"If This House Could Talk", is a community based history and public art project, first created and produced by residents of the Cambridgeport section of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Projects of a similar nature and with the same name take place annually in neighborhoods of Sacramento, California, Newburyport, Massachusetts, and other communities in the United States.
This form of collaborative group activity may offer a way to initiate neighborhood conversation during both the creation and public display of the informational signs.
In community settings the signs posted for outdoor view present a range of information from the architectural history of a specific building or part of the neighborhood, to personal experiences and stories of the current or historic residents of a particular house.
[5] This type of free and accessible presentation of information in public places encourages walking and exploration of a neighborhood in order to discover and learn from the signs and artworks.
The historical information collected by activities such as "If This House Could Talk" do not necessarily have independent review or assessment and as such present history that may not be verifiable at a later date.
[7] Critical review of the "If This House Could Talk" project in Cambridge, Massachusetts by MIT student researchers suggests that in many cases what is presented on the temporary signs are general architectural facts, rather than a sharing of personal stories that may have more power to encourage conversation and bring neighbors together.