The stories shared in this digital tour don’t tell the whole history nor the only or truest history of Smith Hill. But they are factually and emotionally true and frame a useable history: they help us to recognize the neighborhood as a community of place and meaning. And they remind us to experience it as a place of invitation, relationship and possibility.
Two big themes emerge from the stories: first, Smith Hill has been and remains a neighborhood defined by immigration. And the stories reveal an existential dilemma of our time: what happens as people far away make decisions that directly impact the lives of people in neighborhoods like Smith Hill, with no awareness or care that they are doing so.
Smith Hill can teach us a lot about urban history, but its bigger lessons have to do with the valuing and devaluing of community, the light and shadows of human experience, creative adaptation and the common good. As you reflect on the stories and these themes I hope you will think about the value of community and what we mean by neighbor, by compassion, by justice