• No plan for its preservation despite a major redevelopment project around City Square
• Notorious for its unsightly rooftop billboards
• Threatened by continuing collapse of its east elevation since March 1999
Historic Boston Incorporated 1999 Preservation Revolving Fund Casebook : Property
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| Hoosac Store #3 | Charlestown |
| • One of the last
vestiges of Charlestown’s once-vibrant commercial waterfront • No plan for its preservation despite a major redevelopment project around City Square • Notorious for its unsightly rooftop billboards • Threatened by continuing collapse of its east elevation since March 1999 |
|
| Name: Hoosac Store #3 | Bldg SqFt: 12,632 | Lot SqFt: 4,852 | |
| Address: 25 Water Street (Constitution Road) | Ward: 2 | Parcel: 3592002 | |
| Neighborhood: Charlestown | Zoning: Neighborhood Shopping Subdistrict (NS) | ||
| Year Built: 1875 | Use: N/A | ||
| Style: Paneled Brick | Condition: Demolished | ||
| Architect(s): Unknown | Owner: Gateway Developers LLC 725 Canton Street Norwood, MA 02062 |
||
| Historic Certification: Hoosac Stores National Register Historic District | |||
| FY99 Building Assessment: $256,000 FY02 Building Assessment: $81,800 |
FY99 Tax: $11,889 FY02 Tax: $21,386 |
||
| FY99 Land Assessment: $65,000 FY02 Land Assessment: $623,300 |
Tax Status: Current | ||
Preservation Strategy:
HBI should maintain correspondence with the MTA to monitor status of developer selection for CANA parcels. Once MTA chooses developer, HBI should meet with them to discuss how Hoosac fits into their plans and serve as liaison between developer and owner. Could also work with the owner to develop a rehabilitation plan and structural assessment of the building to better inform its preservation. Given the falling brick, HBI should seek to determine the structural stability of the building as soon as possible.
Significance:
Hoosac Store #3 is significant for its association with the intensive industrial and commercial activity that characterized the Charlestown waterfront in the late nineteenth century. Built in 1875 as a warehouse to store iron and steel boilers manufactured at an adjacent iron works (no longer extant), the Fitchburg Railroad leased the building beginning in 1891 and bought it outright in 1897. The railroad company used the warehouse as a wool storage facility and renamed it after the Hoosac Tunnel in western Massachusetts, which the company had acquired in the 1880s. The Fitchburg Railroad also acquired docks and a grain elevator along the waterfront and built the Hoosac Store #1 and #2 (a single large brick warehouse, extant, now owned by the National Park Service) in 1895 on land adjacent to the Navy Yard. The Fitchburg Railroad and its successor, the Boston and Maine Railroad, continued to use the warehouse until 1966.
Preservation Challenges:
The brick façade of the building is in immediate need of stabilization after a thirty foot length of cornice on the east elevation collapsed in March 1999, dropping bricks onto cars parked below and causing the city’s Inspectional Services Department to order emergency repair or demolition of the building. In the long run, the Central Artery North Area (CANA) project of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA) will likely determine the future of the Hoosac Store #3. MTA owns the vacant land surrounding the building (CANA parcel #2), as well as the vacant parcel across Warren Street (CANA parcel #1) and is currently evaluating proposals for transfer and redevelopment of these parcels. The Boston Redevelopment Authority, with strong input from Charlestown residents, has zoned CANA Parcel #2 for neighborhood shopping uses and CANA parcel #1 for multi-family residential uses. Conroy Development Corporation purchased the building in April 1999. Its February 1999 proposal for CANA Parcel #2 would retain the Hoosac Store.
Neighborhood Context:
Hoosac Store #3 stands vacant and isolated on the Charlestown waterfront, but the two enormous billboards on its roof have long provided an income stream for its owners. Its deteriorated condition and the billboards present an unsightly landmark from City Square, the Charlestown Bridge, Boston Harbor, and along the approach to the Navy Yard.
Other Sources of Information:
National Register nomination form
MA Turnpike Authority RFP for CANA parcels in Charlestown, 12/98.
Entry Completed: 06/03/1999
On July 10, 2000, Inspectional Services Department ordered the building be demolished due to unsafe and dangerous conditions. Although the building had been deteriorating for years, the process accelerated after the highways encircling the property were removed as part of the Big Dig. These highways had protected the building from strong winds, the force of which was now placed on the large billboard atop the building. This imposed tremendous stresses on an already deteriorated structure. Following the building's demolition in August, Gateway Developers LLC purchased the property from Conroy Development Corporation for $3.3 million. It is now part of Gateway's $50 million mixed-use redevelopment on CANA Parcels #2 and #4.Update Entry Completed: 08/09/2002
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