To HBI, a preserved building has the potential to be the launch pad for a new business where there was once an abandoned or underutilized historic building. Or it might become a place where a family can build a home. When a historic building is...
We feature a guest post here from Earl Taylor, President of the Dorchester Historical Society and the owner/creator of content for the Dorchester Athenaeum website (www.dorchesteratheneum.org). He shares with us research he has been compiling on Boston’s many extant mile markers from the 18th and...
In honor of preservation month, HBI is kicking off a monthly blog series that highlights the impact of historic preservation projects on the neighbors, businesses, and residents of the communities where we work. From Roxbury to Mattapan to Highland Park, we hope to discover how...
The City of Boston has begun discussing disposition of the long vacant Owen Nawn Factory (2080 Washington Street) at the entrance to Roxbury’s Dudley Square for private development, and while the community’s hope for a neighborhood orientation center continues, a look at what the Nawn...
HBI's Shaurya Batra returned from vacation in Rome, a trip which got him thinking about historic preservation in ancient cities. With the ever-present threat of degradation of the ancient structures, upkeep and the preservation of architecture is a constant (and costly) necessity. But when it...
On April 4th HBI met with neighbors and residents of the Highland Park neighborhood to discuss planning for the rehabilitation and re-development of the former St. James African Orthodox Church. A group of about 30 people gathered at the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry’s Putnam Chapel...
Jenny Nathans is a public health professional, a burgeoning preservationist and a resident of Jamaica Plain. She recently published a version of this research on the historic house at 197 Green Street in Jamaica Plain for the Jamaica Plain Historical Society. In it she tells...
Spring has sprung, and there is change in the air at HBI. As new projects like the church at 50 Cedar Street take shape, and we near completion of the Upham’s Corner Comfort Station, HBI welcomes new faces to its Board of Directors and Council...
In recognition of Women’s History Month, we spent some time reviewing primary source documents and secondary readings to learn more about literary icon, Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved West African child turned educated woman and author. Whether you have read her published poems or walked by...
Spring has arrived and with it has comes the unveiling of the Upham’s Corner Comfort Station (almost). The building that was once a convenience station (read: public restroom) is finally starting to shed its decrepit outer shell. Hidden for months under plywood, staging, and snow,...