[MassHistPres] Church Re-Use

[Dennis De Witt]

In the case of St. Aidens in Brookline, Town Meeting directed the  
Preservation Commission to undertake a Study Report for creating an  
LHD consisting of just the Church & Rectory.  While the archdiocese  
vociferously objected and tried to assert that the church where JFK  
was baptized was not historic, I think TM would have made a single  
property LHD out of it, had it had come to that -- and we were told  
that it would have stood up to a legal challenge.

In the end, the diocese and town negotiated a "friendly  
40b" (trumping any possible 40c) which preserved the principal  
facades of the church with some enlargement of windows (and removal  
of stained glass).  The rectory was sacrificed but the "forecourt"  
containing a magnificent beech tree was saved.  As part of the deal  
there was to be a facade easement, which still will happen if the  
project is completed.  However, the interior was gutted with no  
regard for incorporating any of its character into the market rate  
units that were to go into the church.  Then unfortunately an abutter  
sued, tying it up in court for years, to absolutely no one's  
benefit.  The project is now trying to restart under not very  
auspicious market conditions.

Dennis De Witt




On Nov 20, 2007, at 3:43 PM, BMangum411 at aol.com wrote:

> I am wondering if people feel that churches that are also  
> architectural gems
> should be protected from removal of their exterior ornamentation  
> during
> re-use.   We have a situation where one congregation has decided on  
> their own to
> remove statues from the exterior in a most aggregious way.   We  
> tried to have
> this church designated historic, but the archdiocese refused.
>
> In a message dated 11/20/07 2:38:33 PM, jameswhadley at hotmail.com  
> writes:
>
>
>> The former First Parish Sandwich is now a residence, after stints  
>> as a doll
>> museum and B&B. It is a sister esthetically to First Parish  
>> Brewster, built
>> one year apart (1832 -33)
>>   ----- Original Message -----
>>   From: Mitchell Mulholland
>>   To: John Worden
>>   Cc: masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
>>   Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 2:31 PM
>>   Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Church Re-Use
>>
>>
>>   Hi John,
>>   Wouldn't the new non-descript building have been a "MacChurch"?
>>   Mitch Mulholland
>>
>>   John Worden wrote:
>> The best use for a surplus church is as a new home for another  
>> congregation.
>> Altho' the Catholic Church is pulling back, there are many  
>> congregations
>> that are growing, and in need of bigger and better spaces.  In  
>> Arlington,
>> where the Archdiocese closed two of the four parishes, one (my former
>> parish) was unimaginatively demolished & replaced by a non-descript
>> "McMansion" but the other was sold to a Greek Orthodox  
>> congregation which
>> was in need of a bigger facility.
>>
>> J. Worden
>> Arlington HDC
>>
>>
>> **********
>>
>>     1. Re: How to catalyze adaptive reuse of a church (Aaron  
>> Marcavitch)
>>
>>
>>
>>
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