“A lot of us played there, but it all just evaporated…”

Leonard Margolis on Oak Street Redevelopment

Leonard Margolis was born on Hallock Street in 1926, and soon moved to Davenport Avenue. Growing up in the Oak Street neighborhood, Margolis remembers a tight-knit community of first- and second-generation immigrants, streets lined with bakeries, shops, and small grocery stores like the one his parents owned. The city demolished the neighborhood Margolis knew growing up to make way for the Route 34 Connector.

To find out more, visit The Life in the Model City Online Exhibit.

Interviewed by Alexandra Reeve on November 28, 2003.