Boundaries of the Neighborhood

For the purposes of this study we have defined the Old North End as the neighborhood bounded by the railroad tracks on the east and south, Baxter Street on the west, and Grand Avenue on the north. Historically, the railroad tracks have functioned as very firm and identifiable boundaries of this neighborhood for a hundred years. The western and northern boundaries are more tenuous. The specific research we engaged in only included residents of the streets within these parameters. Yet the conclusions that we came to very probably could be extended much further to encompass residents beyond Baxter to the west and residents of areas well north of Grand to Robb Avenue. We have little reason to expect that our findings in terms of the race, ethnicity, class and occupation of these neighborhood residents would be much different if we had pushed the focus of our research across Grand Avenue.