In the 1930’s a number of federally-funded housing projects were built in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Named grandly for presidents, they featured low brick buildings, scant planting, bullet-proof doors and a large asphalt courtyard. One such was Jefferson Park, located near a spur of the Boston & Maine Railroad. I hung out in the courtyard and photographed the children while their mothers leaned on their elbows in upstairs windows refereeing fights and keeping a wary eye on me. Once a week I showed up with prints and sold them to the children for a quarter each. I still run into people who say, “Oh, you’re the lady who took pictures in the Project.”
