe the crypt was first constructed in 1792 and contains about 37 tombs. The most interesting part about this crypt is the presence of the “strangers”. Usually during the colonial era you could only be buried in the church’s crypt or cemetery if you were a church member. However, this particular tomb seems to hold a variety of people from different religions, dead incurred by the Revolution and even African Americas. The Globe states that, “anyone, regardless of social status, could be interred through the intercession of a benefactor. More than 1,100 bodies of Bostonians, residents who walked the same streets that surround the church today, are believed to have been brought to the crypt. The church’s clientele run the gamut from “strangers” to leaders of the American Revolution. The presence of strangers in the Old North tombs suggests how much emphasis the church put on money. Rousseau has discovered through her research that some of the older tombs were emptied and moved to one large pit to make room for more paying parishioners. This shows that even the area that is sometimes referred to as the “cradle of the Revolution” can sometimes hide history. Obviously we do not have the entire book of history written and we are still defining, writing and re-writing history, sometimes with discoveries in our own neighborhood.

Along with the Great Molasses Flood I was interested in the ever-changing demographics of the area since almost every single person I interviewed mentioned the subject in one way or another. A book called The Boston Italians also by Stephen Puleo gave me a better understanding of the population of The North End historically and presently. Through the book I found evidence for what Fred had told me. According to The Boston Italians, the Italian immigrants were “birds of passage” that wanted to come over temporarily and then return home. This could be what happened to Fred’s family with his mother born here, return to Italy and then eventual return to Boston. Throughout the neighborhood there were many subcultures of Italy where people from certain regions of Italy would cluster in specific areas of The North End (Puleo). 

When I had finished collecting information from my primary and secondary sources, it made me realize that history is never finished and that documenting it can sometimes be a daunting task. The historical fallacy that I encountered the most throughout my research was presentism. With the present day accounts I collected from everyone it was hard to connect them to the past and present state of the neighborhood without keeping them too much in the terms of the present. Also, the telescopic fallacy had to be avoided since I was dealing with so many historical events and keeping them in perspective of one another without making these longer historical stories seem too short.

With the difficulties in mind, the process and culmination of my research was still possible and very eye opening. To go out into a community that I really had no idea about other than a glossed over tourists understanding was very gratifying. The knowledge I gained from residents was much more concrete and deep than if I had asked tourists and visitors to the area. The meaning and making of history is dependent on the demographics of a neighborhood. In talking to these residents and through the understanding of the literature we have studied I have come to realize that history is very much rooted in the people.

  Discovering Boston through photographs

Works Cited

 

Fischer, David H. Paul Revere's Ride. Oxford UP, 1995.

MacQuarrie, Brian. "Resurrecting a storied past." 6 Apr. 2009. The Boston Globe. 4 May 2009 .

Puleo, Stephen. Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. Boston, MA: Beacon P, 2004.

Puleo, Stephen. The Boston Italians: a story of pride, perseverance, and paesani, from the years of the great immigration to the present day. Boston, MA: Beacon P, 2007.

3 May 2009 . <http://www.northendweb.com/>

Ulrich, Laurel T. A Midwife's Tale. Vintage Books, 1991.

 

 

 

 

 

Down In Charlestown

Before this project I had never even known that the neighborhood of Charlestown even existed.  Charlestown is a small neighborhood on the outer ring of Boston but it always wasn’t always that way. It was settled in 1628 and then it reached almost to the New Hampshire border, today the town is only the size of a square mile. The infamous Battle of Bunker Hill took place there in 1775 and a monument commemorating that battle was built and finished in 1842.  A few years later it was officially considered a part of the city of Boston in 1847. In the 1870’s a large migration of Irish immigrants settled in Charlestown, MA. It was a great place for them because the Naval Yard had so many employment opportunities. Today that shipyard holds the oldest afloat warship in the world, the USS Constitution, also known as “Old Ironsides.” Today the area has become more diverse but Caucasians are still over 82% of the population. I asked my roommate about it and she said that she hadn’t been there since she was a little kid, but she did remember that it was an awesome place with tons of historical places to see. We actually went to Charlestown a couple of weekends later.  

 The U.S.S. Constitution

We decided to walk there because it was such a nice day. We walked down Tremont through Faneuil Hall down the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway and over the Charlestown Bridge it was pretty long walk it took us about 30 minutes. After the bridge we started to follow the Freedom Trail to our first stop the Boston Navy Yard to see the USS Constitution. It still amazing even though it had been renovated quite a few times and it was going through another half a million dollar renovation at the moment to get the ship ready for her bicentennial in 2010. I felt like I was living as a sailor in the 19^th century, though they were probably better at navigating through it then I was because I hit my head quite I few times in the levels below the deck. After the ship tour I went to the USS Constitution museum where I took a quiz that told me I wouldn’t have made a good sailor back in the 1800’s.  I was so impressed whith the museum because first of all it was free and it was very kid friendly with plenty of interactive activities to keep them interested. It was the perfect way to blend in education while being fun.  

The Training Field

After we had finished we walked into the residential area of Charlestown. It is a beautiful area, filled with pretty brick homes and green trees, reminiscent of the more urban Beacon Hill with its steep hills and roads. There was a major difference in the atmosphere. People were more relaxed and calm here, rather than looking like they were rushing to get places and it is much quieter. The first place we ran into was the Training Field. The Training Field is a public park dedicated to the lives of sailors and soldiers lost during the Civil War. Here is where I found my first interview with an older woman walking her dog. She absolutely loves it and said the part she loved most was how it feels like a small community but is really in the city, which is exactly the vibe I got being there only a few minutes. She also said it was great that parking is always available, and I believe it. Accessible, free parking is a super plus living in a city. She said the Bunker Hill Monument was a great place to visit while here. So we followed her advice ad walked towards the huge pillar in the distance.  

The Bunker Hill Monument

The Bunker Hill Monument is a pretty impressive figure considering it was built over 150 years ago. We walked around it and I noticed that this historical monument perfectly blended with today’s modern people. Mother’s talked to each other while their kid played in the grass around it, couples relaxed on towels at the foot of it, and cyclists rode around it. Besides my roomie and me, there was only one other couple actually gawking at the statues and taking pictures. I wondered if the people here actually knew about the history behind the monument or had the monument become part of daily routine and not thought about. I later interviewed a 30-year-old man and he suggested visiting the monument. I asked him why and he replied that it’s just one of the things that are labeled as places of interest. He didn’t know any of the history behind it, but I gave him some slack because he had only been living in the area for a month. 

The Streets of Charlestown

Later while walking the streets of Charlestown I found my next interviewee. She was about 25 years old and had been born ad raised in the area. She noticed that many different ethnicities had moved into the area and that was really refreshing. When I asked her what she loved most about the area she said that she couldn’t put it into words, it had that “special something”.  A cynic would say that she really didn’t know any reasons for why it was so great, but I believe that her response showed her hometown pride, she didn’t need to define why it was a great place to grow up in, it just was. She also remarked that the town was very historical and suggested to Navy Yard as a good place to visit.

            One interviewee had me believe that she was truly living an appreciating Charlestown. She had moved to the area for about 2 ½ years to be closer to her friends and boyfriend. She suggested her favorite restaurant The Navy Yard, which she said was a great local restaurant that had a homey feel, and she was also able to name the historical parts of the neighborhood. She was the only person to comment on how beautiful the views were. The skyline of Boston could be seen across the river and if you stand on top of the hills you can see amazing vistas. She made me have hope for the rest of Charlestown to truly appreciate the area and the great history they stand on. 

Interviews: 

1.) Female about 55 - 60 years old. She has lived in the area for about 4 years. She moved there because its a beautiful area and its technically in the city and so close to main attractions of the city but it feels like a small community. She hadn't noticed any changes in the area since moving there. The 3 places she recommends visitors to see were City Square, The Training Field, and the Bunker Hill Monument. Her favorite places were Main Street, the Naval Yard and the Training Field

2.) Female about 20 - 25. She has lived there for about 2 1/2 years. She moved here because her boyfriend and other friends lived in this area. She also didn't notice this area change at all. The 3 places she suggested were to see Ironside, go to the Navy Yard Bistro and see the Bunker Hill monument. Her favorite parts of the area were the Bunker Hill monument ad the Gaslight district (where most of the shops and store are in the area) she also loves the amazing views she sees in the area of the city and other parts of Massachusetts.

3.) Male about 25 - 30 He had only lived there one month and moved there for his job. He loves the USS Constitution and the Monument as well. Those were also 2 of the things he would suggest visitors to see, he also suggested they go to Cold Stone Creamery because their ice cream is just amazing.

4.)Female 25 Born and raised in Charlestown. She says that it has that special something that other parts of Boston don't have. It's a very homey community. She has noticed that new minorities have moved to the area and it has become a lot more diverse. Her favorite parts of the area are the Navy yard and the Monument, she loves the historical part of the neighborhood. and suggested those places to visitors.

5.) Female age 70 -75 she has lived in the area for over 50 years. She loves it here and says it's the most amazing part of Boston. She also loves how family oriented the area is and it has become more so in recent years. She loves how many parks are in the neighborhood they make it look so pretty and makes you think that you don't live in a city. She also suggested the Navy Yard, the Monument and even her house as places to see.