Kids & Family

Janet Gilardi: Landlord, Community Activist

The life-long resident of the North End overcame heartache and adversity through love and commitment.

North End Patch’s feature, "Meet Your Neighbors," is just that -- discovering more about fellow residents or people who work in the neighborhood and make this community a nice place to live.

Who?

Janet Gilardi of Fulton Street

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What?

Landlord, civic activist

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Her story:

Janet Gilardi was born in the North End and sees absolutely no reason to live anywhere else.

Her grandparents moved here from Italy, raised their families and stayed in the neighborhood their entire lives.

She thoroughly understands why they remained where they found a piece of home that reminded them of their roots.

“I’m a city girl,” Janet said. “I’ve never had that dream of having a white picket fence and a lawn.”

In fact, she much prefers the concrete outside her home and the sense of being very close to her neighbors.

“I love the North End,” Janet said. “Even with all the changes and expansion I’ve seen here so far in my life, it’s still such a close-knit community.”

When you live in this part of the city as long as long as she has, Janet said you remember the days when you knew everyone you saw from three generations down. 

An idyllic life

Janet’s late husband, Anthony, grew up in the North End as well – just a few blocks down North Street from where she lived with her parents and siblings. When they married in 1965, the couple moved a little further down the same street into a little apartment on top of the Fleet Street Fruit Market.

“It was beautiful – just like a doll’s house,” Janet said. “That was one of the first newly refurbished apartments in the North End and people would ask to come up – just to see the renovations.”

Janet and her husband were tremendously happy in their home and welcomed their two children – daughter, Toni Marie, and son, Anthony, with joy.

“There are Italian families who don’t believe in naming their children after someone who is still living but I wasn’t positive I would have a son so I made sure my husband had a namesake when my daughter was born,” Janet said.

With a boy and a girl, Janet knew she would eventually need a place with enough bedrooms so her children could have their own. The North End apartments weren’t very large in those days and she said she remembers how sad she was so see many of her friends move away from the area so they could accommodate growing families.

Around that time, the Boston Redevelopment Authority evicted factory owners on what is now Fulton Street to create affordable and more ample housing units for residents of the North End.

Anthony, who worked as an electrician, filled out an application for one of the buildings so he could renovate it, move his family there andrent the rest of the spaces. He received approval in 1972. 

Finding strength from grief

Right around then, however, Anthony became seriously sick. Janet nursed him throughout the illness until his death a short time later.

She had no idea what to do with the building.

“But I had to take over,” Janet said. “There I was, caring for two babies and I was thrown into the construction business and then became a landlord.”

It took a few years but Janet dropped her children off for their daytime activities, put on her sneakers, went over to the building and ran up and down the stairs – pretending to know what she was talking about when confronted with architects and contractors.

“I took my grief from losing the most wonderful husband I could have asked for and put it into the will to build,” Janet said. “I took all his know-how and worked to create the establishment for my family.”

In 1974, Janet and her children moved into their new apartment on Fulton Street.

“And I’ve been there ever since,” she said with a huge smile.

Loving the North End means involvement

Janet then had to teach herself how to be a landlord.

“I had no background but knew the kind of people who should be living in my building,” she said. “I did it on instinct because I was used to living in a building with people I know so I wanted the same feeling.”

And, for the most part, it has worked out very well.

Janet has had good tenants over the years and believes her daughter went into the field as the current owner of Elite Landmark Realty from watching how her mother worked on an unprofessional basis finding people places to live just by word of mouth.

In addition to keeping her building in tip-top shape, Janet advocates for the neighborhood through her membership on the North End/Waterfront Residents Association and work on its subcommittees for clean streets and public safety.

“I’ve always been involved in the North End’s civic life and I believe in speaking my piece,” she said.

Years ago, Janet was a founding member of the North End Community Health Center and worked closely with her sister, Elaine Wilson, who spearheaded the effort to establish the formerly named North End Nursing Home (now the Spalding North End Rehabilitation center).

“I’ve been active here in the North End ever since I can remember either through the schools or teaching ceramics at the nursing home where my mother lived for six years,” Janet said. “It’s a way of life for me to help others and to care for my community.

“You can’t erase the warmth of living in the North End and you never grow out of it.”

About this column: "Meet Your Neighbors" is a feature profile of a resident or person working in the North End. If you know of anyone who readers should learn about, get in touch by emailing Susan.danseyar@patch.com


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