Historical Significance: The North End Public Bath and Gymnasium (now known as the Nazzaro Community Center), which is situated at one end of the North End Playground, is a well-preserved artifact of America’s immigrant era in the early 20th century, when social reformers struggled to respond to the overwhelming flow of immigrants arriving from Ireland, Italy, and other parts of Europe. They lived in crowded urban tenements that sprung up quickly in neighborhoods like Boston’s North End, without plumbing or much public space. Concern about typhoid and other epidemics helped spur political leaders to take action. The North End Bath and Gymnasium project was sponsored by Mayor John F. “Honey Fitz” Kennedy, President John F. Kennedy’s grandfather. This ornate 6,000-square foot three-story building and adjacent community playground, have been at the heart of Boston’s North End community for over 100 years.The Italian Renaissance revival building, constructed from 1902-1910, was designed after the Villa Medici in Rome by Maginnis, Walsh & Sullivan, one of America’s most prominent architectural firms. It was considered the finest public bath in Boston. This building represents the peak of the American public bath movement at the end of the 19th century, an urban reform effort which came in response to the unsanitary conditions in the crowded apartments. Public baths, many built like the North End Bathhouse to include gymnasiums, were a solution proposed by Progressive Era politicians when faced with numerous social problems created by unprecedented urban growth and congested slums. Mayor Fitzgerald, the first of Boston’s Irish politicians to win the mayoralty, was especially keen to build this bathhouse in the then-Irish North End, which was his birthplace and the seat of his early power as ward boss.
Architectural Significance: The North End Bath House and Gymnasium (also known as the North Bennet Street Bath House and Gymnasium and today, as the Nazzaro Community Center) (MACRIS Inventory No. BOS.5405) is the last public building remaining in the original North End Municipal Area on North Bennet St. (MACRIS Inventory No. BOS.ACN North End Municipal Area), whose central organizing feature was the Prince St. and North End Playground, also known as the Prince St. playground, North Bennet St. playground and today, the Louis T. Polcari Playground. The building is a well-preserved red brick and white terra cotta Renaissance Revival design, influenced also by Colonial Revival style of the other buildings in the Municipal Area. Inspired by the Villa Medici in Rome, it was designed in 1904 by Maginnis, Walsh & Sullivan. The 6,000 sq. foot, three-story building is set back and positioned for grandeur, as an Italian palazzo would be, by opening onto an open courtyard of the North End Playground. The projecting round-arched pavilion entrance, framed by Tuscan columns, sits on a plinth with flanking bullnose stairs, for added stature. The grand front entrance, featuring a barrel-vaulted top and decorated tympanum displaying the great Seal of Boston carved in stone, is accented on each side column by a black tablet, honoring two program leaders. The entrance arch is covered by flat-seamed, patinated copper cladding. To either side of the entrance are round-arched windows with keystones, suggesting ancient Roman style, as reinterpreted in the Renaissance. Within the arches are left- and right- diagonal accents, suggesting Colonial Revival style. The building exterior has a New England look with its field of red brick, laid in Flemish bond. Each story is accented with a belt course at the spring point of the door and window arches. In piano nobile style typical of the Renaissance, the two upper floors are combined into one dominant story, emphasized by a wider ornamental molded belt course and three ornamentally framed porthole windows.
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