ST JOHN STREET
Portland, Maine
FALL 2011
Located in front of a wooded area next to the train tracks, 442 St. John Street houses everyone from young transients, to bands passing through for the night, to friends visiting from Boothbay Harbor. The individuals paying rent may change, but they are all connected in some way or another. All it takes is “knowing someone who knows someone;” 442 St. John Street is a place expected to have open doors.
The twenty-first century “hippies” who signed the lease more than a year ago moved on, replaced by a group of “crusty-punk” DIYers. This new community’s drawings, LPs, and found objects have replaced the photographs and knick-knacks that formerly hung on the walls and floated about the house for months.
Cities all over the United States have their own 442 St. John Street, full of young women and men sharing similar ideologies. These groups of people tell us something about the need for community, the desire for human connection and self-expression; 442 St. John Street provides a place for its inhabitants to evolve into their next selves.
