The Old Harbor Housing Project, later renamed the Mary Ellen McCormack Project, is a 27-acre

housing project Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

opposite Joe Moakley Park in

South Boston South Boston (colloquially known as Southie) is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay (Boston Harbor), Dorchester Bay. It has under ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

History

Built in 1936 by the Federal Public Works Administration (PWA) as one of 50 slum clearance and low income housing projects being constructed nationwide. Construction cost $6,000,000, and opened on May 1, 1938. The Old Harbor Village was the first public housing development in

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

and it remains one of the largest. It comprises more than 1,000 apartments in 22 three-story buildings and 152 row houses. The complex was renamed after the mother of John W. McCormack, former

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, commonly known as the speaker of the House or House speaker, is the Speaker (politics), presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the United ...

, who championed housing and human rights. The Project is best known for being the housing project where

James "Whitey" Bulger James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger Jr. (; September 3, 1929 – October 30, 2018) was an American organized crime boss who led the Winter Hill Gang, an Irish mob group based in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, northwe ...

grew up, and a neighborhood "where court-ordered desegregation of schools through busing led to hostility and violence in the 1970s". The housing project itself was under a HUD approved desegregation plan. As of 2017, the complex has 1,016 subsidized apartments located a short distance from the Red Line rapid transit line and various bus routes.

Renovation proposal

In August 2017, the Boston Housing Authority announced a partnership with WinnCompanies on a $1.6 billion redevelopment project that would replace the 1,016 subsidized apartments with 1,365 mixed-income units, adding middle-income/workforce housing and market-rate rental units and

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...

s to the replacement subsidized units. The proposal also calls for the addition of community space, green space and retail locations, including a

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

History

Renovation proposal

See also

References

Further reading