Turning Historic Churches into Housing in Boston

Churches aren't just for worship anymore. Historic preservationists and housing developers are teaming up in many U.S. cities to convert shuttered churches into housing, saving buildings that for years played a critical role in the lives of their neighborhoods.

A good place to look for a home in a former place of prayer is Boston, scene of a recent scandal involving priests accused of sexual abuse. To raise cash to settle lawsuits, the Catholic Archdiocese has sold many of its properties. Some churches may be torn down for redevelopment, but Boston, famous for its tight-knit neighborhoods and sense of history, is loath to lose its church buildings without a fight.

In Jamaica Plain, a historically German and Irish-American working-class neighborhood that now has a mix of white, black and Latino residents, there were three Catholic churches until the largest, Blessed Sacrament, closed in 2003. The closing itself caused an uproar among parishioners, many of whom considered the church integral to their lives in the neighborhood. Blessed Sacrament was built in 1890, in an era when Irish Catholic immigrants had just gained political power in Boston. In the 1940s the most famed of their descendents, Mayor James Michael Curley, split his Sundays between Blessed Sacrament and another Catholic church in Jamaica Plain. Many of the upset residents had gone to the parish school, adjacent to the church, as children or had been confirmed there. But beyond their anger at the church's demise, residents were just as upset about the possibility the historic building itself might go away. The church looms large over narrow Centre Street, the main retail area for the community; without it the street would surely lose a piece of its soul.

Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation, a nonprofit that has served the area for three decades, stepped in and purchased the church in September 2005, with an eye toward preserving it as housing. The organization has played an important role in the neighborhood over the years, particularly in developing affordable housing for low-income residents. Since the 1990s, the neighborhood has drawn wealthier people to its apartments and condos and housing for the working class has been more scarce than ever. The median rent for vacant apartments has nearly doubled since 1995, and sale prices have risen even faster. While it looks to create affordable homes to address this crisis, JPNDC also recognizes the importance of having residents with higher incomes in the area, because it helps to create a level of stability that is lacking in poorer districts.

According to the housing developer's current plans, the Blessed Sacrament church and its adjacent buildings will be converted to 118 homeownership and apartment units, of which 79 will be set aside for households earning no more than 80 percent of the median income of the Boston region, which was $55,183 in 2000. The developer will maintain the sprawling front steps and towering wooden doors that make the Italian Renaissance church a more powerful presence on the street than it would have through its size alone. The front of the building will probably be preserved as a community meeting space. Some of the parish buildings adjacent to the church, which were sold with the church itself, will be used for housing as well as a school. The Pine Street Inn, one of the city's largest homeless service providers, will use one of these buildings for permanent housing, including 27 of the 79 affordable units.

It's hard to say if many would-be renters or condo buyers are bothered by the idea of living in a former cathedral. For many who do decide to move to these buildings, the architectural features can be a major bonus, both within and outside their homes.

In the former St. Peter and Paul's Church, located in the South Boston neighborhood, some units have the striking arches typical of European-style Catholic churches as interior walls. A developer finished converting this 160-year-old church to 36 condos in 2004. The condos sold at that time for between $300,000 and $1 million. The interior of the church was broken into five floors, but the developer left the red brick in the rectory and the building's exterior virtually intact.

Some Christians might be aghast at the idea that one of their churches is being used for non-religious purposes. But even Habitat for Humanity, a housing developer that was founded on Christian principles, is building homes from churches. The organization is turning seven former church properties into affordable condos in Chelsea, a city just outside Boston.

The first major church conversion in Boston was completed in the 1980s. It occurred at the beginning of a wave of historical conversions, in which shuttered schools, hospitals, old mills and factories as well as religious buildings saw new life. Boston as well as many of the nearby cities and towns have a wealth of old buildings that were built to last. Now they certainly will, thanks to a growing interest in living in unconventional environments, rather than cookie-cutter subdivisions or apartment complexes.