Columbia Point (Boston) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Columbia Point, later referred to as Harbor Point, in the Dorchester

Dorchester, Massachusetts

Dorchester is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is named after the town of Dorchester in the English county of Dorset, from which Puritans emigrated and is today endearingly nicknamed "Dot" by its residents. Dorchester, including a large...

neighborhood of Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

sits on a peninsula jutting out from the mainland of eastern Dorchester into the bay.

History

In Dorchester, Columbia Point was the landing place for Puritan

Puritan

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

settlers in the early 1600s. The Native Americans called it "Mattaponnock".

The community was, in the 17th and 18th centuries, and through to the mid-19th century, a calf pasture: a place where nearby Dorchester residents took their calves for grazing. It was largely an uninhabited marshland on the Dorchester peninsula. Its size was originally 14 acres (56,656 m²). Many landfills, subsequent to that time, have enlarged the land size to 350 acres (1.4 km²) in the 20th century.

In 1845, the Old Colony Railroad

Old Colony Railroad

The Old Colony Railroad was a major railroad system, mainly covering southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island. It operated from 1845 to 1893. Old Colony trains ran from Boston to points such as Plymouth, Fall River, New Bedford, Newport, Providence, Fitchburg, Lowell and Cape Cod...

ran through the area and connected Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts. The station was originally called Crescent Avenue or Crescent Avenue Depot as an Old Colony Railroad station, then called Columbia until December 1, 1982, and then again changed to JFK/UMASS

JFK/UMass (MBTA station)

JFK/UMass Station is located at the intersection of Columbia Road and Morrissey Boulevard, in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.Its facilities include:*a platform on the Boston subway's Red Line for the Ashmont Branch...

. It is an MBTA

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, often referred to as the MBTA or simply The T, is the public operator of most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, area. Officially a "body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision" of the...

rail line station for both the subway and commuter rail line.

In the 1880s, the calf pasture was used as a Boston sewer line and pumping station, known as the Calf Pasture Pumping Station Complex

Calf Pasture Pumping Station Complex

The Calf Pasture Pumping Station Complex is an historic sewage treatment facility at 435 Mount Vernon Street on Columbia Point in the Dorchester section of Boston, Massachusetts which was built in the 1880s....

. This large pumping station still stands and in its time was a model for treating sewage and helping to promote cleaner and healthier urban living conditions. It pumped waste to a remote treatment facility on Moon Island in Boston Harbor

Port of Boston

The Port of Boston, , is a major seaport located in Boston Harbor and adjacent to the City of Boston...

, and served as a model for other systems worldwide. This system remained in active use and was the Boston Sewer system's headworks, handling all of the city's sewage, until 1968 when a new treatment facility was built on Deer Island

Deer Island (Massachusetts)

Deer Island is a peninsula in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts. Since 1996 it is part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. Although still an island by name, Deer Island has been connected to the mainland since the former Shirley Gut channel, which once separated the island from the...

. The pumping station is also architecturally significant as a Richardsonian

Henry Hobson Richardson

Henry Hobson Richardson was a prominent American architect who designed buildings in Albany, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and other cities. The style he popularized is named for him: Richardsonian Romanesque...

Romanesque

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

designed by the then Boston city architect, George Clough. It is also the only remaining 19th century building on Columbia Point and is in the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

.

Land-filling had caused the creation of Columbus Park on the peninsula and what was then called “Day Boulevard”, now Morrissey Boulevard, by 1934. There was a huge trash dump on the peninsula which turned into more landfill for other use.

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, small barracks were built on this landfill for some prisoners of war. After the war, these were re-used for the Columbia Point Veterans Village. Also, in 1950, Boston College High School

Boston College High School

Founded in 1863, Boston College High School is an all-male Jesuit Roman Catholic college preparatory secondary school with historical ties to Boston College. It has an enrollment in grades 7-12 of approximately 1,500 students and is located on a campus on Morrissey Boulevard in the Dorchester...

relocated from the South End of Boston to its present home on Morrissey Boulevard.

More landfill on the north shore of the peninsula had been created to build the Columbia Point Development housing projects which were the largest in Boston and New England and built by the Boston Housing Authority. The area was now known as Columbia Point. The Columbia Point Development was completed in 1954 and had 1,500 apartments. Other infrastructure was added, including public schools. The “T”

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

train stop was called Columbia, and is today known as the JFK/UMASS stop on the Red line

Red Line (MBTA)

The Red Line is a rapid transit line operated by the MBTA running roughly north-south through Boston, Massachusetts into neighboring communities. The line begins west of Boston, in Cambridge, Massachusetts at Alewife station, near the intersection of Alewife Brook Parkway and Route 2...

In the 1960s, there was a movement of community residents from the Columbia Point housing projects to get the city dump, which was located on the peninsula, permanently closed. They were able to get attorney F. Lee Bailey interested and to represent them. Eventually, the city dump closed in 1962 and the private dump, called Mile Road Dump, was ordered closed in Fenruary 1963 by the Massachusetts Supreme Court which ruled against its operation.

In 1965, the first community health center in the United States was built on Columbia Point, the Columbia Point Community Health Center, and was founded by two Tufts University medical doctors, Jack Geiger and Count Gibson. Geiger had previously studied the first community health centers and the principles of Community Oriented Primary Care with Sidney Kark and colleagues while serving as a medical student in rural Natal

KwaZulu-Natal

KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa. Prior to 1994, the territory now known as KwaZulu-Natal was made up of the province of Natal and the homeland of KwaZulu....

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. The health center was funded by the federal government's Office of Economic Opportunity

Office of Economic Opportunity

The Office of Economic Opportunity was the agency responsible for administering most of the War on Poverty programs created as part of United States President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society legislative agenda.- History :...

(OEO) and was needed to serve the community living in the Columbia Point Public Housing Projects which was on the isolated peninsula far away from Boston City Hospital. The center still stands and is in use today as the Geiger-Gibson Community Health Center on Mount Vernon Street.

In 1974, the University of Massachusetts Boston

University of Massachusetts Boston

The University of Massachusetts Boston, also known as UMass Boston, is an urban public research university and the second largest campus in the five-campus University of Massachusetts system. The university is located on on Harbor Point in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States...

campus was opened on the tip of Columbia Point, and called the Harbor Campus.

In 1977, after an unsuccessful bid to have the John F. Kennedy Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

close to Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, ground was broken at the tip of Columbia Point for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

John F. Kennedy Library

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and museum of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. It is located on Columbia Point in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, USA, next to the Boston campus of the University of...

, designed by the architect I. M. Pei

I. M. Pei

Ieoh Ming Pei , commonly known as I. M. Pei, is a Chinese American architect, often called a master of modern architecture. Born in Canton, China and raised in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Pei drew inspiration at an early age from the gardens at Suzhou...

, and dedicated on October 20, 1979.

The Columbia Point Housing Projects fell into disrepair and became quite dangerous. By the 1980s only 300 families lived there and the buildings were falling apart. Eventually, realizing the situation was almost hopeless, in 1984 the City of Boston turned over the management, cleanup, planning and revitalization of the property to a private development firm Corcoran-Mullins-Jennison. A 99 year lease from the city of Boston was granted to and co-owned by the (Harbor Point Apartments, L.P.) Harbor Point Community Task Force (tenants' elected board) and a partnership of developers led by Corcoran-Mullins-Jennison Corporation. The construction work for the new Harbor Point development began in 1986. During a recession in 1988 with a slump in the housing market, deficits and expensive loans ($175 million in state and federal loans), the Harbor Point development came close to bankruptcy. Chevron Corporation

Chevron Corporation

Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining,...

rescued the redevelopment by investing $34 million, with Chevron taking advantage of $38 million in corporate tax credits and depreciation established by Congress in 1986 encouraging investment in low-income housing. The renovation work was fully completed by 1990. It was a beautifully laid out, mixed income community, newly known as Harbor Point Apartments. It received international acclaim for its planning and revitalization from the Urban Land Institute

Urban Land Institute

The Urban Land Institute, or ULI, is a non-profit research and education organization with offices in Washington, D.C., Hong Kong, and London...

, the FIABCI

FIABCI

FIABCI the International Real Estate Federation, was founded in 1949 by the French asset manager Mr. Pierre Colleville. It was registered as a non-profit professional organisation in Paris on 2 June 1951. It is the only worldwide real estate association that represents all of the real estate...

award, a gold medal with the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence in 1993 , and was used as a model for the federal HUD

United States Department of Housing and Urban Development

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD, is a Cabinet department in the Executive branch of the United States federal government...

HOPE VI

HOPE VI is a plan by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is meant to revitalize the worst public housing projects in the United States into mixed-income developments. Its philosophy is largely based on New Urbanism and the concept of Defensible space.The program began...

public housing revitalization program begun in 1992.

In 2008, plans and proposals were unveiled and presented to public community hearings by the Corcoran-Jennison Company to redevelop the 30 acres (121,405.8 m²) Bayside Exposition Center site on the Columbia Point peninsula into a mixed use village of storefronts and residences, called "Bayside on the Point". There have been some serious problems with the on-going development plans, since the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority

Massachusetts Water Resources Authority

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority is a public authority in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that provides wholesale drinking water and sewage services to certain municipalities and industrial users in the state, primarily in the Boston area.The authority receives water from the Quabbin...

had planned to build a sewage odor control facility just adjacent to the development site.

However, in 2009, the Bayside Expo Center property was lost in a foreclosure on Corcoran-Jennison to a Florida-based real estate firm, LNR/CMAT, who bought it. Soon after, the University of Massachusetts Boston bought the property from them to build future campus facilities. In February 2010, The University of Massachusetts Boston in conjunction with the University of Massachusetts Building Authority formally signed the purchase papers and bought the Bayside Expo property for $18.7 million. In 2010, the university plans to break ground and start building the new Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate

Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate

The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate will be a non-profit educational institution instigated by and named after Senator Edward M. Kennedy...

on the campus, as well as a new science laboratory and other facilities.

Timeline

(cf. Lawton, University of Massachusetts Boston, research materials)

1630 - Puritan

Puritan

settlers land on Columbia Point. The site is used as a calf pasture for the town of Dorchester until 1869.

1884 - The Sewage pumping station opens at the end of Mile Road.

1942 - Camp McKay, used to house Italian prisoners during World War II, is built on the north side of the peninsula.

1954 - Columbia Point housing project opens and the first tenants move in.

1965 - The Columbia Point Health Center, the first community health center in the country, opens.

1966 - Construction of the Bayside Mall begins.

1971 - Construction of University of Massachusetts Boston

University of Massachusetts Boston

begins.

1974 - The Harbor Campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston, opens on Columbia Point.

1975 - Tenants at several public housing projects file suit against the Boston Housing Authority, complaining of sub-standard living conditions.

1978 - The Boston Redevelopment Authority

Boston Redevelopment Authority

The Boston Redevelopment Authority is the municipal planning and development agency for Boston, working on both housing and commercial developments.The BRA was established by the Boston city council and the Massachusetts legislature in 1957...

receives a $10 million federal grant for improvements at the Columbia Point housing project.

1979 - The John F. Kennedy Library

John F. Kennedy Library

is formally dedicated.

1984 - The Boston Housing Authority’s receivership ends and Corcoran, Mullins, Jennison, a private development company, takes over the management of Columbia Point, initiating a major cleanup and intensive maintenance improvements.

1985 - The Massachusetts State Archives opens in November.

1986 - The construction of the new Harbor Point housing complex, a mixed-income community, on the site of the former Columbia Point housing projects, begins.

1998 - Harbor Point Apartments achieves a 99% occupancy rate and celebrates its tenth anniversary.

2008 - A proposal for the re-development of the Bayside Exposition Center site into a mixed residential and commercial property to be called "Bayside on the Point" was offered for public perusal.

2009 - The Bayside Exposition Center site is lost in a foreclosure and eventually sold to the University of Massachusetts Boston.

2010 - The University of Massachusetts Boston formally buys the Bayside Expo property for $18.7 million in February 2010

External links

Map of Columbia Point - Boston Redevelopment Authority, City of Boston
"Columbia Point Master Plan" - Boston Redevelopment Authority, City of Boston
Urban Transformations: Columbia Point - Harbor Point, Boston - presentation slides, Professor David W. Manzo, Boston College
1899 Map of Dorchester, Massachusetts with the N.Y. N.H. & H. R.R. running on the Old Colony line - note Mt. Vernon Street and part of Columbia Point in the lower right hand corner
Boston 1903 map - see the Calf Pasture on Columbia Point in the lower middle right hand side just above Savin Hill

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