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

housing project Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, d ...

opposite Joe Moakley Park in

South Boston South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. South Boston, colloquially known as Southie, has undergone several demographic transformati ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

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 comprising 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 to the west and by the Canadian province ...

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, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the ...

, who championed housing and human rights. The Project is best known for being the housing project where James "Whitey" Bulger 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"WinnDevelopment Chosen to Redevelop the Mary Ellen McCormack Public Housing Development"
WinnCompanies website on a $1.6 billion redevelopment project that would replace the 1,016 subsidized apartments with 3,139 mixed-income units, adding middle-income/workforce housing and market-rate rental units and

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...

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 shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more lim ...

History

Renovation proposal

See also

References

Further reading