From Dave Brigham:
This post, like many I have in the works, slipped through the cracks. Many of the photos below were taken quite some time ago, back when my son used to still accompany me on my walks through various Boston neighborhoods. For quite some time now, he and I split up after we take the subway into Boston for lunch. Anyway, let's dig into what I saw in Boston's Mission Hill neighborhood, so named for the massive basilica that dominates the skyline.
Dedicated in 1878 (the spires were added in 1910), Our Lady of Perpetual Help is more commonly known as the Mission Church. The house of worship replaced a wooden structure that had gone up just seven years prior. The church is the focal point of a significant campus that includes the Mission Grammar School (the original building was completed in 1889 and sold to a developer and is being leased to Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health; the grammar school is active in a different building on the campus); the Mission Church High School (opened in 1926, the school was in operation until 1992. The City of Boston bought the building in 1999 but I'm unsure whether any school is active in the building now); St. Alphonsus Hall, the "parish clubhouse"; and a convent, the latter two of which were sold off and have been vacant for years.
Below is the high school.
It's a beautiful building that for a time was home to the New Mission High School. That school is now located in Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood. I'm not sure what, if anything, is located in the old Mission Church school building.
The building in the above photo is the basilica's former convent. Built in 1888 to house the Sisters of Notre Dame, the building has been vacant since the Reagan Era. Seriously. A 2004 Boston Landmarks Commission report on the Mission Church complex states that at that time, the convent had been "vacant for twenty to thirty years." The convent and St. Alphonsus Hall (about which more below) were sold to Weston Associates, which in 2005 received approval from the City of Boston to redevelop the site for residential towers. All these years later, both buildings are empty. I haven't found anything more recent than this 2014 article about the site. Given the site's location near the Longwood medical area and numerous colleges, as well as public transportation, I find it unfathomable that it hasn't been developed yet, while so many similar sites around Boston have gone forward.
Below is a view of the back of the basilica through an alleyway separating the former grammar school, on the right, and St. Alphonsus Hall, on the left.
And here is St. Alphonsus Hall, which on my first trek through this area I totally missed, because I hadn't done any research ahead of time.
Quite something, isn't it? I've never seen a building like this in my travels through Boston's many neighborhoods. Perhaps there are others that look as majestic as this, or used to be before some idiot demolished them. Opened in 1900 as "a social gathering place," what the church called its "parish clubhouse" housed a library, meeting hall, gym, bowling alley and large theater, per the Our Lady of Perpetual Help history web page.
While there may have been other theaters like this at one time in the city, certainly none of them had as cool a sign as the one in the photo below.
It reads "Pilate's Daughter" in the middle. I couldn't imagine what that meant when I shot this photo. Here's my answer, again from the church's history web page: "The Passion Play 'Pilates Daughter written by Rev. Francis Kenzel, C.Ss.R. was performed for the first time in St. Alphonsus Hall in 1902. With an all female cast, the fictitious drama centers around the daughter of Pilate, Claudia, who threw a rose at Christ as he passed by carrying his cross. The flower touches Jesus and has miraculous powers that impact the lives of many. As a central attraction during Lent, parishioners acted out the play every year for over 50 years until performances ended in the late 1960’s."
So cool!
As regular readers know, I rarely trespass on sites like this, and certainly I don't sneak under fences, break locks and risk arrest to get photos. Other people, however, do (thankfully). To see fantastic photos of the inside of St. Alphonsus Hall, check out this Opacity page.
OK, that's it for the religious part of my journey. To read the Boston Landmarks Commission's full 2004 report, click here.
Now on to a random collection of things and places....
I was just so taken by this building. This is 684 Parker Street, near the intersection with Tremont Street. This building, which is unlike anything I've seen in my admittedly limited travels around Boston (I'm trying to get everywhere) is made entirely of puddingstone, per Wikipedia. There was once a puddingstone quarry in the area, and this building was likely built for working class folks.
Puddingstone, as you can imagine, was used throughout this area. A new project at 1470 Tremont Street is restoring two old masonry row houses and combining them with new construction rising above the historic exterior puddingstone walls, as you can see below.
Naturally, I would love for these old buildings to just stay the way they are, but I'm happy that the developer is incorporating these pieces of the neighborhood's historic fabric in the project.
Next door to 684 Parker Street, which I mentioned above, is Fuentes Market. The store has an amazing mural on the back, painted by the Mayor's Mural Crew, which does great work across the city.
Around the corner from Fuentes Market stands a collection of historic buildings that I knew, from a Google Maps search before our trip, that I wanted to check out.
Dating to 1876, the Vienna Brewery complex was in business until 1918, when Prohibition was ratified, per this comprehensive City of Boston document. There were at least two dozen breweries in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury in the early 1900's, according to this Jamaica Plain Historical Society report. The Vienna operation was replaced by a waste-paper processing plant into the 1980s. Nearby Wentworth Institute of Technology acquired the property in 1984 and used it as storage and office space. Some of the buildings have been torn down; I'm not sure what will become of the remaining structures.
Keep your eyes peeled for a feature on other former breweries, and check out the archives for previous posts about same (see December 9, 2017, "Artist Thinks: I HAF to Fix That Smokestack" and January 26, 2018, "Jamaica Plain Has Plenty of Flair").
Back out to Tremont Street, one of the main drags through Mission Hill.
This place is called Sunny Laundromat, which I didn't know when I took a picture of it with the sun blazing down.
Next I want to present to you what I rarely get to show on this blog: gentrification before and after.
I was interested in the Roxbury Knights of Columbus hall for two reasons: the sign and the mural. I didn't think much about the building, and how run-down it was and that it was probably vacant or would be soon. So I guess I wasn't altogether surprised when, upon my return, several weeks later, the K of C was gone.
"So," you may be asking, "what's going in here?"
I'm glad you asked. Known as Mission Hill Flats, a five-story mixed-use building will include some affordable units, a restaurant and -- ta da!! -- a new home for the Knights of Columbus. That's pretty cool.
I realize, looking at some of the photos I've included here, that in more recent months I've spent more time editing and cropping than I did when I shot these. For that I apologize. The next building, home to AK's Takeout & Delivery, deserves a better photo, but I don't have one.
Part of the reason I used to take photos like this was because I had my son with me, and I did things more on-the-fly than I do now that he does his own thing on our trips into Boston.
Anyway....I hope you appreciate the next photo.
I think I did a pretty good job capturing the dichotomy of old vs. new in Mission Hill. In the foreground is Chacho's Pizza & Subs, which also features Argentinian food, according to Yelp reviews. I don't know how long Chacho's has been in business, but judging by the sign, I'm guessing at least a quarter-century. I could be waaaaay off. In the background of the photo is Milkweed, which is by no means highfalutin, but the eatery does offer something I've never heard of -- Shakshuka. Of course, the restaurant also has Lucky Charm Pancakes, so I guess that's cool.
CAUTION: ANOTHER BAD PHOTO COMING UP!
Can I blame the sun, in addition to my son? No, that would be wrong. This cool building is home to Sociedad Latina, which I think is still a going concern. The organization offers education services, workforce development, arts and culture programs and more.
Ugh, another lame picture. This is the former David J. O'Connor Funeral Home. I'm not sure what's to become of this place.
And we wrap our tour up with a half-decent photo of a nice sign.
Open since 1984, Tremont House of Pizza makes and sells pizza and other foods, all of which I've heard of.
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