Mayor Walsh announces 40 projects to receive over $24 million total in Community Preservation funding

Following the recommendations made by Mayor Martin J. Walsh and the Community Preservation Committee in February, and the unanimous approval made by the City Council for the projects proposed, 40 projects will receive in total over $24 million in Community Preservation funding. Across 17 neighborhoods and citywide, these Community Preservation projects will create and improve public open space, preserve historic resources, and increase affordable housing.

“Projects that receive funding from the Community Preservation Act directly reflect our neighborhoods’ needs and priorities. With money going to projects specifically for open space, preserving historic sites, and creating affordable housing, the residents of the City of Boston will benefit directly,” said Mayor Walsh. “Thank you to everyone who submitted project proposals, and I look forward to seeing how the new CPA projects will help our city.” 

After Boston adopted the Community Preservation Act (CPA) in 2016, the City created a Community Preservation Fund to fund affordable housing, historic preservation, and open space and public recreation projects. The Community Preservation Fund is capitalized primarily by a one percent property tax-based surcharge on residential and business property tax bills that began in July 2017.

After recommendation by Mayor Walsh and the Community Preservation Committee and approval by the City Council, below are the projects to receive funding:

CITYWIDE

• $4,000,000 for the Acquisition Opportunity Program to prevent displacement by purchasing existing private market rental units and making them affordable, both protecting current tenants and safeguarding the City's affordable housing stock 

• $4,000,000 for the new ONE+Boston program - income-eligible, first-time Boston homebuyers buying in Boston will receive enhanced downpayment assistance and a permanent reduction in the interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. 

BACK BAY

• $95,000 to the Gibson House Museum to restore the ground floor structural system and its brick underpinning in order to maintain public safety and stability for the Victorian rowhouse

• $10,000 to the Charles River Esplanade to plant trees as part of their tree management and succession plan to restore the Arthur Shurcliff landscape and to increase Boston's tree canopy

BEACON HILL

• $340,000 to the Rogerson-Faneuil Apartments to restore the exterior masonry of the former school building that provides 48 affordable apartments for individuals and families

BRIGHTON

• $1,000,000 to contribute to the funding for 79 new affordable senior housing units, including 15 units set aside for formerly homeless households, through a redevelopment at the J.J. Carroll Apartments

• $539,000 for a new playground for the Winship Elementary School and surrounding neighborhood

CHARLESTOWN

• $400,000 to the John F. Kennedy Family Services Center to restore the slate roof and prevent water damage to the historic school building that provides child care, after school, and senior services

• $20,000 to the USS Constitution Museum to protect its collections by relocating the sprinkler system at risk of failing due to flooding and sea level rise

CHINATOWN

• $1,000,000 to the Parcel P-12C development on 290 Tremont Street that will provide 85 rental units, including 11 units set aside for formerly homeless individuals and families. The units will be part of a larger proposed mixed-use affordable housing project on a Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) owned parking lot 

• $500,000 to the Asian Community Development Corporation to purchase a vacant lot near the Chinatown Gate and Rose Kennedy Greenway for transformation into a neighborhood garden and gathering space

DORCHESTER

• $800,000 to Norwell Street Park to build a new park on four parcels of open space adjacent to the Talbot Avenue Station on the Fairmount Line

• $250,000 to the Franklin Field Seniors Garden to build a new community garden for residents of Franklin Field and surrounds

• $400,000 to restore the steeple of the Second Church in Dorchester, one of the oldest wooden churches left in Boston, built in 1806 and home to a Paul Revere bell 

• $730,000 to the Dr. William W. Henderson Inclusion School for a new, fully accessible playground and school yard on its lower campus

• $150,000 to the Magnolia Street Garden to develop a permanent community garden and neighborhood plaza after serving as an informal gardening space for several years

• $20,000 to First Parish Dorchester, built in 1897, to remove and restore the Palladian window and complete the window restoration on the only Colonial-Revival clapboard meetinghouse in Boston

EAST BOSTON

• $400,000 to purchase the Donald McKay House, a Greek Revival style house built in 1844 by Donald McKay, the country's premier clipper ship designer, to preserve as a community asset

FENWAY/KENMORE

• $35,000 for the Harry Ellis Dickson Park to install an irrigation system and enable community members to continue to plant and maintain this pocket park

HYDE PARK

• $1,500,000 to renovate the James J. Chittick Elementary School yard and build an accessible neighborhood park and playground for students and the surrounding community, installing green infrastructure

JAMAICA PLAIN

• $1,500,000 to the Pine Street Inn and the Community Builders to build 202 affordable rental units, including 90 for formerly homeless individuals at 3368 Washington Street

• $200,000 to the Haffenreffer Brewery complex to restore the roof and windows for a "Prosperity Center" providing small business services, job training, ESL classes, and other programs

• $200,000 to the Footlight Club, the country's oldest community theatre, to remediate structural problems and stabilize Eliot Hall, a Greek Revival wood-frame structure built in 1831

MATTAPAN

• $30,000 to the Morton St. Food Forest to plant fruit trees and build planting beds on a vacant lot on Morton Street

ROSLINDALE

• $5,000 to the historic Mount Hope Cemetery to plant trees and increase Boston's tree canopy in this historic burying ground on the border with Mattapan

ROXBURY

• $150,000 to the Egleston Peace Park to renovate this heavily used community space for arts, passive use, and neighborhood events

• $250,000 to Oasis @ Bartlett to create a new arts park for the community and for the residents of Bartlett Yard, a new affordable housing community near Nubian Square

• $40,000 to the Shirley-Eustis House to restore the wood shingle roof of the 1806 Carriage House to enhance its functionality as an accessible space for education, programs, and community use at the Georgian house museum

• $400,000 to the Nubian Gallery to restore the neo-Classical facade of the former Hamill Gallery on a surviving 19th-century commercial block in the Dudley Station Historic District

• $250,000 to the Dr. Marie E. Zakrzewska Building to continue restoration of the historic windows, so that the Dimock Center can create a residential recovery program in the space for men with substance use disorder

• $400,000 to the Eliot Congregational Church, built in 1873, to restore the facade and roof in preparation for reuse of the underutilized spaces as affordable housing and a commercial kitchen

• $1,500,000 to the Fountain Hill development, creating 26 affordable homeownership opportunities in the Tommy's Rock neighborhood

• $750,000 to 2147 Washington Street in Nubian Square to contribute to the fund to build eight new affordable homeownership units for first-time homebuyers

• $1,000,000 to the Madison Park Community Development Corporation to contribute to the fund to build 15 new affordable units for first-time homebuyers at 75-81 Dudley Street. The units are part of a 20-unit, 100 percent affordable project recently approved by the BPDA at this location

SOUTH BOSTON

• $150,000 to Barnard Place to create a small park with planting beds, benches, and a bocce court

• $75,000 to the Kearsarge Memorial in Marine Park to replace the crumbling base and missing interpretive plaque, and restore the 1898 anchor honoring naval veterans of the USS Kearsarge, a class of battleships including one active ship in service today

SOUTH END

• $100,000 to the 1858 Francis Dane House, headquarters of the South End Historical Society, to repair windows and masonry on the facade of this Chester Square townhouse

WEST END

• $100,000 to the Greater Boston Legal Services to make repairs to the facade of their building in the Bulfinch Triangle Historic District

WEST ROXBURY

• $1,000,000 to B'nai B'rith Housing for the Residences off Baker development, which will contribute to the creation of 45 new affordable rental units, including eight units set aside for formerly homeless individuals and families

• $20,000 to Brook Farm, site of the transcendentalist experiment in the 1840s, for an archaeology dig and landscape improvements

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