The Orange Line
The magazine of the photo-essay
Jan/Feb 2023 back issue
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film maker
by Jack Lueders-Booth
The Orange Line is a tenderly produced archive of a community that lived and
worked along the southern route of Boston Public Transportation’s Orange
Line: an antiquated, clattering, overhead railway that was constructed in 1901.
The pavement-vibrating din of this deteriorating railway, its unsightliness, its
increasing crime rate, and its inefficiency depressed property values in the
neighbourhoods that it served. An unintended consequence was affordable
housing for this largely low-income population.
In 1985, the southern section of the Orange Line was scheduled for demolition and
rerouting, which seeded fears of rising rents, possible displacement, and the loss of
public transportation to metropolitan Boston.
Change seemed imminent, and displacement probable.
“These photographs were made in the interest of preserving some record of the people who lived and worked along the
southern stretch of Boston’s Orange Line.” - Jack Lueders-Booth
