June 22, 2018 HBI Receives Two Major Grants for the Upham’s Corner Comfort Station
Historic Boston is very pleased to announce the receipt of two major contributions this week that allow us to proceed with the rehabilitation of the 1912 Upham’s Corner Comfort Station on Columbia Road in Dorchester. Barbara and Amos Hostetter confirmed a very generous contribution of $200,000 to the project this week, and the Boston City Council approved a $365,000 grant of Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding for the Comfort Station in the program’s pilot round of allocations. The Comfort Station was one of 35 projects that received CPA grants; these funds are earmarked for affordable housing, open space, and historic preservation.
“HBI is grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Hostetter for their commitment to preservation and to the health of Boston’s neighborhoods,” said HBI’s Board President Kathy MacNeil. “Their generosity, and that of Boston’s Community Preservation Program, are helping to turn around a very distressed building for new uses and making the future brighter for Upham’s Corner.”
HBI is working with architect Utile, Inc. on completion of the construction plans, and with the project’s general contractor MJ Mawn on final cost estimating. We anticipate submitting for a building permit next week and expect construction to begin in early August, with completion planned for early 2019.
In the meantime, Noah de Amor, operator of the non-profit Sip & Spoke Bike Kitchen that will locate into the restored Comfort Station, is raising start-up funding for the shop through the Commonwealth’s crowdsourcing program Patronicity. You can give by visiting here.