Historic Boston Incorporated 1999 Preservation Revolving Fund Casebook : Property
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| Gloucester Memorial Presbyterian Church Complex | Mission Hill |
| • Only intact,
small-scale church complex in Mission Hill • Church building in serious disrepair and may be lost without immediate stabilization • ABCD seeks to breathe new life into the church building and house a Head Start program there with other services provided in the adjacent hall • Acquisition currently held up by neighbor's lawsuit against the City for granting change of use variance |
|
| Name: Gloucester Memorial Presbyterian Church, Memorial Hall, and Manse | Bldg SqFt: Church: 10,000 Memorial Hall: 5,440 Manse: 3,000 |
Lot SqFt: Church, Hall, Manse: 15,000 Parking lot: 10,000 |
|
| Address: 714-716 Parker Street and 1 Gore Street | Ward: 10 | Parcel: 474, 475, 476 | |
| Neighborhood: Mission Hill | Zoning: Multifamily Residential Subdistrict | ||
| Year Built: 1857 (Hall); 1891 (Church) | Use: Church, Manse: Vacant Memorial Hall: 1st floor leased to ABCD for senior center; 2nd floor used for church services |
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| Style: Italianate; Late Gothic Revival | Condition: Church: Poor; Memorial Hall: Fair; Manse: Demolished | ||
| Architect(s): Jacob Luippold (church) | Owner: Action for Boston Community 178 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02111 |
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| Historic Certification: National Register eligible | |||
| FY99 Assessment (building +
land): Church: $350,000 Memorial Hall: $133,400 Manse (land only): $7,700 FY02 Assessment
(building + land): |
FY99 Tax: N/A FY02 Tax: N/A |
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| Tax Status: Exempt | |||
Preservation Strategy:
HBI initiatives could include a) a loan to secure the church building and prevent further deterioration, b) a feasibility study to assess the significance and rehabilitation of the manse, and/or c) assistance in obtaining National Register listing to make the property eligible for MPPF grants.
Significance:
The Victorian brick tower of the church is a prominent focal point holding the corner of its site. The building's first occupant, the German Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church, was organized as an offshoot of the First Lutheran Church in Boston in 1871. This congregation originally worshipped in a frame chapel at 716 Parker Street, now the parish hall. In 1885 the congregation purchased land adjacent to the chapel and in 1891 began construction on the church. Membership included important German Americans such as G.F Burkhardt and R.F. Haffenreffer, both brewers. In the early nineteenth century the church was known as the Lettish Lutheran Church, and in 1940 the church became known as Trinity Lutheran Church. During the 1940s the church lost much of its German membership. In the late 1950s the Gloucester Memorial Presbyterian Church purchased the property from the Lutherans, who moved to Roslindale to worship. This Presbyterian church began in the South End in 1920. Before the purchase, the Presbyterian congregation worshipped in the Masonic Hall at 1095 Tremont Street. The membership named the church in honor of John Gloucester, a former slave and the first African-American Presbyterian minister in the United States, who founded the first African-American Presbyterian Church in the United States.
Preservation Challenges:
Since students in the B.U. Preservation Studies Program prepared the 1993 feasibility study, windows have been broken, pigeons took over, and both the church and its manse have been closed. After the feasibility study, the congregation owning the property has never responded to HBI's 5 invitations to apply for Steeples Project grants. Action for Boston Community Development has entered into a Purchase and Sale agreement to purchase the property for fair market value in order to install day care and elderly adult activities at the site. Its total project cost is around $1.5 million. However, a neighbor has sued the City of Boston to block converting the church into a day care center. Consequently, further development is on hold. ABCD wishes to demolish or move the manse because of the re-hab costs and its conflict with parking and traffic flow plans.
Neighborhood Context:
The area in which this church stands has some of the city's most historic buildings. A few blocks away are the twin steeples of Mission Church and the Houghton/Vienna Brewery complex. The area is in transition. The Roxbury Crossing stop on the Orange line is only a few blocks away, as is a bus line that travels to the Arborway Green line.
Other Sources of Information:
Feasibility Study: Gloucester Memorial Presbyterian Church. Prepared by Cassandra Walker and Kevin Hodge (BU Preservation Studies Program) in conjunction with HBI. December 1993.
Entry Completed: 05/07/1999
In May 1999 Historic Boston offered the congregation a $75,000 secured loan to mothball the church until it could be rehabilitated. The congregation declined in order to establish a scholarship fund by selling the complex to Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD) one year later. ABCD demolished the structurally damaged manse to increase parking and is in the midst of redeveloping the church into a Head Start daycare center. Architectural plans involve inserting a second floor into the sanctuary while providing a narrow atrium space to preserve some semblance of the church's original space.Update Entry Completed: 08/14/2002
