Library Street in Chelsea, Massachusetts has two very different sides of the road. One side has old multi-family homes which have weathered a lot of changes in this former industrial neighborhood. The other has a brand new housing development called The Box District. In 1901, Irish immigrants Daniel and Kate O’Connor, (my great grandparents) lived here at 84 Matthew Street (now 84 Library Street). They rented an apartment and had the first of their ten children here. They moved on after a year, and the house they lived in likely burned down in the great fire of 1908. Next came the Spring Air Mattress Factory, and then recently, this development. The area was described as crime-ridden not long ago. Now things are looking up. Mixed income housing is being built all over the area and the remaining factories are being converted to lofts. The tagline for the new Box District? “It’s Hip to be Square”.
Visiting the Relatives 