Tour Notes

176 Lincoln Street

• Carnegie Steel Company Warehouse as early as 1916, but abandoned by the 80s
• Set to become a state of the art data center around 2000, then the dotcom bubble burst
• Redevelopment plans approved in 2023, with offices, lab space, and residential
• Plans stalled again as demand for offices and lab space fell
• Very recently proposed to develop just the residential portion - with a reconfigured mix of affordable units and a scaled down parking garage

Barry’s Corner (180 Western Ave)

• A small neighborhood, razed in the late 60s by the Boston Redevelopment Authority
• Residents protested the plan to turn their neighborhood into a large luxury apartment complex, but were largely unsuccessful
• Proposal in 2020 to replace the lot with a new residential building and retail space, approved in 2023
• No updates since 2023

Allumination Mural (273 Western Ave)

• Former mattress supply store, Bonnie Foam Rubber
• Turned into a mural by the Harvard-funded Zone 3 program
• No current plans for development on the site

Skating Club (1240 Soldiers Field Road)

• Club was established in 1912, and used this building as their home from 1938-2020
• Original plan to relocate to Lincoln St didn’t work out
• Club built a new rink in Norwood and sold this site to a local real estate company
• Ambitious housing project (14+ stories!) was proposed in 2020, and approved in 2023
• No updates since 2023 - despite extra money being allocated through the state’s “Momentum Fund”

500 Western Ave

• Formerly an Irving gas station
• Plans to build a 6 story, 116-unit apartment building with 133 parking spaces (64 as “district parking”)
• Only site being developed by the individual owner
• No updates since 2023 - high cost of constructing a multi-level parking garage a likely reason

Resources

• Atlascope - http://www.atlascope.org/
• Boston Planning Department - https://www.bostonplans.org
• Brighton-Allston Historical Society - https://www.bahistory.org/
• Universal Hub - https://www.universalhub.com/