Alvah's near Kittredge Square

The question has been circulating on the neighborhood listserv during the past week.  What do you think about a "small neighborhood business, cooperatively owned by its employees, that serves up quality coffee and curated baked goods in a friendly and beautiful setting"?

About two dozen responses have come back so far.  Every single one of them positive.  The only hint otherwise was the mention of the existing coffee house, Hafun Cafe, in Dudley, where Chuck Turner's District 7 offices used to be at the corner of Shawmut and Malcolm X Blvd.  The actual address is 51 Roxbury Street.  See this brief blog entry.


Kudos are due to Alvah's working group for reaching out to the community with their thoughtfully posed question.

Photo credit Luigi Giovanetti

Semper Fi! no more: Changes in Kittredge Square

From Semper Fi! to more sedate

It's with mixed feeling that we see the work being done at the corner of Highland and Millmont streets adjacent to Alvah Kittredge Park.  The scarlet and gold house always brought to mind the last lines of the last stanza of the Marine Hymn:  If the Army and the Navy / Ever look on Heaven’s scenes / They will find the streets are guarded / By The United States Marines.

Google Street View still shows the house in its former Marine Corps-colors glory.


Meanwhile up the street, the park itself is still in a stage of upheaval.  Check out Iseut's blog post to read about Chris McCarthy's work to gain funding for this restoration.  She also has pre-construction pictures.

Alvah Kittredge Square's second rebuild in 30 years

The Powahouse foundation has been poured.  Hopefully, there'll still be art for the Powahouse.  The neighborhood listserve tells that thieves coveting construction materials at the site were scared away Sunday last by the developer.  Yet again, Iseut's blog is always a good read:  Here are two posts on the Powahouse, one from June 2011, with a graphic of the design and another one from the previous year.

Poured foundation for the development at Kittredge Square

And, the director of Historic Boston thanks watchful neighbors and the BPD for preventing dumping at the rear of Alvah's house.  We are so happy that Historic Boston has taken responsibility for redeveloping the house after so many years of neglect.

The still derelict façade of the Kittredge House

In this post (with pics), Iseut writes about Historic Boston, Inc. turning the Kittredge House into condos.  In an apparent dig at the Centre Street neighbors' implacable opposition to Darryl Settles's plan for a bar/restaurant (for example), Iseut writes that "Many of us still haven't given up on the restaurant idea".  Having just now heard about the idea, we'll remain agnostic about it until we learn more.

Powahouse 'Percent For Art 'Competition

What if every building, whether commercial or residential, private or public, were required to erect a work of art where it abuts the public domain? Why not turn our streetscapes into enticing cultural destinations in their own right? [From the Call for Entries]

Sparking a discussion about the state of legally mandated Percent For Art programs in the local construction industry is the impetus behind the "Powahouse %4ART Competition," not to mention the creation of a fine piece of art that will do Kittredge Square proud.

Under the aegis of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Placetailor, Inc. has issued a Call for Entries in a design competition for an installation of public art to compliment a three-unit condominium project (floor plans here) to be built on historic Alvah Kittredge Square at the corner of Highland and Linwood Streets.

Placetailor, Inc. is "a design/build company that makes, repairs, and alters urban environments such as streetscapes, workplaces, and rooftops."

One of their recent projects on Fort Hill is the Pratt House, formerly a wreck of a 160-year old gunsmith’s cottage wedged between Dudley and Kenilworth Streets, next to O'Aces Hair Salon. It is now a 750-square-foot, air-tight, super-insulating home. These two pictures were taken during construction in March 2010.

The entry deadline for the "Powahouse %4ART Competition" is 20 September 2010. The Jury members are: Celia Grant, Director of Marketing & Creative at Associated Industries of Massachusetts; Chris McCarthy, community leader of the Kittredge Square revitalization initiative; and Gretchen Schneider, public artist, architect and educator.

Even while the owners of the Alvah Kittredge House are shamefully failing minimally to fulfill their civic responsibilities, it is good to know that other developers are willing to go beyond common expectations to help make flourish the neighborhoods in which they find their profit.

ISD Apparently Takes an Interest in Alvah Kittredge's House

The City of Boston Inspectional Services Department (ISD) has apparently taken a recent interest in the Alvah Kittredge House [Previous article].

About two weeks ago fluorescent green caution tape bearing the city seal, ISD's name, and the instruction to keep out, appeared draped across the slap-dash chain link fencing stretched around the house's ramshackle porch.

One might wonder what city regulations are in violation, but it's possibly a shorter task to list the ones not in violation.

A Blighted Legacy Taunts Alvah Kittredge Square

The annual clean-up of Alvah Kittredge Square is scheduled for this weekend. From 9 to 11 am this Saturday, 24 April 2010, the "neighborhood scrub down" takes place. A sweet little announcement came to the neighborhood email list asking the neighbors to turn out, to bring flowers to plant and ideas for an after-school program, and to shovel around some city-provided mulch.

If there is enough time and willing hands, folk will walk down to Highland Ave and Centre Street to dress up that corner. The email even includes a pretty picture from Roxbury Highland's glory days.

The Friends of AK Park report they have secured commitment of significant funding from several foundations, have received a promise of help from Mayor Menino, and are confident of additional funding for a reconstruction of the park.

That's not all. The Project Review Committee of Highland Park is considering plans for the construction of a new rowhouse, "a landmark green building, producing more clean energy than it consumes" on the square at the corner of Highland and Linwood streets.

But, wait ... there's still more. It seems that the community garden at Alvah Kittredge Square is soon to be upgraded with a water supply, a concrete walk-way, a (wrought-iron!) fence and gate, and division into thirteen garden plots.

It's been a struggle over the years, but with the development of the apartment buildings facing the square, the investment of many owners and renters, the work of Historic Boston with the rowhouses on the square, the community garden, and other efforts, Alvah Kittredge Square has come a long way.
Except for one small detail: Alvah's house.

This poor derelict presides over the square from its address of 10 Linwood Street. It is a wreck and it continues to slide toward destruction right before our eyes. Here is the facade on a recent morning, propped up with scaffolding.


Here are photographs of the rear of the building and of its west side.

Will the scaffolding be sufficient to keep the rotted wood from tumbling onto the sidewalk? Does the blue tarpaulin partially draped over the roof really keep the rain out?

In a photograph from the web site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, dated July 2004, the Alvah Kittredge House looked like this.
Given the current scandalous neglect, in a very few more years there will be nothing left of this historic treasure to restore.

The Roxbury Action Program (RAP)—whose name adorns the front of the building—owned this house in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. Preoccupied elsewhere in the neighborhood, RAP sat on the house and allowed it to deteriorate like any feckless, absentee landlord. Since that time RAP has pulled up stakes from 10 Linwood Street and has conveyed the property (probably in 1999) to Alexander Leroy who is trustee of something called the Linwood St Realty Trust.

10 Linwood Street is listed with the city as commercial property, assessed at $179,900.00, with an annual property tax of $5,285.46 for fiscal year 2010—plus interest and fees of $271.95, as nothing has been paid against the tax bill this year. See the roller-coaster valuation history at the City of Boston On-line Assessing web site.

Mr. Leroy, and his do-nothing trust, are dreadfully misusing this historic house and the neighborhood in which it sits, just as the Roxbury Action Program did when it was the custodian.

Diligent neighbors can plant flowers and plan gardens, committed owners can invest, build, and renovate, and responsible and successful charities can lend a hand.

But, until Linwood St Realty takes its civic duty seriously, Alvah Kittredge Square will continue to be taunted by the irresponsibility manifested in this wreck.

Or, Alexander Leroy & trust can get out of the way and convey this piece of historic Fort Hill to someone who can do the job.

This status quo is shameful.


An addendum: On page 40 of this Notice of Taking, [1.465KB pdf] the Collector-Treasurer announces that it is his "intention to take for the City of Boston On Tuesday, the Fifteenth day of December, 2009" 10 Linwood Street, among other "parcel(s) of real estate for non-payment, after demand, of the taxes thereon" of $5,975.20.