Historic Boston Incorporated 1999 Preservation Revolving Fund
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| Boston Sanatorium | Mattapan |
| • Large hospital complex
for tuberculosis patients built on 51-acre campus along Neponset River • Boston Redevelopment Authority has received two proposals for redevelopment in response to a recent RFQ • RFQ calls for financing asbestos removal and demolition of several monumental buildings like the Hospital Ward at right. |
|
| Name: Boston Sanatorium | Bldg SqFt: Various (includes 13 buildings on 27 acres) | Lot SqFt: 2,232,600 | |
| Address: 245 River Street | Ward: 18 | Parcel: 113 | |
| Neighborhood: Mattapan | Zoning: Community Facilities Subdistrict (CF) | ||
| Year Built: 1907-1917 | Use: Rehab center/ some buildings vacant | ||
| Style: Georgian Revival | Condition: Good to poor | ||
| Architect(s): Maginnis & Walsh | Owner: City of Boston, Boston Public Health Commission | ||
| Historic Certification: National Register eligible historic district | |||
| FY99 Building Assessment: $13,347,500 FY02 Building Assessment: $11,186,200 |
FY99 Tax: N/A FY02 Tax: N/A |
||
| FY99 Land Assessment: $6,765,000 FY02 Land Assessment: $8,462,100 |
Tax Status: Exempt | ||
Preservation Strategy:
Perhaps a special act of the legislature is required to address the exorbitant cost of asbestos removal and repairing decades of systematic vandalism, neglect, and natural deterioration. Yet the testimony of successful re-use of institutional buildings at the Dimock Community Health Center (Roxbury) and former Adams Nervine Asylum (Jamaica Plain) suggest that there are alternatives to the loss of this great resource.
Significance:
The City of Boston established the Boston Sanatorium, first known as Consumptives Hospital, for the care of indigent persons suffering from advanced tuberculosis, one of six hospitals created in the first decade of the 20th century to provide additional services for the city’s poor. The 51-acre campus along the Neponset River enabled the city to isolate highly contagious tubercular patients from the general population at the same time that it could provide them with clean air and a spacious outdoor setting away from the crowded city. The Boston firm of Magginis and Walsh laid out the campus and designed the original hospital buildings between 1907-1920. The architects located the sprawling E-shaped Hospital Ward complex behind the stately Main Administration Building on a rocky hill, where patients could best take advantage of healthful breezes coming off the nearby bay. Built of concrete, an unusual material for such a formal structure of the period, the Hospital Ward displays considerable architectural merit. In 1929, the hospital’s mission broadened to include treatment of impoverished persons with all manners of health needs.
Preservation Challenges:
Of the 19 buildings on this 51-acre site, six are in use and 13 are vacant. The Boston Redevelopment Authority and Boston Public Health Commission received two responses to their January 1999 Request for Qualifications for Developers of the 27 acre site with 13 vacant buildings, of which 6 are presumably to be demolished, 5 to be evaluated, and 2 to be retained. The mission of the eventual developer is to create an affordable assisted living care facility. The developer's challenge is to finance removal of asbestos contamination at no cost to the City of Boston. State tax credits against future tax liabilities offers some possible relief for the cost of environmental remediation. Requirements of the Fair Employment Commission could add from 10 to 50 percent to the cost of remediation, rehabilitation, and new construction.
The monumental E-shaped Hospital Ward is reminiscent of the large scale, long neglected, but still distinguished architecture of Ellis Island. Without a groundswell of alternative intervention, its demolition or continuing decay seem certain.
Neighborhood Context:
The Boston Sanatorium is a large, relatively intact campus that contains a number of well-designed historic buildings. It is located in a residential section of Mattapan near the Neponset River.
Other Sources of Information:
Boston Landmarks Commission area form; Request for Qualifications for Affordable Assisted Living Care Facility prepared by Boston Redevelopment Authority and Boston Public Health Commission, January 1999.
Entry Completed: 06/21/1999
In 1999 the Boston Redevelopment Authority and Boston Public Health Commission selected Trinity Financial, Inc. to redevelop 27 acres of this site. Phase I, which involves rehabilitating the Foley Building into 98 units of senior housing and the E-building to house Entra Familia's young mother's substance abuse program, is underway. Phase I is expected to cost $19 million and be completed by February 2003. Trinity Financial plans to submit a Project Notification Form for Phase II in the next few months. Phase II will involve rehabilitating buildings at the rear of the campus, including the monumental Hospital Ward, into approximately 124 senior residential units. The project is using a variety of federal, state, and local funding, including the federal historic preservation and low-income housing tax credits.Update Entry Completed: 08/14/2002
