The Landmarks Commission hearing room at City Hall was packed tonight, despite an epic snow and ice storm that led a lot of people to believe it was cancelled. The Commission heard positive testimony from City Councilor Lydia Edwards, State Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, and neighbors from all age groups and backgrounds. Sen. Joe Boncore’s representative Luigi Natale came, representing the Senator’s support, and it was very important that Mayor Marty Walsh’s North End Rep. Maria Lanza was also there–we are so grateful that she and the Mayor have pledged to work with the community on saving the building and keeping it in public use.
The Nazzaro’s immigrant history and beautiful architecture, the dedicated crowd in the room, and the estimated 1,500 signatures gathered on our two petitions, carried the day. The Commission voted unanimously to take the petition for study, which was a huge hurdle to clear. We are now on a path to final success.
We have so many people to thank, all the commissioners, Chair Lynn Smiledge, former Commissioner Tom Herman, NEWRA leaders David Kubiak, Cheryl DelGreco, Mary McGee and countless other members of NEWRA, Ann Moritz, Cathy McDonnell, architects Jack Glassman, Dennis DeWitt, Henry Moss, neighbors Carla Nazzaro D’Orio (who is the last remaining Nazzaro descendent), Brian Wasserman, Jane and Art Boland, Carol and Giulio Caperchi, Gary Fleming, Janet Lang, Paul Woodworth, Eileen DiBattista, the people who wrote letters including the residents of 44 Prince Street, Rev. Steve Ayres of Old North Church–the list of people to thank is too long. We were so grateful to each person who came or wrote to support this petition.
A special heroic shout-out is due to the intrepid journalist Matt Conti, who flew up from Florida to cover the event for his influential news blog, northendwaterfront.com. (When his video is posted we will share the link.) Thanks also to Anna Kusmer at WGBH who came to cover the story, and Barbara Howard for suggesting it–thanks to Milton Valencia of the Globe and Brooks Southerland of the Herald who wrote earlier stories about our coalition. The night would not have been a success without the hard work and support of Rosanne Foley and Kathleen von Jena of the Boston Landmarks Commission staff. This was truly a vast community effort and tonight it has been a success. We are officially ending our signature drive on both the Landmarks petition and the change.org petition.
Next steps are 1) the Landmarks Commission will do a study, which could take many months, and then they will 2) make a final date for a public hearing and 3) the Commission will vote on the final Landmarks status. Final success is a very high bar: the petition must be signed by the Mayor and ratified by City Council. Meanwhile, students from the Boston Architectural College are donating their time to work with Maria Lanza, community groups and the Nazzaro staff to design how to use the space inside the Nazzaro building as the new basketball court and community center are built in a new location.
We look forward to helping the Mayor and our other elected officials build a vibrant future for the Nazzaro and the rest of the North End.Stay tuned for updates and please let us know your ideas for updating the Nazzaro building as a public-private community space. If any civic group can afford to pay rent in the refurbished building, that would be a huge plus!
–Ellen Hume, Marie SImboli and Kirsten Hoffman, Save the Nazzaro Coalition
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