The small green signs on telephone polls scattered around Orange are easy to overlook.

But on closer inspection, you'll see the shape of an ear, the word "[Murmur]," a phone number and a code.

Call in, and you'll hear stories, all kinds of stories.

Reminiscences, history and, of course, ghost stories.

Punch in the code at the Murmur sign in front of Bella Italia restaurant at Central Avenue and South Jefferson Street, and Cory Davis will tell you how, thanks to his super-spiffy red and white tuxedo, he was named the best-dressed student when his eight-grade class held its social at the venerable Italian landmark.

At South Essex Avenue and Capuchin Way, Paul Madigno, owner of John's Market, talks about the store's long history in the neighborhood, and regular customers that included boxer Tony "Two Ton" Galento, who once knocked down the great Joe Louis (before losing the fight).

If you're on Scotland Road crossing Route 280, Tony Monica will tell you how, as a kid, he witnessed the construction of the superhighway that ruptured the city, and "took quite a chunk of Orange away."

The ball field on Lincoln Avenue between Central and Jackson, you'll learn, was the home of the Orange Triangles of the Negro League and where Orange native son Monte Irvin, now in the baseball Hall of Fame, was the "only person to hit a baseball over the center field fence."

One of the first schools in Orange is at 17 North Essex Ave., near Main Street, but the Murmur story Cynthia Bianchi tells is about the old house next door once occupied by her family — and a sweet old lady in a nightgown who floated serenely between rooms and through walls.

The Murmur audio documentary project collecting first-person stories about specific locations began in Toronto in 2003 and has spread all over the world to cities including San Jose, Edinburgh, Dublin and Sao Paulo.

A coalition of Orange nonprofit organizations including Valley Arts, O.R.N.G.Ink and the University of Orange received a grant last year to fund the local Murmur project and hired local high school students to research, record and edit the stories.

"At first the money is what appealed to me the most, but after hearing some truly strong historical and personal stories about places in Orange, I became interested in my town's history and the people that come to live there over the years," said Khemani Gibson, who graduated from Orange High in June and was involved in Valley Arts' after school graphics art program.

"It was a good feeling knowing that you helped bring the stories to life for others to hear," Gibson said. "I had the sense that I was helping to keep a little oral history and culture of the city from dying."

Karen Wells, Orange's self-appointed town historian, was instrumental in finding the story-tellers for the audio documentary, which is also accessible at Murmur.

"I knew who some of the people we used were, and I talked to everybody in town to help find the rest," said Wells, a 58-year-old computer consultant who has lived in Orange since 1987.

The Murmur installations were completed last September and more sites are being planned, said Molly Rose Kaufman, a community organizer for the Orange nonprofit Hands Inc., who is coordinating the project.

"There's something enchanting about it," Kaufman said. "People have a new respect for the city."