Greg Davidian co-owns the Union Gulf service and repair station with his brother. It was opened by his father in 1947.

By Mariya Manzhos

While shopping at Market Basket, Charan Devereaux’s attention was continually drawn to the name tags worn by each worker that also indicate how many years they have worked at the store. This curiosity about the people behind the uniform gradually led Devereaux on a quest to document Union Square as a community of workers and business owners.

Over a year and a half Devereaux, who has lived in Somerville and Cambridge for 20 years, documented personal narratives and took portraits of over 70 people who work in Union Square. Her project came together in an exhibition Union Square at Work, which opened at the Somerville Museum on Sunday, October 4.

“Sometimes we get a sense that interesting stories are far away,” says Devereaux, who has written about international trade policy in the past. “This project was outside my door,” says Devereaux, and with a young son, she wanted to work close to home.

Sometimes she’d meet business owners on her walks around the neighborhood early in the morning, or she’d ask if she could photograph them while she was shopping. “The more I photographed people in Union Square, the more I discovered how many different types of businesses and people with various backgrounds and experiences are here,” says Devereaux.

Anntonnette Thompson has worked at Bigelow Cooperative preschool for over 20 years. Thompson is known around the school for her innovative classroom creations using recycled materials.

Her collection of portraits celebrates the diversity of industries and people operating next door to each other in Somerville’s densely populated neighborhood; an Argentine tango dancer, a puppet maker, a chef-turned-bicycle repairman, a homeless shelter director, the CEO of a clean technology incubator, an automotive shop owner, a parkour teacher, and numerous restaurant owners, artists and musicians, among others.

Anntonnette Thompson, a teacher at Bigelow Cooperative of 24 years, has been a Union Square resident for 12 years. “As long as I’ve lived in Union Square I didn’t know that we had this many businesses. I guess they are hidden inside of these buildings,” says Thompson. Featured in one of the portraits, she is wearing bright pink lipstick and a pearl necklace over a black sleeveless dress, Thompson is gazing into the camera smiling subtly. “Now that I’ve seen this show, I know what is here.”

With music from 20 local bands playing in the background, historical images of Union Square and old businesses, and aerial drone footage of Union Square from Above Summit production studio – the exhibition takes its visitors on a walk through time.

Some businesses featured in portraits have been around for nearly 100 years and have been operated by several generations of the same family.

Hub Glass Services is now run by the grandchildren of Malcom Carver, who founded the company in 1927. In the photograph Beth, Sharon, Richard stand next to their mother in their glass shop. When Malcom’s son George passed away in the 60’s, his wife Frances stepped in as head of the company. A young widow with three children at home, she quickly learned how to read construction plans and took a seat at the glass industry table with other men.

Frances Budd with children Beth, Richard and Sharon, Hub Glass Services, 216 McGrath Highway.

Malcom’s granddaughter, Beth Carver, was standing near the photograph of her family at the exhibition opening. She worked at the business for 34 years, but severe allergies forced her to retire. “We all did a little bit of everything. If the phone needed to be answered or a customer needed to be helped, we did it,” says Carver. Now with computers, doing billing and paperwork is easier and faster, she said.

Devereaux was particularly touched by family stories like Hub Glass’s. “So many stories of these family-owned businesses come back to the basic themes of life – the desire to work for yourself and to build something, trying to leave something for your children, for the next generation. There are a lot of powerful stories right here in Union Square.”

Today more young creatives are joining maker places in Union Square, bringing innovative business and technology to the creative community. Maddie Copp and her husband Justin joined p.irateship, a makerspace in the old American Tube Works building on Somerville Ave, just over a year ago. In their Copp Creature Shop, Maddie makes puppets and Justin constructs animatronic creatures with a 3-Doodler, a 3-D printing pen.

Jim Hagen, a visitor from Newport, thought that Union Square at Work is a good opportunity to place a bookmark in history. “We can pause and look at what this place is like, because it’s going to change soon,” Hagen said.

Despite upcoming redevelopment plans for Union Square, Devereaux says the show is not a response to the changes coming to Somerville. “I was just interested in ideas about work, the meaning of work and local business,” she said.

While Devereaux is not a photographer by vocation, she has come back to photography over the years. She has photographed Boston-area writers, academics, and musicians for their album art, books, and promotional materials. While working on Union Square at Work, she took classes at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the New England School of Photography. Through masterful composition and use of light the photos capture something more than just workers in their spaces. We get a glimpse of complex personalities with rich experiences from all facets of life.

Sheila Borges’s father Manuel Borges first moved to Somerville to cook at PA’s Lounge on Somerville Avenue. Eventually he bought the building at 25 Bow Street where his family still lives and works today. The Neighborhood Restaurant & Bakery started with Sheila’s brother baking Portuguese sweetbread using their grandmother’s recipe.

Eli Epstein runs Union Press, a letterpress print shop at 440 Somerville Avenue. His company specializes in prints made from hand-set wood and metal type, as well as hand-cut wood and linoleum blocks.

Harpreet Singh first moved to Boston in 1991 and wanted to start his own barbeque fusion restaurant, combining Indian and American barbeque traditions. He also founded Singh’s Cafe in Wellesley. Now, Singh has plans to expand Barbeque International into the space next door.