JFK/UMass Station
At this site, you will listen to audio and view images about the JFK/UMass Station, which was previously called Columbia Station from 1927-1982. The Columbia Point peninsula had many uses over the centuries, including as a cow pasture, a pump station for the city's sewage system, a city dump, and an internment camp for World War II prisoners of war. In 1954, the the Columbia Point Housing Development opened to support the growing number of families that needed public housing and it was located southeast of the station (beyond what is now an overpass for Morrissey Boulevard). The former Columbia Station (now JFK/UMass Station) dates back to 1927. Ridership at Columbia Station grew quickly in the 1950s and 60s, despite the MBTA's refusal to have a stop for the South Shore Branch. The Bayside Mall (later Bayside Expo Center) opened in 1967, UMass Boston opened its nearby campus in 1974, and the JFK Library opened in 1979; these developments led to increased passengers and the MBTA gave the station more attention. The MBTA completed a $13.5 million renovation of the station, including adding a stop for the South Shore branch, in 1988 (two years after demolition began on the former Columbia Point Housing Development). Does the JFK/UMass station appear to have been accessible to Columbia Point residents? What changes could have made it more accessible? Does it seem like a ‘neighborhood’ station?Next, you can read more below about recent neglect by the MBTA of the station, including a derailment and several structural issues.https://www.dotnews.com/2022/citing-critical-structural-finding-mbta-closes-columbia-rd-entranceTo learn more about the Columbia Point, you can watch this brief video about the history of this section of Dorchester from Boston News Network: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMahHyWUaEsThis is a longer clip recorded in 1983 about the tensions between the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) and tenants over choosing a developer to remake the Columbia Point, which was broadcasted on "Black Perspectives," which was a public affairs talk show in Boston's Black community. https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_345-88qbzvh6
Bayside and Mount Vernon Street Sign
At this site, you should make observations of Mt. Vernon Street. This is currently the site of the Double Tree Hotel and the Bayside Center, which now houses UMass Boston office, Commonwealth of Massachusetts offices, and some private business offices (including the Dorchester Reporter's offices). This was formerly the Bayside Shopping Mall, which was built in 1967 and later replaced by the Bayside Expo Center, which was a conventional hall, in 1983.Does Mount Vernon Street appear to you to be a neighborhood through fare? What changes in appearance might make it so?
Geiger-Gibson Community Health Center
At this site, in 1965, the first community health center was established in four former apartments in the Columbia Point Housing Project. In March 1989, groundbreaking began for new health center to be re-named Geiger Gibson Community Health Center.What services does the Geiger-Gibson Community Health Center offer currently? How does it compare to those previously offered by the Columbia Point Health Center? Do you think the health needs of Harbor Point residents are met by Geiger-Gibson Community Health Center?Read more about the history of the Geiger Gibson Community Health Center here:https://www.dorchesteratheneum.org/project/geiger-gibson-health-center/https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/health-care/2015/12/the-nations-first-community-health-center.html
The Paul A Dever Elementary School and the John W. McCormack Middle School
Most children in the Columbia Point attended the Russell, which was a far walk from the Housing Development. In 1957, the Paul A. Dever was built. In 1965, the John W. McCormack Middle School was built. Both schools were located across the street from the Columbia Point Housing Development.How did Columbia Point residents advocate for the opening of this school? Is Dever a ‘neighborhood’ school? Is the McCormack? Should they be?Read this article from the Bay State Banner about the troubled history of state takeover of schools, which includes the Dever: https://www.baystatebanner.com/2020/02/24/state-has-checkered-history-of-school-takeovers/Read this article from Schoolyard News on student and teacher testimony about a controversial plan to build a Boys and Girls Club Field House on the site of the McCormack's playground. https://medium.com/@schoolyardnews/mccormack-students-and-staff-blast-plans-to-build-on-their-athletic-fields-745d3462d53c
Calf Pasture Pumping Station
The Calf Pasture Pumping Station is what remains of the first comprehensive sewerage project in the city of Boston. During the 19th century Dorchester residents used this land for grazing cattle, which gave the building its name. Completed in 1884 and in operation until 1968, this building helped remove waste from the city's sewer system by sending it to a treatment facility at Moon Island and then discharging it into the ocean. It was designed by City Architect George Albert Clough to resemble a castle.The Calf Pasture Pumping Station was kept open, though not operational, throughout the existence of Columbia Point. Does the Calf Pasture Pumping Station look like a historic landmark? To make the community more attractive and livable, would you have retained it or demolished it?See here for a Dorchester Reporter article on the University's future plans for the Calf Pasture Pumping Station: https://www.dotnews.com/2021/umass-officials-seek-proposals-calf-pasture-redevelopment
Clark Athlectic Center - University of Massachusetts Boston
At this site, you will listen to former UMass Boston student Christian Walkes discuss his experiences at the Clark Athletic Center and its former pool (which has been demolished to make way for a new student outdoor "quad").
Harbor Point on the Bay (Previously Columbia Point Housing Project)
The Columbia Point project was constructed between 1951 and 1954 and consisted of a many high-rise apartment buildings. The site for formerly a cow pasture and later a city dump (which was still in use when the housing development opened). At the outset, 93% of the residents were white while 7% were Black. Surrounded by open fields, the landfill, and water, Columbia Point opened without a grocery store in the neighborhood, no shops, no bank, no schools, churches, health care, nor public transportation. What the peninsula lacked in terms of services, the residents – in particular the “Mothers Club” – played an important role in securing. From its inception, the racially mixed housing project was in isolation. By 1963, the Columbia Point community began to split along racial lines, reflecting the broader patterns of housing discrimination and white flight. The racially mixed character of the community became increasingly segregated under the tenure of Mayor John F. Collins. By the end of the 1960s the housing project was predominantly occupied by Black families – largely as women-led households. In the 1960s and 70s city financed Boston Housing Authority structures that had originally supported the upkeep of the community were diminished and resources were redirected to hyper policing and the suppression of a vibrant community life. Drugs, crime, and neglect of the space changed the once family-friendly community-supported landscape of Columbia Point. In 1984, the firm Corcoran-Mullins-Jennison Company was given a 99-year lease from the city of Boston and it began work on demolishing the buildings and building the new Harbor Point Apartments.Does Columbia Point, as you imagine it looked years ago, convey a sense of hope for families who lived there? What changes to its appearance might have made it a more welcoming place to live? Does Harbor Point appear to be a supportive community for low- and moderate-income families, and people of color?
6 South Point Drive
The location of Ms. Theora Jones' apartment in the Columbia Point Housing Development at 6 South Point Drive.In the 1960s, “The Mothers Club," as they called themselves, formed as a natural support group. Mothers would get together for company, talking about their kids, and finding they weren't alone in their problems. They quickly formed strong bonds over coffee. It was only natural for the Mothers Club to begin thinking of ways to make their brand-new community better. "We wanted the same things for our kids that everybody else wanted," one of the mothers explained, "Regardless of whether you live in Columbia Point or Wellesley Hills, or wherever, we all had the same kinds of wants and desires and values. Women who may have come to the project with prejudices soon set them aside because they discovered common goals.”Does Columbia Point, as you imagine it looked years ago, convey a sense of hope for families who lived there? What changes to its appearance might have made it a more welcoming place to live? Does Harbor Point appear to be a supportive community for low- and moderate-income families, and people of color?
Dorchester Bay City Project
In 2010, UMass Boston purchased the 20-acre Bayside Expo Center for $18.7 million. For the next decade, it was primarily used as a student and employee parking lot for the University. In 2020, UMass Boston signed a 99-year lease with Accordia Partners to redevelop the site and pay UMass Boston up to $235 million in revenue. Dorchester Not For Sale and other local organizations have resisted the building of the new project on grounds of lack of affordable housing and the potential for the development to increase the already rapidly gentrifying nature of Dorchester.How may the Dorchester Bay City Development impact the Columbia Point peninsula? Columbia Point community residents worked with the Boston Redevelopment Authority to create a mixed income housing development. How can we advocate for a more just Dorchester Bay City? What connections can be made between the past and the present?To read more about the controversy surrounding Dorchester Bay City, read this article in the UMass Boston student newspaper: http://www.umassmedia.com/opinions/dorchester-bay-city-is-a-harmful-mistake/article_c1f2879a-9e4b-11ed-ae9a-b3146b556bcf.htmlAnd another article from the Dorchester Reporter: https://www.dotnews.com/2022/activists-press-wu-pause-dorchester-bay-city-review
