Plans for abandoned firehouse spark interest in community

Yawu Miller

Residents of the Fort Hill neighborhood of Roxbury have long sought a space where they could congregate for social events, community meetings or arts performances.

Over a year ago, Paige Academy founders Angela and Joe Cook began working on plans for the renovation of the abandoned fire station on Centre Street. Taking a cue from the Jamaica Plain Arts Council, which uses as its headquarters an abandoned fire station obtained from the city for $1, they fashioned a proposal for an arts center in Fort Hill.

“There’s not a place where you can have a theater performance here,” said Angela Cook. “There’s no space for arts programs.”

Working in partnership with African Community Economic Development of New England, a Somali-led organization based in nearby John Eliot Square, Paige Academy has been developing a redevelopment plan for the firehouse.

They are not alone. In the six months since the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development made public its intent to sell the building, the agency has received no fewer than 170 expressions of intent from developers, according to spokesman Dwayne Lehman.

“There seems to be a lot of interest in this building,” he said.

Among those who have expressed interest are members of a firefighter’s union and real estate developers.

The three-story brick building sits just outside of Eliot Square with the rear of the building facing the downtown Boston skyline. The building has 5,700 square feet of space.

Neighborhood activists have held several meetings about the re-use of the fire station.

“The gist of the community meetings is that people would like to see the building used for cultural events,” said Rodney Singleton, a co-chairman of the Highland Park Project Review Committee and a member of the Hawthorne Neighborhood Association.

Cook said her organization would like to see the building used for music, theatre, dance and other performing arts programs. She and African Community Economic Development of New England Director Abdul Hussein are using the Jamaica Plain Arts Council as a model.

That organization obtained an abandoned firehouse on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain for $1. They lease the first floor out to J.P. Licks, which helps subsidize the arts programming which happens upstairs.

“We’re looking at their model as a way to have a self-sufficient arts center,” Hussein said.

The Somali organization, which currently rents space in a storefront on Centre Street, could also lease space inside the firehouse, according to Hussein.

“We’re paying rent where we are,” he said. “If we paid rent here, it would be great.”

Hussein’s organization currently runs educational programs for Somali students and adult education courses.

The Department of Neighborhood Development has tentatively scheduled a May 31 walkthrough of the building for prospective developers. While the community notification on the building released by the DND in November stated that the agency would be seeking a market rate sales price, Lehman said the agency’s sales price would be flexible.

“The sales price will depend on the quality of the proposals,” he said.

The DND will seek community input before it drafts a request for proposals. The agency will again seek community input once the proposals are in.