Harriet Tubman House Memory Project
Liam Moore
The Harriet Tubman House Memory Project began in July 2020 when residents of the South End approached the Boston Research Center with a request to document the story of the Harriet Tubman House. Built by United South End Settlements (USES) in 1975, the Harriet Tubman House became a beloved and important community space, and a place area residents could find a daycare, art gallery, computer lab, performance venue, shared meals, and communal gathering space. In addition to being the base of operations for USES, the Harriet Tubman House housed nonprofits that helped Boston residents secure affordable housing, receive healthcare, earn their GEDs, develop career skills, access childcare, and cultivate community, as well as an incubator for small businesses. The Harriet Tubman House was sold by USES in 2019, following approval by the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA). In the winter of 2020, the Harriet Tubman House was demolished. In its place, New Boston Ventures is now constructing condominiums, with dedicated nonprofit community space and artist live-work units. The proceeds from the sale of the building allowed USES to maintain the organization’s headquarters at 48 Rutland, expand programs for children and families, and secure the future of the nonprofit through the creation of an endowment for long-term financial sustainability. This sale was not without controversy; I Am Harriet, a grassroots collective of community leaders, organized efforts to prevent the building’s sale and destruction.
The Harriet Tubman House Memory Project was designed with the guidance of community advisors, including individuals affiliated with I Am Harriet and USES, and with the research and technical support of BRC staff. In documenting the history of the Harriet Tubman House, United South End Settlements (USES), and the neighborhood, this project aims to offer testimony of community action and resilience, as well as the ongoing trauma of displacement through urban renewal and gentrification in the South End. Over the course of this project, community members have worked to preserve the legacy of the Harriet Tubman House in partnership with the Boston Public Library, the Boston Research Center at the Northeastern University Library, and Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.
The project gathers the stories of past and present staff, volunteers, artists, and community members since the building’s development in the 1970s. Users of the Harriet Tubman House Memory Project can explore interview recordings, transcripts, photographs, manuscripts, and other records pertaining to the history of the Harriet Tubman House and United South End Settlements, as well as recent photographs of the space taken by the Boston Public Library’s photo-documentation team in Summer and Fall 2020, just before the Harriet Tubman House’s sale in November 2020. The site is home to two oral history collections, created 25 years apart. This virtual portal was created using Northeastern University’s digital archives tools with support from NU’s Digital Scholarship Group. In addition to documenting the Harriet Tubman House, this project offers broader histories of the neighborhood and the role of the South End’s settlement houses during the 20th century.
Going forward the BRC aims to further improve the web portal through the input of focus groups and incorporating community feedback about the site’s utility, design, and content. Future improvements also include a project to identify individuals in digitized photographs and ingest additional community stories. In 2022, the Boston Public Library partnered with GrubStreet, Boston’s creative writing center, to offer multi-week memoir courses in several branches. GrubStreet is currently anthologizing these stories, and participants with stories pertaining to life in the South End will be invited to contribute their narratives to the Harriet Tubman House Memory Project. The BRC will also explore other ways to accession community-created stories to the project.