Dennis Paul Smith

Dennis Paul Smith–My family lived in Chelsea since about 1886. I was 15 years old when the fire happened. We were in our house on 20 Walnut Street. They were developing down there back in the day, they were taking over, buying all the people out, and all of a sudden we got a big fire and all these houses burned down, so they don’t have to pay nothing now. We had the black church down there that burned down. We still ain’t got a church out here. Everybody had to move out of the area. It was a tight-knit community before. The Revallions, the Smiths, the Martins, the Cromwells, all the families were always a tight-knit family. We was always close together and then all of a sudden, it went south because of the fire, and who set the fire, and who was supposed to build houses back here for the people but they didn’t. We had a hard time finding a place to live in the beginning. The city of Chelsea, they did everybody dirty over there. The city was corrupt, and we got treated like dirt. Like dirt. And they just overruled us. City Hall did what they want to do, man.

Darlene Devita, Dennis Paul Smith, 2024. Digital Photograph. ©Darlene Devita. All rights reserved.