Oral History Interview with Kathy Leonard, Maureen Jelloe, and Katie Harris
Description:
Interview with Kathy Leonard, Maureen Jelloe, and Katie Harris conducted by Judy Neiswander. The transcript does not differentiate which of the three women are speaking at one time. All three women, who are in their twenties, grew up in Mission Hill and still currently live in the neighborhood. Maureen and Katie are sisters. The women talk about the similar Irish Catholic backgrounds of most people from Mission Hill while they were growing up and how social life was conducted mostly within church sponsored activities. They recall that, growing up, the girls did not engage in as many recreational physical activities as did the boys. The three women remember places to go on dates like Uptown Theatre in Back Bay and the Deli in Brigham Circle. Other social centers for children included Ellie’s, a drugstore in Brigham Circle, and Building 19 which held dances. The women also talk about how the hospitals in the area, like Robert Breck Hospital and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, were major sources of employment for teenagers in Mission Hill. Leonard, Jelloe, and Harris go on to discuss the future of Mission Hill and whether or not they would continue to stay and raise families in the neighborhood. They identify some of the current problems with Mission Hill include the increase in crime, absentee landlords, lack of recreational facilities for children, dirtiness of the neighborhood, the bad conditions of the housing projects, and neighborhood’s instability due to institutions such as Harvard purchasing property there. Despite these problems, the women agree that they have hope for Mission Hill and have noticed that more people are working towards finding solutions to these problems through organizations such as The Mission Hill Planning Association [The Mission Hill Planning Commission]. Other topics include the unspoken distinction between children “from the projects” and children “from the Hill”, Tobin Gym, neighborhood “victory parties” held after basketball and football games, smoking from a young age, the importance of student councils and class officers in Mission High School, noting that most of their friends who grew up in Mission Hill married within the community, St. Alphonsus Hall, and protests against building high-rises in Back Bay.
