SAVE THE DATE: JUNE 27 at 6 p.m. This is when we will gather online for a public hearing as the Boston Landmarks Commission moves forward on the North End’s nearly five-year effort to protect the historic Nazzaro building at 30-32 North Bennet St! Please look for the registration link as soon as the Landmarks Commission posts it here.
Many of you signed our two original petitions which we presented to the Landmarks Commission on Feb. 12, 2019 with an estimated 1,500 signatures. Despite the snowstorm that night, a standing-room-only crowd spoke eloquently about protecting this iconic former North End Bath House. The Commission has now recommended in a new study report that the Renaissance Revival building should be officially protected with landmark status, agreeing with our original Nazzaro landmark proposal. We are grateful for this green light to protect its architecturally significant exterior, while still allowing interior redesign, upgrades and new public uses.
Please say thank you to the Landmarks Commission staff and our public officials who have been so supportive of this project, including Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, who has allocated $5 million in the state budget for refurbishing the Nazzaro building, Sen. Lydia Edwards, who was with us from the beginning, and Rep. Gabriela Coletta, who first got involved when she was on Edwards’ city council staff. Aaron took the wonderful extra step of requiring that the building be landmarked as a contingency for receiving the new $5 million in funding!
Our landmarking efforts first began in 2018 when we learned that the Boston Centers for Youth and Families planned to move out of the Nazzaro building–which has been at the center of North End community life since 1910–into a new $25 million community center and gymnasium to be constructed on the waterfront. We argued that the densely-populated North End deserves both: to keep its beautiful public building on North Bennet St., while also expanding into the second new modernized location. While skeptics thought at first that the historic Nazzaro building had to be sacrificed for private development, our elected officials stepped up to support us. Thank you Aaron, Lydia, Gigi and Mayor Michele Wu!
We are optimistic that once we get a positive outcome at the June 27 hearing, the City Council and Mayor will finalize this landmark, and we can look forward to both the new community center on the waterfront, and continued public use of the protected and updated Nazzaro building. We are excited that potential designs contributed by a team from the Boston Architectural College have inspired the new tenants, who are slated to be the North End Music and Performing Arts Center (NEMPAC) and the North End Waterfront Health Clinic (NEWHealth).
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