But in order to create these improved facilities, the “blighted” neighborhood—as the City characterized it—had to be torn down, O’Connor writes.

But Allston residents maintain that the homes were well-kept and unjustly demolished.

“Literally there were old ladies sitting on their chairs in the front porch trying to fight it,” Allston resident Leonard W. Kelliher says. “They forced the elderly people off the porch and bulldozed it in front of them. Nobody was happy with the way this was all done.”

O’Connor’s book confirms Kelliher’s description of residents’ forcible removal.

“The final act in this human tragedy came in October 1969, when BRA officials and more than 50 Boston policemen arrived on the scene to forcibly evict the last three families who still remained in their homes and refused to leave” O’Connor writes.

McCall remembers helping her sister move her belongings before her house was taken by the BRA.

“That was sad,” McCall pauses. “That was sad. It was just terrible.”

But the City didn’t build a “$4.5 million, three-hundred-unit, ten-story luxury apartment complex,” in Barry’s Corner, as they had promised, according to O’Connor’s book. Instead, it built an “ugly gray monster,” Kelliher says, referring to the Charlesview Apartment Complex located near Harvard Business School.

“The event is scarred into the memories of people in this neighborhood ... This is what the city can do to you,” Task Force member Brent Whelan ’73 says.

HARVARD ENTERS BARRY’S CORNER

In the 1970s, Harvard began surreptitiously buying 250 acres of land in Allston under subsidiary companies of a different name.

After holding land adjacent to Charlesview for decades, the University in 2007 made a land swap agreement with the apartment complex’s board of directors, so that Harvard could consolidate its Allston land holdings by taking ownership of the Charlesview site. By agreeing to move its complex, the Charlesview board could provide residents with much sought after housing and amenities.

In 2008, the BRA presented Allston residents with a plan to transform Barry’s Corner into a community hub, which would house restaurants, cafes, and a park. At the time, the University’s 50-year master plan included academic and institutional buildings flanking two sides of Barry’s Corner.

But in Dec. 2009, financial constraints caused by the economic crisis caused the University to halt construction on the Allston Science Complex, deferring hopes of a vibrant Barry’s Corner along with it.

As a result, some residents say they are hesitant to believe that Harvard will follow through with the new plans for Barry’s Corner.