Boston’s Syriatown
Preserving Cultural Heritage Through Religious Centers
This article comes from a project collaboration with Rebecca Moroski
In our day-to-day lives we pass by many buildings: homes, businesses, religious centers, and more. In each of these places someone has left a trace of themselves and their identity imprinted. Whether it be as large as the construction of the building itself or as small as a name on the deed of the property, history is created.
Boston has a rich history of immigration and, if we look just below the surface, this history tells a story that can be seen on the buildings that dot the city. Many different groups of people have lived in Boston and each has left an impression in one way or another. The most well known groups are, of course, the Irish and Italians. However, there is a smaller and seemingly forgotten group of immigrants that have shaped the way Boston looks today: the Syrians.
There was a time when the Syrian immigrant population in Boston was the second largest after New York. Between the 1880’s and 1920’s, there was a major influx of Syrian-Lebanese people migrating to the United States. This migration is due to the decline of the local silk economy in Syria, regional war and discontent with Ottoman oppression. The United States was characterized by its wealth, generosity, and apparent respect for religious diversity, so many Syrians made their way here. In 1907, 6,000 Syrians came to the U.S and between 1913 and 1914, 9,000. Similarly, there was a large migration wave that settled in Latin America.
● Boston’s Syrian community includes both Syria and the contemporary Lebanese nationalities because Lebanon was part of Syria until it became an independent country in 1947.
● Arab immigrants from the Eastern Mediterranean (Syria and Lebanon) began settling in Boston in 1880’s.
● They initially settled in the South Cove neighborhood alongside Chinese immigrants.
● The area south of Kneeland Street became the center of Syrian settlement.
● The community spreads southward along Tyler Street, Hudson Street, Harrison Avenue, and Shawmut Avenue (South End Boston).
● A new wave of immigrants from other places after the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act begins to settle in Boston’s South End.
Many of the settlers were attracted to the promise of employment in Boston’s expanding garment district as they hoped to engage in an already thriving commercial center. The Syrians were known for their own peddling economy, in which they went around selling goods on the streets, or from door-to-door. Peddling was an easy way to earn money, and it allowed for contact between Syrians and other U.S residents — thus strengthening the social welfare of many as the peddling system required support from wealthy Syrians, the working class, the household, and each other. At first, peddling was seen as an adaptable and innovative form of entrepreneurship, however, it was later stigmatized and seen as dirty and associated with the so called “street Arabs”.
Social welfare, a strong ethnic identity, and community were eventually achieved through the establishment of churches. As in many other communities, churches became responsible for preserving ethnic cultural heritage and providing a platform for social stability.
Thus, both economic interests and religious interests were factors in the making and clustering of Syrian communities in Boston specifically. A few Syrian colonies were formed in the South Cove or what is known today as the South End. Then the Colonies spread southward along Tyler Street, Hudson Street, and Harrison Avenue as well as on Shawmut Avenue. However, for such a thriving community, where are they today and what have they left behind in their former community?
The prevalence of religious centers in the Syrian clusters around Boston can be used to trace back the social evolution of this community. Religious centers serve as a way for immigrant communities to not only practice their beliefs but also fuse their cultural traits with their religious heritage. Rather than integrating themselves to already established churches, Syrians in Boston established their own churches, in which, by providing sermons in Arabic, they could begin to preserve their heritage.
One of the first churches established in the area was Our Lady of the Cedars. By 1898 the Syrian community worshiped at Saint James Church on Harrison Street. Eventually a four-story dwelling at 78 Tyler Street was purchased for the congregation, and it served as the priest’s residence, social hall, and chapel. It was dedicated in 1899 (as shown on the newspaper article) and it served 128 families by 1928.
The Church remained in this small residence on Tyler Street until 1935 when it moved to 457 Shawmut Avenue due to the need for more space. By this time, it served 253 families.
In 1959, the church burned and the congregation moved its services to the nearby Holy Cross Cathedral, where it held services until 1969. In 1969, the church finally bought its own land and moved to Jamaica Plain where it stands today. Teress Abouzeid, a volunteer of the church says that, today, the church serves many Lebanese and Syrian families that come from all over the area. Some, like herself, have to travel up to two hours to get to the church. At the time of purchasing the land, cedar trees, which are traditionally connected to Lebanon, were planted by the congregation and surround the entire church.
Another great example of community through religious centers can be seen at the Saint George Orthodox Church. The founding families of this church were from Beirut and Damascus. In 1900, Friar George established the Chapel of Saint George in his home, but as the Syrian population increased the community moved to larger facilities. They did not, however, have their own church until 1916. That year property was purchased at 154 Tyler Street. By the late 1940’s the parish had grown to over 550 families. Subsequently, in 1953, the community built, and moved to, a new church on James Street — which consequently changed its name to St George Street (as is the name of the street today). The new complex included a church school, social hall and living quarters for the pastor.
By the mid-1970s, the demographic center of the Syrian community had shifted relocating to the outlying area. The parish purchased the Arnold estate in West Roxbury in 1976 and constructed a new church. The only remnant of this church in the South End is the street name where the church once stood.
Both the Tyler Street and James Street (St. George Street) churches were demolished during the “urban renewal” program in Boston. Yet, the name of the street, as seen today, reflects how this part of Boston was shaped by the community that settled it.
One last example comes from The Saint John of Damascus church, which was consecrated in 1914 and was located on Hudson Street. In 1950, they moved to the Fenway area and then finally in 1979 to Dedham, where they are still today. These churches have evolved and moved just as much as the community has. They remain today as a reminder of a once thriving community in the South End and shows us how the Syrian community adapted and moved as their situation in the South End changed.
“During the Easter celebrations, the traditions, customs and ethnic heritage of our community took center stage. A favorite activity was the Easter parade, with the traditional Sword and Shield fighting exhibitions.”
“We are so proud of our heritage and our culture, just as our ancestors were. Their legacy has become our legacy — to nurture, encourage, and perpetuate for our children and generations to come.”
In the same way, census data reveals that the community, while they did not build the buildings, did purchase property and rented their buildings to many Syrians and other immigrants. Census data shows that many of the residents in this neighborhood were not only Syrian but also Irish, Canadian, and Italian. There was a typical trend where a person from Syria owned the building and most of his/her tenants were also Syrian. For example the Kadey family lived and owned 263 Shawmut Avenue and rented to Syrians and a few Irish people in 1920. Moses K. Shibley also owned and lived in his building and rented to all Syrians with the exception of a few of Irish people that roomed with Syrian families. Most people worked in shoe factories, in clothing factories, and in lodging houses and a vast majority were barbers. Most Syrian families lived either with very large families or with a lot of roommates.
While walking down the streets of the South End today, it is hard to find evidence of the once thriving community of Syrians. However, they did leave some things behind. In the South End we can still find the Sahara Restaurant and a Syrian Grocery store. These are the only visible markers to passers-by. The building of the Sahara Restaurant was once a baptist church at the end of the 19th century, then an Arabic publisher, and it underwent many other changes over the years until a Syrian family adapted it to be a restaurant. The restaurant has not been open in some time, but the sign remains.
The Syrian Grocery store opened in 1940 and once sold all the staple foods of a Syrian diet that immigrants may have had trouble finding elsewhere. Items such as apricot paste, to Moroccan argan oil, and hummus among other things were sold there. Today it has adapted as well and sells a wider variety of foods from other locations around the globe to accommodate for the new demographic living in the area.
Similarly, a reminder of this community can be seen on this door, which was once owned by Moses Shibley and housed many Syrian families through the years — it is possible that the door was put there during this time. This is one of the last tenements left on Tyler Street, in which many families lived out their lives.
Today we can see how this community has moved out of the South End but has continued to be a thriving religious community elsewhere. Although we cannot always see evidence of communities from the exterior of buildings, if we dig a little deeper, we can often find seemingly uninteresting buildings and unfold their often diverse histories.
More emphasis should be put on celebrating the rich history of Boston’s first thriving Arab American community. If preservation seeks to be radical or if it seeks to serve as a platform for social justice, we might think about this community as providing the grounds for reflection and discussion on the presence of Arab Americans throughout society and history — especially telling this story in today’s political climate can be useful as it shows contemporary resonance, and can spark some dialogue on contemporary issues.
Having a common history helps build community among immigrant Americans while serving as a source of pride for all Americans of Arab heritage. Like this one, community history presents places the Arab American experience in context with the greater American or Bostonian narrative. This can be a narrative of striving immigrants, building new lives and contributing to a relatively new country while cherishing and preserving their cultural heritage.
These are some important excerpts from a collection of oral histories about the area:
“ The aspect of the South Cove, where Syrian immigrants to the United States are living, is marked by the character of the Syrian people. There are apron and kimono factories, shops for laces, linens, and other art wares, and for the making of jewelry by hand, small stands where Turkish and apricot paste are made under the eye of the Syrian proprietor, Syrian restaurants, and green grocer shops. The Syrian settlement is composed of a group of individuals whose life is very closely concerned with the four Syrian churches of the neighborhood. “ W.E Shakir, 1926; From the Coffeehouse Wayn Ma Kan Collection, BPL
“Community Life: Another element which fortified our ethnic heritage was the fact that we lived in colonies which afforded us the opportunity to enjoy not only language experiences but also the social and cultural practices of our people (such as Haflis, the music and dances at the Sahras and the rawayat — or drama — which depicted social customs, amateurish and educational and entertaining).” Gladys Shibley Sadd, 1982 ; From the Coffeehouse Wayn Ma Kan Collection, BPL
Sources
Charlotte Karem Albrecht, ‘An Archive of Difference: Syrian Women, the Peddling Economy and US Social Welfare, 1880–1935’ Gender & History, Vol.28 №1 April 2016, pp. 127–149.
Church of St. John of Damascus “History of our Parish” Accessed April 16, 2017. http://www.stjohnd.org/about/history/index.htm
Global Boston “Syrians, Lebanese and Other Arab Americans” A Portal to the Region’s Immigrant Past and Present.
Kayal, Philip M., Kayal, Joseph M., “The Syrian-Lebanese in America A Study of Religion and Assimilation” The Immigrant heritage of America series, Twayne Publishers, 1975.
Johnson, Marilynn S. The New Bostonians: How Immigrants Have Transformed the Metro Area since the 1960s. Amherst; Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2015.
Our Lady of the Cedars of Lebanon Church “Parish History” Accessed April 10, 2017. http://ourladyofthecedars.org/mass-information/parish-history/
Personal Communication: Teress Abouzeid, April 15, 2017.
St. George Orthodox Church of Boston MA “History of St. George Church” Accessed April 10, 2017. http://www.stgeorgeofboston.org/about/history
“The Coffeehouse Wayn Ma Kan Collection Memories of the Syrian-Lebanese Community of Boston” Compiled by Evelyn Abdalah Menconi, Boston Public Library.
