Landmarks Commission Imposes 90-day Delay on Home for Little Wanderers Demolition

The city's Landmarks Commission voted Tuesday to impose a 90-day delay in the planned demolition of the 1914 building at the center of the Home for Little Wanderers campus.

The building, all all others on the 161 S. Huntington St. parcel, are slated for being torn down to make way for an apartment building with 196 units.

JP resident Gretchen Grozier, who attended the meeting, said she spoke in favor of the delay, as did several other neighborhood residents.

The project would create an E-shaped building of five and four stories with parking beneath the edifice. Most units would be one-bedrooms of various sizes, aimed at appealing to the medical professionals who work in the Longwood area.

The demolition delay is a zoning provision that provides extra time for the city and developer can consider other ways of doing the project that protect historical sites.

The developer, Boston Residential Group, explained at a that it had tried to craft a plan for saving the building, but could not do so.

"Boston Residential Group is very sensitive to historic structures," said Curtis Kemeny at Monday's Jamaica Pond Association meeting. "We looked at several alternatives here and we couldn't figure it out."

The Home for Little Wanderers has a binding sale agreement with Boston Residential Group. It is .

There is also a separate Boston Redevelopment Authority process going on. Residents who want to send the BRA their own comments about the project may do so by May 16 to:

John Fitzgerald

Boston Redevelopment Authority

One City Hall Square, 9th Floor

Boston, MA 02201

Fax: 617-742-7783

Phone: 617-918-4267

Email: john.fitzgerald.bra@cityofboston.gov

The public process could be over as soon as May 16 if the comments received are not judged by the Redevelopment Authority as meriting further review.

For details about the proposal for 161 S. Huntington, please see the Redevelopment Authority's Web site, which includes basic information, and links to the Project Notification Form, Letter of Intent and Supplemental Information File. The PDFs of these are attached to this post.