The Boston Little Syria Project is a public history initiative aimed at drawing attention to the history of Boston’s Little Syria neighborhood (also known as Syriantown), which thrived between the 1880s and 1950s in today’s Chinatown and South End. In addition to offering public walking tours from time to time, we have written about the neighborhood, curated several exhibitions around Boston, and developed a digital map with support from the Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library.
The project is run by historians Lydia Harrington (PhD, Boston University) and Chloe Bordewich (PhD, Harvard University). It has benefited from the contributions of several collaborators, volunteers, and student researchers, including Amy Smith, Sophie Cutter, Mary Haddad, Yasmin Daikh, and Sofia Farah. Grants from the Lebanese and Syrian Ladies’ Aid Society, the University of Massachusetts Boston, and the Leventhal Map and Education Center have made this work possible.
Through partnerships with the Boston Public Library’s Statewide Digitization Team and University of Massachusetts Boston’s Special Collections, we are creating a digital archive accessible via Digital Commonwealth, Massachusetts’ online platform for archives and museum collections. Two collections are currently online: the Nicholas and Evelyn Haddad Family Collection and the Lebanese and Syrian Community Digitization Day (April 2025).
Upcoming tours and events are posted on this website when new dates are scheduled. Please check back regularly for more information.