• Marble façade and seven Queen Anne towers adorn this once fashionable address
• 45 residential units vacant for thirty years
• Within two blocks of three planned multi-million dollar preservation projects
Historic Boston Incorporated 1999 Preservation Revolving Fund Casebook : Property
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| Hotel Dartmouth | Roxbury |
| • One of Dudley
Square’s best-known landmarks • Marble façade and seven Queen Anne towers adorn this once fashionable address • 45 residential units vacant for thirty years • Within two blocks of three planned multi-million dollar preservation projects |
|
| Name: Hotel Dartmouth | Bldg SqFt: 38,125 | Lot SqFt: 12,044 | |
| Address: 49-61 Warren Street | Ward: 9 | Parcel: 3147 | |
| Neighborhood: Roxbury | Zoning: Dudley Square Economic Development Area | ||
| Year Built: 1871 | Use: First floor retail, upper floors vacant | ||
| Style: Second Empire | Condition: Poor | ||
| Architect(s): John Roulestone Hall | Owner: Dartmouth Hotel LP 56 Warren Street, Suite 200 Roxbury, MA 02119 |
||
| Historic Certification: Dudley Station National Register Historic District | |||
| FY99 Building Assessment: $241,300 FY02 Building Assessment: $796,800 |
FY99 Tax: $6,813 FY02 Tax: $15,253 |
||
| FY99 Land Assessment: $102,500 FY02 Land Assessment: $143,200 |
Tax Status: Current | ||
Preservation Strategy:
HBI initiatives could include a cooperative arrangement with the owner to produce a feasibility study for rehabilitation, emphasizing the retention of the building's presence on the streetscape and in Dudley Square.
Significance:
The Hotel Dartmouth, along with Palladio Hall across Warren Street, has stood as the grand southern gateway to Dudley Square since the 1870s. Within a few years after its annexation to Boston in 1867, this area of Roxbury had transformed from a rural transportation crossroads to a booming commercial center. The Dartmouth, with its massive marble facades and lively architectural detailing, provided a fashionable residential hotel for wealthy Roxbury businessmen who wished to live near the trolley line to downtown Boston. The completion of nearby Dudley Station in 1899 as the terminus of the Boston Elevated Railway further increased the convenience and popularity of the Dartmouth. After the extension of the El to Forest Hills in 1909, however, Dudley Square’s more prosperous families began to move farther out into the western suburbs and the hotel became a boarding house. By 1930 the Dartmouth had converted completely into a commercial block known as the Dudley Transportation Building.
Preservation Challenges:
The upper floors of the Dartmouth have been vacant and boarded up for over twenty years. The owners have received offers on the building ranging from $1.6 to $2.1 million in recent years, but ultimately none of the deals has come to fruition. Most proposals call for rehabilitation of the forty-five residential units on the three upper floors as low- to moderate-income housing, with continued use of the commercial spaces on Warren and Dudley Streets. A pro forma reportedly has shown that projected commercial and residential rents cannot sustain the purchase price and high rehabilitation costs without substantial public or private subsidy. Owned by a father and his two adult sons. The family seems more interested in selling the property than in redeveloping it. They acquired it at a HUD auction in the early 1970s.
Neighborhood Context:
Removal of the elevated Orange line from Washington Street in the late 1980s did not bring about the expected revitalization of Dudley Square. Recent plans have emerged for the rehabilitation of three major historic buildings around Dudley Square - Ferdinand's Department Store for use as state offices, the former Boys and Girls Club of Roxbury as city offices, and Palladio Hall as private office space.
Other Sources of Information:
Dudley Station National Register Historic District nomination form; HBI Preservation Revolving Fund Casebooks, 1981, 1985
Entry Completed: 05/25/1999
In July 2001 Historic Boston completed a feasibility study on rehabilitating the Hotel Dartmouth into 24 one and two-bedroom apartments with ground floor retail space. Shortly before the report was completed, Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation, a local non-profit community development corporation, acquired the property, and it is about to begin its own redevelopment project. Project plans by Icon Architects, Inc. involve renovating the 45 existing, vacant studio units in the Hotel, creating 21 new residential units in a new contextually appropriate, four-story annex, and renovating 12,000 square feet of ground floor retail space. The project will go to bid soon with construction scheduled to begin in January 2003. The project will utilize a variety of federal, state, and local funding, including the federal historic preservation and low-income housing tax credits. Estimated Cost: $17 million.Update Entry Completed: 08/13/2002