Designing commercial signage for the Comfort Kitchen café and restaurant at the historic Upham’s Corner Comfort Station has been challenging. While HBI encourages tenant signage that attracts customers, we also want to honor the character of the historic building. And in the case of the...
The war in Ukraine has called attention to the small but important concentration of Ukrainians-Americans in Boston. Their nearly 140-year arc of immigration has given the city several distinctive places and buildings emblematic of the Ukrainian experience. The stone chapel, mausoleums and gravestones of Ohabei Shalom...
Visitors to downtown Boston later this summer will discover scaffolding and construction workers at the corner of School and Washington Streets as Historic Boston begins a series of necessary repairs to the four historic buildings that comprise the Old Corner Bookstore complex. The majority of work...
At its annual meeting on April 27th, the directors of Historic Boston Inc. (HBI) re-elected three members of its Board of Directors to new terms and said farewell to two long time board members who will now join HBI’s Council of Advisors. Brian Awe, Karilyn Crockett,...
If you’ve been hankering for a bagel in downtown Boston, the good news is that long time purveyor Brueggers Bagels is open again at the historic Old Corner Bookstore after a two-year hiatus due to Covid-19 closures. In March 2020, like most retail enterprises in the...
When Historic Boston and Roslindale Village Main Street found a partner, Peregrine Group of Rhode Island, to help them turn the stately but long neglected Roslindale MBTA former electrical substation into something cool, there were dreams of a chef-driven restaurant or arts space. That was 2013....
The layout of the future Comfort Kitchen at the Upham’s Corner Comfort Station is now beginning to take shape, with most of the framing in the main floor dining room and kitchen now in place. At this stage of construction, it can be difficult to...
Tony Lopes is HBI's new Director of Real Estate Development. A native of Dorchester and Roxbury, Tony will be leading HBI's real estate finance and development projects. Tom Palmer shares with us some of the highlights of a conversation he recently had with Tony,...
More than $6 million in Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding will soon be awarded by the City of Boston to 24 historic preservation projects. Mayor Michelle Wu and the City’s Community Preservation Committee recently recommended 52 projects valued at $27 million for 2022 to the Boston...
Those who work in historic preservation frequently make the case that rehabilitating an existing building is more environmentally responsible than building new. While some people argue that new construction is more energy efficient, preservationists can reasonably counter that double or triple-paned windows and improved insulation...