The JPNDC has requested a permit to tear down a multifamily on Centre Street that is one of the last prominent tenement buildings from the pre- Interstate 95-demolished neighborhood. The house at 266-270 Centre Street is a handsome mid-block wood frame structure with a mansard roof and decorative bracketing at its cornice.
> View the Google Map (opens in a new window)
The Boston Landmarks Commission will review the demolition request at its next hearing on Tuesday, June 26.
Meeting: Boston Landmarks Commission, Demolition Delay Hearing for 266-270 Centre Street (Application #07.1004D1227)
Date: Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Time: 6:05 PM (meeting starts at 5:30 PM)
Place: Boston City Hall, 9th Floor, Room 900
Demolition delay is a review process that allows the Boston Landmarks Commission to put a demolition permit on hold temporarily to encourage a property owner to consider alternatives before destroying or altering a historic property.
The developer intends to replace the building with a much larger multifamily that will stretch across the entire block from Lamartine Street to Wise Street with retail on the first floor and a parking lot behind.
The new building is a sad example of postmodern design that uses “playful” architect whimsy in an attempt to dress up cheap materials instead of sticking to the contextual architectural vocabulary of nearby buildings or the building it is replacing.
The end product is a building that does the job of filling in a gap on Centre Street but does it by destroying original historic fabric that can’t be replaced.
The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council’s Zoning Committee is holding a meeting next Thursday to discuss the latest on the Blessed Sacrament redevelopment project.
According to a flyer found on Wyman Street, the meeting will focus on the zoning variances requested by the developer. It specifically notes Boston Zoning Commission dockets 28106 (30 Sunnyside Street, the Cheverus School), 28183, 28184, and 28185 (353-365 Centre Street).
Meeting: JPNC Zoning Committee
Date: Thursday, April 5, 2007
Time: 7:00 PM (plans on display starting at 6 PM)
Place: Curtis Hall, 20 South Street, Jamaica Plain
Plans on display
The flyer also notes that plans for the Blessed Sacrament redevelopment project will be on display prior to the meeting at the following places and times:
Tuesday & Wednesday, April 3 & 4, 2007
Time: 6 AM to 10 PM
Place: JPNDC’s Brewery Small Business Complex, 284 Amory Street, Jamaica Plain
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Time: 6 AM to 5 PM
Place: JPNDC’s Brewery Small Business Complex, 284 Amory Street, Jamaica Plain
See also:
Blessed Sacrament Project Notification Form
The little yellow farmhouse at 33 Bynner Street is on the agenda of the next Boston Landmarks Commission meeting to review a permit for partial demolition. This house is the oldest house in Hyde Square, dating to 1813. The house has been on the market for sale since February of this year.
The developer of the property is asking to demolish a 2-story, 14′ x 19′ section of the house (on the left when facing the house from Bynner Street). Another, later section of the house has already been demolished.
Meeting: Boston Landmarks Commission, Demolition Delay Hearing for 33 Bynner Street
Date: Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Time: 7:15 PM (meeting starts at 5:30 PM)
Place: Boston City Hall, 9th Floor, Room 900
Demolition delay is a review process that allows the Boston Landmarks Commission to put a demolition permit on hold temporarily to encourage a property owner to consider alternatives before destroying or altering a historic property.
Resources:
Historic house faces partial tear-down (115 K), Jamaica Plain Gazette, October 20, 2006, page 3.
Boston Landmarks Commission Agenda for 10/24/2006 (86 K)
33 Bynner Street for sale
The Boston Landmarks Commission (BLC) and the Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) have determined that the Round Hill - Sunnyside neighborhood is eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.
This is an important milestone in the process toward actual listing on the National Register.
The next step will be a neighborhood meeting with representatives from the BLC and MHC to help explain the National Register, the nomination process, and the effort required. This meeting will take place later this fall.
Resources:
National Register
Round Hill - Sunnyside district
Historic district proposed (296 K), Jamaica Plain Gazette, August 11, 2006, page 13.
Below are links to PDF files containing all of the pages of the Blessed Sacrament Campus Redevelopment Project Notification Form (PNF). This is the document that was submitted by the JPNDC to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) on July 6, 2006. It includes a lot of detail that is required by the BRA Article 80 Large Project Review process.
These files have been processed with Adobe Acrobat to make the text searchable, so you can locate particular sections more easily when viewing the documents on a computer.
The complete Project Notification Form:
00 PNF Contents, 4 pages, 263 K
01 PNF Part 1, Pages 1-39, 21.8 MB
02 PNF Part 2, Pages 40-87, 10.6 MB
03 PNF Part 3, Pages 88-93, 264 K
04 PNF Index to Appendices, 1 page, 20 K
05 PNF Appendix A, Plans and Elevations, 42.5 MB
06 PNF Appendix B, Transportation study, 61 pages, 7.0 MB
07 PNF Appendix B, Transportation counts, 136 pages, 16.1 MB
08 PNF Appendix C, Environmental report, 1.7 MB
09 PNF Appendix D, Outreach timeline, 1 page, 560 K
Comments on this project are due to the BRA by the end of the day on Friday, September 9, 2006. Comments can be relayed via fax, email, or postal mail to:
Lance Campbell
Boston Redevelopment Authority
One City Hall Square, 9th Floor
Boston, MA 02201
Fax: 617-742-7783
Email: Lance.Campbell.BRA@cityofboston.gov
Resources:
Lawyers enter church debate (315 K), Jamaica Plain Gazette, October 20, 2006, page 1.
Developers change their plans for housing on church site by Dave Demerjian, Boston Globe, August 26, 2006.
Crowd reviews new Blessed Sacrament plan (220 K), Jamaica Plain Gazette, August 11, 2006, page 1.
The JPNDC submitted its project notification form (PNF) to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) for the Blessed Sacrament redevelopment project. According to a BRA flyer, the proposal was submitted on July 6. The PNF submission kicks of the Article 80 review process.
The first public meeting for the project review will take place on Wednesday, July 26 at 6:30 PM in the Cheverus School (see the PDF flyer below for more details).
The PNF includes a number of changes in response to the Boston Landmark Commission’s guidance:
- the Rectory is relocated to face Creighton Street and is reused as 6 housing units;
- a new building between the Rectory and the Convent has 10 housing units with underground parking;
- the large building at the corner of Centre and Creighton has a revised exterior and larger tower at the corner.
Hard copies of the PNF are available at the following locations:
- Connolly Library, 433 Centre Street;
- JP Library, 12 Sedgewick Street;
- Egleston Square Library, 2044 Columbus Avenue;
- BRA Document Room, 9th Floor, City Hall.
Resources:
BRA Meeting Flyer (80 K) for the July 26, 6:30 PM meeting at the Cheverus School, 30 Sunnyside Street (enter from the side near the church).
New church plan saves the rectory (264 K), Jamaica Plain Gazette, July 21, 2006, page 1.
At the Boston Landmarks Commision (BLC) advisory review hearing Tuesday night, the Commission re-affirmed the historic importance of the Rectory as part of the Blessed Sacrament Landmark District.
All of the Commissioners agreed that the Rectory building should be preserved and incorporated into the Blessed Sacrament campus redevelopment proposal.
The Commissioners asked the development team to look at keeping the building in place with an addition (Rectory Alternative #4) or move the building to another location on the campus (Rectory Alternative #3). The Commissioners appeared to prefer keeping the building in its current location.
Rectory Alternative #3
Move the building to another location
Rectory Alternative #4
Add on to the building in its current location
The Commission also clarified a number of points that came up during the developer’s presentation and the public comment:
- The Rectory is more significant because it is the only wood-frame building on the site;
- The fact that details (such as the shutters and balustrade) are missing from the Rectory does not diminish its historic significance;
- The Federal/Colonial Revival style of the Rectory gives it more significance, since it is different from the other buildings on the campus; and
- The Rectory’s exterior should be returned to its historic appearance as part of the redevelopment proposal.
The purpose of the BLC advisory review is to give the developer an opportunity for feedback and direction on their proposal without requiring the BLC to vote for or against a project.
Resources:
BLC says, “Save historic rectory” (251 K), Jamaica Plain Gazette, March 31, 2006
Landmarks Commission advocates preservation plans for church rectory (247 K), Jamaica Plain Bulletin, March 30, 2006
09 Rectory Alternative #3 (3.6 MB), from the developer’s submittal
10 Rectory Alternative #4 (2.6 MB), from the developer’s submittal
The Boston Landmarks Commission (BLC) will provide feedback tonight to the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC)/New Atlantic development team at a meeting at City Hall.
Date: Tuesday, March 28
Time: 5:30 PM (meeting start); 6:05 PM (JPNDC presentation)
Place: Boston City Hall, Room 900
According to the documents submitted to the BLC, development alternatives that retain the Rectory would cost between 2.7% to 5.5% more than the original proposal. That does not sound infeasible. On a project of this size, it sounds like pocket change.
Meanwhile, neighbors are concerned that the BLC will be weighing in on the economics of a project that has not even started review by the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Isn’t this advisory review putting the cart before the horse?
The BLC needs to make its recommendations based on the historic merits of the building, the site, the historic context, and the pending Boston Landmark petition.
Find out what the BLC says at tonight’s meeting.
Members of the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association (SNA) have proposed an alternative to the JPNDC’s redevelopment plan (click the image to open a larger version in another window):
The neighbors’ plan, developed by residents Marc Guertin and Paul Lanoix with the participation of other members of the SNA’s design committee, focuses on creating a human-scale streetscape with new buildings that blend with the existing architecture.
This plan focuses on the Centre Street streetscape and was developed with the following goals in mind:
- Design new buildings to complement the style and scale
of the existing campus buildings.
- Maintain the “campus feel” of the site.
- Preserve views of the church.
- Create new retail/commercial opportunities.
- Create vibrant street life on Centre Street.
The Centre Street drawing (above) shows two new buildings. The building to the left of the church (below) is a mixed-use 3-and-a-half story building set back in line with the Rectory and the Church. This would house ground-floor retail with housing above. The setback preserves views to the church and extends the pedestrian plaza from the church all the way to the Rectory.
The second new building is to the right of the church and is designed to screen the parking lot behind while still providing parking access through a central arch. According to the plan, this building could house a restaurant or ice cream shop, additional office space, or housing.
A front-page article in the May 16, 2006 Jamaica Plain Bulletin covers the meeting where this alternative was presented to the SNA.
Resources:
SNA effort offers new plan for church site (210K), Jamaica Plain Bulletin, March 16, 2006
Guertin-Lanoix plan (900K), as presented at the March 8 SNA meeting
Three buildings have been lost to fire and the wrecking ball in the documented history of the Blessed Sacrament site. These photos are from A graphic, historical, and pictorial account of the Catholic Church of New England, Archdiocese of Boston. Prepared under the editorship of James S. Sullivan assisted by a corps of prominent Catholic writers (Boston: Illustrated Publishing Company, 1895).
The Withington-Wentworth house
Built c. 1750, demolished to build the Church.
This building was a private country house that predated the church’s ownership of the site. It became the Sister’s Residence/convent when the church bought the campus in 1890.
Blessed Sacrament Chapel
Built c. 1892, destroyed in a fire in the 1970s. It was also known as St. Gerald’s Hall.
Columbia Hall
Built c. 1898, demolished to build the Church. This building was at the street edge next to the present Sonja’s Bridal building.
33 Bynner Street, the oldest house in the Hyde Square area, is up for sale. This important house is listed by Jamaica Hill Realty. (The Multiple Listing Service number for the house is 70317905.)
The description on Jamaica Hill’s web site is unusually colorful:
A truly rare find, this antique farmhouse c.1813 has wide pine floors, five fireplaces, and ancient doors and moldings. Some recent changes include thermo-windows, modern kitchen and bath, and CB panel, but little else. This is for the preservation/restoration history buff that’s not afraid of serious work. Wonky floors, unsquare corners, sagging edges, etc. emphasize the age of this remarkable house. Sold “AS-IS”.
While we wouldn’t characterize the doors and moldings as “ancient” (”original” would be more to the point), it certainly has a patina of age and would make a nice family home for someone who loves old houses and could afford the $419,000 asking price.
In 2005, the Hyde/Jackson Main Street district was the subject of a class project at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. These graduate students studied the area and made a number of recommendations for improving the business district. At the top of their list were ideas about improving the pedestrian environment and the neighborhood’s outdoor spaces.
Here are a couple of images from that study of a space they called “Church Plaza” which opens up the space in front of the Church to create a grand pedestrian space:
This shows (from left) the Rectory (far left, on the corner), new construction set back in line with the Church, the Church with an expanded plaza, new construction set back in line with the Church, and Sonia’s Bridal/Tacos El Charro.
This sketch shows one possible style of new construction, set back from the street in line with the Church, to create a large, active pedestrian plaza. It includes pedestrian-scale lighting, seating with checkers tables, kiosks for small vendors, and two new buildings between the Church and the Rectory.
This creates an accessible, neighborhood open space that preserves and respects the existing buildings and creates opportunities for small business in new store fronts and push-carts or kiosks.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the JPNDC included some of these ideas in their redevelopment plan?
Resources:
MIT OpenCourseWare, 11.439 Revitalizing Urban Main Streets, Spring 2005, Final Report Part II, pages 62-63 (PDF, 1.0 MB)
The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) is holding another meeting to present their latest proposal to redevelop the Blessed Sacrament Campus at a meeting tonight:
Date: Thursday, February 2
Time: 6:00 PM (food); 6:30 PM (meeting start)
Place: Cheverus School, 30 Sunnyside Street
This may be your last chance to chime in before the JPNDC files its proposal with the city.
The JPNDC’s flyer for this meeting says:
At the meeting we will present design elements of the proposed site plan, including community and green space, pedestrian walkways, parking areas, and plaza, as well as sketches of proposed new buildings.
Nick Elton, our architect, will be there to present, answer questions, and hear feedback and ideas. We will spend most of the meeting in small groups to discuss the various site elements and options.
Historic Hyde Square is asking neighborhood residents to attend the meeting and make it clear that there is opposition to demolition of the Rectory.
Affordable housing and preservation is not an either/or scenario.
All five significant buildings at Blessed Sacrament can be preserved and affordable housing can be created. There are a number of ways this could be accomplished: through restoration and reuse of existing buildings, as additions to existing buildings, or as new construction between the existing buildings and on the current parking lots.
Boston Landmarks Commission Executive Director Ellen Lipsey made an important point at their meeting on December 13:
“The Landmarks Commission has no jurisdiction over use, only over exterior appearances of buildings.”
What the buildings look like, how they are set back from the street, and how they provide opportunities to catch glimpses of the Church are extremely important to the “campus feel” of Blessed Sacrament. These attributes are part of the historic context of Blessed Sacrament, and they need to be respected in the redevelopment plan, regardless of the new uses of the buildings.
As one of the Commissioners said to the JPNDC at the December 13 meeting:
“We are asking that you step back and say ‘what could we have done?’”
There are lots of possibilities, but only one will be built. Let’s encourage the JPNDC to do the best development possible at Blessed Sacrament, one that retains all of the buildings that make the campus a complete record of the vibrant community it once was.
The 1984 Survey Report conducted for the Boston Landmarks Commission documented the historic resources in the Centre Street/Heath Street section of Jamaica Plain. This area was included in the Parker Hill/Mission Hill survey because the neighborhood was historically a part of Roxbury. (There is a separate survey for the rest of Jamaica Plain.)
The report is in two volumes: Part I is the process, overview, and historic district recommendations. Part II is a compilation of all of the inventory sheets, one for each documented building, organized alphabetically by street name.
The following are the relevant parts of survey that we’ve been able to digitize and reformat as PDF documents:
1984 Survey Report - Overview of Centre Street/Heath Street (548K)
1984 Survey Report - Blessed Sacrament Landmark District Recommendation & Inventory Sheets (2.1MB)
If you’d like to read the hard copy of the Parker Hill/Mission Hill report (which itself is a photocopy), it is available at the Parker Hill branch library on Tremont Street or at the Fine Arts Department in the McKim Building of the Boston Public Library at Copley Square.
The Jamaica Plain volumes (which cover the area south of Centre Street) are available at the Jamaica Plain branch library on South Street.
Historic Hyde Square is in favor of saving the Blessed Sacrament Rectory from demolition and finding a feasible adaptive reuse for the building.
An alternative site plan can work by preserving and reusing all five of the historic buildings and locating new construction on the current parking lots. This alternative can meet the goals of providing affordable housing, homeownership opportunities, park space, and new storefronts to enliven the business district. (more…)
The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street Center has a helpful web page about why we should revitalize our neighborhood commercial center and preserve historic buildings. They’ve also written a comprehensive Rebuilding Community best practice tool kit with resources for developing affordable housing through historic preservation. (more…)
Download the District Brochure
This PDF file requires Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 or later.
Round Hill-Sunnyside
District Brochure
200K
Hyde Square is named for Leonard Hyde, a 19th century merchant whose house still stands at 16 Bynner Street.
The Hyde family once owned the land that is now the site of the MSPCA Angell Animal Hospital at the corner of Centre Street, Perkins Street, and Day Street. Several Hyde family houses were located on that parcel over the years. The section of Bynner Street heading east from Day Street was once known as Hyde Street.
Leonard Hyde’s house was originally located at 88 Day Street and was moved to make way for the Halsey Homestead Sites subdivision.
Resources:
A Guide to Jamaica Plain at the Jamaica Plain Historical Society web site. Accessed on April 8, 2006.
