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Our mission is to preserve, promote, and propel the right of all people to a place where they can live and prosper—a place to call home.

    Remembering Taylor Street

    A close up view of a tabletop map with pinned locations showing historic sites

    An interactive listening and mapping project

    Photo from a past interactive oral history listening and mapping session.

    Next session

    Saturday, August 15, 2026
    12–2 pm
    Presented as part of our offerings during Festa.

    Learn more

    Contact us

    This program is periodically incorporated into events at the National Public Housing Museum.

    If you’d like to request it during a group visit or space rental, or have it brought to a location outside of the museum, contact [email protected] with a few details about your request.

    What businesses, community hang-outs, and other locations do you remember in this neighborhood? How did they play a role in your experiences of connecting with others?

    Join the National Public Housing Museum for an interactive oral history listening, mapping, and sharing session, featuring excerpts from oral history interviews and our podcast episode with two Jane Addams Homes residents, Allen and Janetta.

    Their stories focus on the varied history of the Near West Side neighborhood—known to different groups as “The Village,” “ABLA,” and “Little Italy.” They reflect on the changes to the neighborhood over time, including demographic, economic, and cultural shifts that have drastically changed its atmosphere.

    In addition to group listening, participants will have a chance to explore the stories on their own, and to write and pin their own memories in the neighborhood onto the map.

    Resources

    Want to listen again, preview some of the oral histories in the activity, or learn more? Check out these resources!

    Listen

    Learn more

    Documentation

    Masked light skinned woman bends down and looks at a photo
    Three people stand and look at the map, with the middle person gesturing to it.

    Photos from a fall 2024 mapping session at the Chicago Public Library’s Little Italy Branch.

    Related Events

    Remembering Taylor Street: Interactive Listening & Mapping Session

    UPDATE: We will be holding this event in the “Little Italy” Chicago Public Library Branch (1336 W Taylor Street) instead of the farm due to the weather! We’ll be set…

    Read more
    View of the 3-story National Public Housing Museum from across the street

    Taylor Street Little Italy Festival

    Explore family stories from Taylor Street and the Little Italy neighborhood at the National Public Housing Museum during the annual Festa street festival.

    Read more

    About

    This memory and mapping project was co-created with urban designer Paola Aguirre Serrano and Borderless Studios, with support from the Smithsonian Museum’s National Conversation on Race. Our oral history programs are also supported by the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.