The publication We Are the Port represents a five-year effort to interview more than 125 longtime Port residents of diverse backgrounds. Over the course of 150 years, the Port faced many challenges – from the federal anti-immigrant acts of the 1920s to plans for an Inner Belt highway that would have displaced many families and businesses. In the last fifty years, residents have joined the struggle for civil rights, including needs for educational parity and a more responsive city government. The community has weathered the winds of change, from the construction of Newtowne Court and Washington Elms in the mid- to late-1930s to the redevelopment of Kendall Square. The generational family stories inspired and moved the author, Sarah Boyer; many shared accounts of the courage of those who left their native countries to face an unknown world, toiling to provide for their families and improve the lives of their children and succeeding generations.
The following selection of passages comes from the section “Growing Up on Worcester Street” by Suzanne Revaleon Green (1912-2012):
“There were many children in the neighborhood, and we spent many hours playing together. As a little girl, I can remember standing in our bay window at dusk to watch the lamp lighter ride up the street on his bicycle to light the gas lamp at the corner of Norfolk and Worcester Streets.
My father, with the help of our next-door neighbor, a retired Irish carpenter, built me a playhouse in our yard. Parts of its construction came from the demolishing of some beautiful old houses on Norfolk Street, where new apartment houses were being built.
I walked to the Fletcher School on Elm Street each day and returned home for lunch, returning for school within an hour for the afternoon session. We all attended our nearest neighborhood schools.”
To learn more about Suzanne’s experience and those of many others who grew up in Cambridgeport, stop by our office or click here and obtain your own copy of this rich oral history book! For more information, email us at histcomm@cambridgema.gov.
