immigration

Jews in the Shoe Trade

Thousands of Russian Jews came to Lynn to work in its shoe factories. The economic life of the Lynn Jewish community was inextricably linked to the shoe industry, which became the major source of the Jews’ upward economic mobility. Even…

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Lynn

Immigrant neighborhood in downtown Lynn, looking up Amity Street from Washington Street, ca 1900. Courtesy of Lynn Public Library.

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A 1922 postcard of the Central Square in Cambridge Mass. The postcard shows a busy street with many people waiting to board the streetcar in the middle of the street. On either side of the street are businesses and individuals walking on the sidewalks.

Cambridge

Central Square became Cambridge's largest commercial center in the early 20th century, serving growing immigrant communities from Ireland, Canada, Portugal, and the West Indies. After World War II, the Square and an adjoining area known as "the Port" would become…

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Frank Storer looks at the camera as he plays piano in the foreground. Behind him, there are three other instrumentalists, playing string instruments. In the background, there are many men and women dancing and talking.

Dudley Street

Frank Storer plays piano to a crowded dance hall at the Intercolonial Club on Dudley Street in the 1950s. It was one of at least five dance halls that featured live music by Irish and Canadian bands in the mid-20th…

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Anti-Asian Violence

After the Vietnam war, thousands of refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia were resettled in the greater Boston area. Many were traumatized by their experiences, only to face more hostility from white neighbors in their new homes. To help end this…

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A postcard of Dorchester Avenue. A yellow streetcar travels down the street along with a horse-drawn wagon. On either side of the street are mixed-use buildings.

Dorchester

Postcard showing Dorchester Avenue near the corner of Savin Hill Avenue, ca 1913. Courtesy of the Dorchester Historical Society.

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A postcard of "Harvard Avenue, Allston, Mass." There is a street on the left of the postcard with lines for a streetcar. On the side of the street are numerous businesses, such as a ten cent store, candy store, and cafe, along with automobiles.

Allston-Brighton

   Postcard of Harvard Avenue in Allston Village, between Commonwealth and Brighton Avenues, 1921. Courtesy of the Brighton Allston Historical Society.

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A postcard that depicts "Chelsea Square. Chelsea. Mass." A parkway with streetcars, horse drawn carriages, and pedestrians walking about. The road is in a U-shape and there are large three and four story buildings that mark the sides of the streets.

Chelsea

Chelsea Square, ca. 1905, just prior to the massive fire of 1908 that would destroy the dowtown but also bring thousands of Jewish and other immigrants to this industrial city north of Boston.

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