Two Small Stories of Restoration

From Dave Brigham:

I miss the tiring walks I used to take while on subway trips into Boston with my son. Truly, I do. We haven't ridden the train since early March, and I have no idea when we'll get back out there. Anyway, today's post is the fruit of an approximately three-mile trek that started at South Boston's Broadway station, meandered over Amtrak and Red Line subway tracks into the South End, and then briefly along Albany Street, over to Washington Street into the northern fringe of Roxbury, and ended at Symphony Station on the Green Line. I will post other photos from this journey separately.

There are so many areas of Boston I've never explored, mostly ones that aren't close to subway stations. I would've loved to push beyond the Grant A.M.E. Church on Washington Street and into Dudley Square, but I didn't have time. I suppose once Owen is in college and isn't interested in doing these trips with me, I'll drive to places and explore more.

There was music pumping out of the church as I walked by. It sounded fantastic. Formed in 1919, the congregation worshiped in several sites before this one, including other locations in Roxbury, and one in the South End. Grant A.M.E. moved into this church in 1952. Built in 1892, this property is known historically as Church of the Ascension, per MACRIS.

The church suffered a fire in 1966. By 1972, the church had been restored and upgraded, per the congregation's history.

Two doors down, and directly across from Ramsay Park, which features the Jim Rice Baseball Field, is the former Sriberg Furniture building.

Built in 1916, this four-story building is being renovated (including the addition of two floors) for apartments, including 13% (4 units) of them affordable, per this Boston Planning & Development Agency document.

The furniture store opened in the early 1900s, built this place in 1946 and closed in 1985, per Acadia Publishing's Boston's Orange Line, which I found at Google Books. In the '90s, antique architectural elements retailer Restoration Resources operated there.

I'm always happy to stumble across a restoration project rather than a demolition project.