878 Huntington Ave
My current dwelling is a beaten piece of sociological Boston history. A reminder of the how our hope and aspirations collide..
878 Huntington Ave #3, an introduction:
As I understand, this entire neighborhood was built on a landfill to provide "affordable housing" to lower-middle class residents in the Roxbury/Jamaica Plain region of western Boston. Over 50 some-odd years off rain water swelling and and contracting in soil, everything has begun to creep away from the crest of Parker Hill. Specifically, this house's foundation grades downhill steeply from the southeastern side of the house, and from the north side because of the sewer and trolley supports on the flat. The result is a fulcrum in the middle of the house.
If you knocked down the interior walls, and placed marbles around the entire perimeter of the apartment, they would undoubtedly all roll to the middle of the apartment.
I was taking a piss at Alex's recently renovated apartment on Gainsborough St. when I started thinking about the previous occupants. I got home today and started scrolling through the possibilities: Throughout the years, how many different ways has this bedroom looked? How many different generations have adorned this room to their particular liking?
Naturally, I thought about hippies sitting on the floor getting high in the 60's, some Saturday Night Fever Travolta caricature blowing lines off the kitchen counter before a night out at some downtown discotheque. Pretty awesome sure.. but as I draw closer to the realm of probability, I consider the history of this neighborhood.
These were family apartments. Was this a small black child's bedroom in the 60's? An anecdote for an entire generation. The title of a chapter in American History. This country was bubbling with the civil rights movement, and Boston retained the reputation of being exceptionally racist, even as far as visiting athletes commenting on the atmosphere at Celtics games as recently as the mid 80's.
Okay that's a little extreme but you never know. What I do know is that when crack was around in the mid-late 80's, this was a particularly bad neighborhood. It has improved over the years, and now functions predominantly as a student rental for the near-by colleges (Northeastern, Wentworth, Mass Art, Simmons, Emmanuel, Mass Institute of Pharmacy, Harvard Med, to name a few.) I'll say with about 95% certainty that crack has been smoked in this house, in this room, at some point in the 80's. Heroin snorted (or heated and booted).
These are the concrete facts. This is what is certain. But what I'm much more interested by is the wide array of personalities that have been harvested here. How many interesting stories, interesting people. I'd like to pick their brain.
I wonder what donkey has to say about this. He's been gone all weekend but supposed to be coming home soon. I'm gonna bring it up.
878 Huntington Ave #3, an introduction:
As I understand, this entire neighborhood was built on a landfill to provide "affordable housing" to lower-middle class residents in the Roxbury/Jamaica Plain region of western Boston. Over 50 some-odd years off rain water swelling and and contracting in soil, everything has begun to creep away from the crest of Parker Hill. Specifically, this house's foundation grades downhill steeply from the southeastern side of the house, and from the north side because of the sewer and trolley supports on the flat. The result is a fulcrum in the middle of the house.
If you knocked down the interior walls, and placed marbles around the entire perimeter of the apartment, they would undoubtedly all roll to the middle of the apartment.
I was taking a piss at Alex's recently renovated apartment on Gainsborough St. when I started thinking about the previous occupants. I got home today and started scrolling through the possibilities: Throughout the years, how many different ways has this bedroom looked? How many different generations have adorned this room to their particular liking?
Naturally, I thought about hippies sitting on the floor getting high in the 60's, some Saturday Night Fever Travolta caricature blowing lines off the kitchen counter before a night out at some downtown discotheque. Pretty awesome sure.. but as I draw closer to the realm of probability, I consider the history of this neighborhood.
These were family apartments. Was this a small black child's bedroom in the 60's? An anecdote for an entire generation. The title of a chapter in American History. This country was bubbling with the civil rights movement, and Boston retained the reputation of being exceptionally racist, even as far as visiting athletes commenting on the atmosphere at Celtics games as recently as the mid 80's.
Okay that's a little extreme but you never know. What I do know is that when crack was around in the mid-late 80's, this was a particularly bad neighborhood. It has improved over the years, and now functions predominantly as a student rental for the near-by colleges (Northeastern, Wentworth, Mass Art, Simmons, Emmanuel, Mass Institute of Pharmacy, Harvard Med, to name a few.) I'll say with about 95% certainty that crack has been smoked in this house, in this room, at some point in the 80's. Heroin snorted (or heated and booted).
These are the concrete facts. This is what is certain. But what I'm much more interested by is the wide array of personalities that have been harvested here. How many interesting stories, interesting people. I'd like to pick their brain.
I wonder what donkey has to say about this. He's been gone all weekend but supposed to be coming home soon. I'm gonna bring it up.