Sidewalk Stories

Sidewalk Stories is a Boston Research Center (BRC) project that hopes to promote a greater understanding of Boston’s spatial, environmental, and cultural history. Sidewalk Stories invites neighborliness and community joy by encouraging passersby to experience their neighborhoods as sites of living memory, unique histories, and diverse perspectives.

Sidewalk Stories is a Mellon-Grant funded project led by the Boston Research Center. The project was developed in partnership with Hola Cultura, Zumix, Maverick Landing Community Services, and the East Boston Social Centers.

Explore East Boston’s History of Community Activism

Deepen your understanding of East Boston’s community, and strengthen your sense of neighborhood belonging, by listening to firsthand accounts and memories of past and present East Boston residents. Browse the full Sidewalk Stories Collection.

Boston Research Center's Partnership with 94.9FM ZUMIX Radio

In August 2023, ZUMIX Teen Bryan Martinez interviewed Deysi Gutierrez, the then-manager of Greg’s Little Free Pantry located outside of Channel Fish in East Boston. This audio-visual experience is narrated by Bryan Martinez and features photos and live footage from East Boston. Available with English captions and Spanish captions.

"Greg's Little Free Pantry" produced by ZUMIX Radio

At the intersection of East Eagle Street and Chelsea streets in East Boston, sits a little oasis—an urban farm complete with greenhouse, a henhouse with chickens, and Greg’s Little Free Pantry. Greg’s Pantry gives out food and books to the community, and has become a hub for a pop-up neighborhood freecycle.

Speakers: Bryan Martinez, Deysi Gutierrez

Boston Research Center's Partnership with Hola Cultura

Hola Cultura remixed existing audios and oral histories of the East Boston Greenway Council with more recent interviews done by Dr. Sara Carr and her students as part of a research studio at Northeastern University's School of Architecture—all publicly available in full length in the Northeastern University Digital Repository Service. Hola Cultura’s three-part audio series focuses on East Boston’s long history of community activism, and truly makes the voices of Eastie residents shine!

"Everybody Wants a Piece of East Boston" produced by Hola Cultura

“Everybody wants a piece of East Boston,” Eva Biscegli observed in an oral history interview recorded in the late 1990s. Decades later, as developers move in, those words still ring true…

Speakers: Eva Biscegli, Renée Loth, Chris Marchi, Liliana Tirado Arteaga, Kannan Thiruvengadam

"A Neighborhood Under Siege" produced by Hola Cultura

Did you know East Boston might have been completely wiped off the map in the 1970s to make room for a larger airport?

Speakers: Renée Loth, Liliana Tirado Arteaga, Chris Marchi, Philip Giffee, Eva Biscegli, Kannan Thiruvengadam

"A Voice Above the Roar" produced by Hola Cultura

Longtime East Boston activist William Ferullo declared: “If something isn't running right, fix it.” Generations of East Boston activists have faced Eastie’s ongoing challenges, from gentrification threatening its immigrant character to climate change, with that same spirit.

Speakers: William Ferullo, Kannan Thiruvengadam, Liliana Tirado Arteaga, Philip Giffee, Renée Loth