Historic Boston Inc. Celebrates Progress At Alvah Kittredge House

Historic Boston Inc. Celebrates Progress At Alvah Kittredge House

Stately 19th Century Roxbury Highlands Mansion Will Become Rental Apartments

Event: Thursday, May 8, 2014

WHAT
Celebration of progress in construction and financing for renovation and restoration of the Alvah Kittredge House, in Roxbury Highlands, a transformation to affordable and market-rate apartments. Includes a tour of the new apartments adaptively reusing the 19th Century Greek Revival mansion that had fallen into ruin. And photo op with some of those who made it possible.

WHEN
4 p.m. on Thursday, May 8, 2014.

WHERE
The Alvah Kittredge House, 10 Linwood St., Roxbury, MA 02119.

WHO
Eastern Bank President Robert Rivers; Historic Boston Inc. Executive Director Kathy Kottaridis; Historic Boston Board Members Matthew Kiefer, Paul McDonough and Henry Moss; Geoff Caraboolad of Metric Construction; the Historic Boston team, and friends.

BACKGROUND
A photo op and tour will honor Eastern Charitable Foundation?s $20,000 grant to Historic Boston Inc.?s Trilogy Fund, which helped fund Kittredge and two other historic projects, and financing of the permanent debt on the $3.8 million project.

The Alvah Kittredge House was abandoned for more than 20 years, which led to structural and surface issues. Kittredge House was taken by eminent domain by the Boston Redevelopment Authority because of its deteriorating condition.

It will include two units of affordable housing as rental units for first five years and then for ownership thereafter, among five units that are being constructed. Funding of $200,000 from the BRA helped close the funding and is tied to the two affordable units.

Once a grand estate symbolic of Roxbury and Boston?s growth following the America Revolution, the Greek Revival style Kittredge House, at 10 Linwood St., was built by furniture maker Alvah Kittredge in 1836. It is a rare surviving example of this period and architecture in Boston.

The building was targeted by Historic Boston Inc. for restoration and reuse for much-needed housing in the neighborhood after it fell into disuse.

The structure, one of the few remaining high-style Greek Revival style houses of its kind left in the city, required extensive structural repairs as well as detailed restoration of its finish work.

Kittredge House was built on the site of a fort used in the Revolutionary War. At the beginning of the 20th century it was moved to another part of the two-acre property, where it now faces a different direction, across from Alvah Kittredge Park.

The neighborhood filled in, and its grandeur is now sandwiched in between homes of a later era. In the 1970s it was home of the Roxbury Action Program, a social services group.

Metric Construction, the general contractor, under the leadership of CEO Geoff Caraboolad, has generously donated funding and services to reach a cost-effective construction project at the Kittredge House. Metric?s $2.1 million in construction includes a $70,000 cash contribution from the company owner and investor.

ABOUT HISTORIC BOSTON INC.
Historic Boston Incorporated is a nonprofit preservation and real estate organization that rehabilitates historic and culturally significant properties in Boston?s neighborhoods so they are a useable part of the city?s present and future. HBI works with local partners to identify and invest in historic buildings and cultural resources whose re-use will catalyze neighborhood renewal. HBI acquires and redevelops historic structures and provides technical expertise, planning services and financing for rehabilitation projects. HBI projects demonstrate that preserving historic properties is economically viable and that they can be useable and functioning assets in a community. For more information, please see www.historicboston.org.

For more information, please contact:
Kathy Kottaridis, Executive Director of Historic Boston, Inc., 617.442.1859, kathy@historicboston.org
Or
Tom Palmer, Tom Palmer Communication, 617.755.7250, tompalmer@rcn.com

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