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Most Endangered Historic Resource:
St. Joseph’s Church, complex, 1914-1962,
Lafayette Street (Listed 2004) – Still Endangered
The St. Joseph’s Church complex illustrates an important aspect
of the history Salem’s immigrant communities, first French and
later Spanish speaking. The complex contains four buildings, most of
them replacements for earlier buildings on the site, which served as
the home of St. Joseph’s Parish since 1884. The most significant
buildings are the rectory and church. The Church, designed in the International
Style and built in 1948, has a dramatic interior emphasizing volume,
height, and light. The Rectory (1917), with its French equivalent “Presbytere”
incised into the brownstone, helps to define the streetscape. The School
(1921) and convent (1962) contribute to the historic context.
The church's steeple is a landmark, visible from many vantage points
throughout the City. The church building has a striking resemblance
to the First Christian Church of Columbus, Indiana, designed by Eliel
Saarinen, built in 1942, and designated a National Historic Landmark
in 2001. St. Joseph's also closely resembles the Roman Catholic Cathedrals
in Hartford, Connecticut, and Rabat, Morocco.
The Archdiocese of Boston closed the Church in the summer of 2004. In
February 2005, the Archdiocese solicited proposals for the sale of the
property and in June of 2005, the Bank of America and the Planning Office
of Urban Affairs (POUA) (a housing developer subsidiary of the Archdiocese)
purchased the St. Joseph's complex..
Late in 2005, two studies (one for the City of Salem; the other for
the Massachusetts Historical Commission) were released recommending
that this complex be declared eligible for listing on the National Register
of Historic Places for two reasons: first, as a distinctive examples
of the International Style (the Church) and the Second Renaissance Revival
Style (the Rectory or Presbytère), and secondly as an important
gathering place for Salem's French Canadian community and later its
Hispanic communities.
Historic Salem met with the new owners in 2005 and early in 2006 to
explore options to pursue their program while also preserving the church
building. Historic Salem also asked the owners to consider other designs
which would be more sensitive to the scale of the nearby 2 and 2 1⁄2
story houses in the Point.
In early 2006, the owners shared initial planning concepts with the
City and with community leaders. Their plans would retain the rectory,
demolish the church, and construct a six-story apartment building along
Lafayette Street with a Community Life Center on the ground floor. In
the fall of 2006, the Zoning Board of Appeals granted a variance for
height and the Planning Board granted approval of a Planned Unit Development
for a mixed use six-story building with 95 residential units.
In August of 2006, the owners applied to the Salem Historical Commission
for a demolition delay waiver to expedite development of the property.
This request was denied by the Historical Commission in December 2006.
The demolition delay expired February 8, 2007.
Late in 2006, litigation was filed by some 40 abutters, residents and
property owners that challenged the granting of the enabling variances
and the Planned Unit Development which allows the large multi-use building.
Subsequent actions have challenged the developer’s right to use
Federal funding to demolish the church without a section 106 Federal
review. The developer received a Comprehensive 40b permit from the Salem
Zoning Board of Appeals in February 2007 for a four story building with
65 residential units, and the Community Life Center on the first floor
as originally planned.
In March 2007, the Mayor withdrew her request for authorization from
the City Council for Federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding
for the Community Life Center in order to seek a solution which would
allow the project to go forward at St. Joseph’s site, while meeting
the objectives of the community for a senior center – at that
site or at the current Broad Street site for Salem’s Senior Center.
For photos of interiors, see
http://salemcitizens.org/issues/StJosephs
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