Press
SUMNER HILL IN Jamaica Plain is one of Boston’s most architecturally enchanting neighborhoods. With its distinctive “Painted Ladies”—ornate 19th-century homes done up in bright palettes with fanciful exterior details—set amid rambling yards, it seems a world away from downtown (even if it’s a mere four miles to the west).
How did Sumner Hill become a picture of late Victorian style? Gretchen Grozier, president of the Jamaica Plain Historical Society, explains that the neighborhood developed when General William Hyslop Sumner married into a prominent Boston family, the Greenoughs, and settled here in the late 1870s. He then encouraged his high-profile colleagues to follow his lead. Aided by a newly constructed network of streetcar and railway lines, many of Boston’s elite abandoned their city residences for this area. Armed with money and fashionable tastes, they commissioned the era’s best architects—William Ralph Emerson and William Ware, among others—to build their Queen Anne–style mansions.
Today, Jamaica Plain is a vibrant community known for its hip restaurants and lush greenery. As for the Sumner Hill manses, most remain lovingly preserved single-family dwellings, but are no longer home to just the city’s upper crust. Grozier says modern-day Sumner Hill is filled with “families with kids, fourth-generation residents, and young couples walking their dogs.”
Originally published in Boston Home, Spring 2010
Old Jamaica Plain High School becomes condominiums
High atop Sumner Hill in Jamaica Plain at the end of Greenough Street, overlooking Stony Brook Valley, is the Sumner Hill House, a grand residential complex that was a school for more than 80 years.
Today the building houses 75 apartments and is undergoing a condo conversion.
Twenty-two market-rate homes are available, and Michael Dorion and Juan Murray of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage are selling them.
Current residents have purchased 33 of the units, many of them their own apartments, and another 20 units will be offered for sale to first-time buyers through a lottery by the Jamaica Plain Housing Trust.
Sumner Hill is a delightful neighborhood of narrow, tree-lined streets and Victorian homes. It was declared a National Historic District in 1987.
The building is historic in its own right. Before becoming a residential complex, the red brick Tudor-like structure at 76 Elm St. was Jamaica Plain High School until the city declared it surplus in 1980. It was previously known as the West Roxbury High School.
Read more
Sumner Hill House turns into affordable condos
Sumner Hill House has long been one of Jamaica Plain’s affordable-housing success stories. The
former Jamaica Plain High School at 76 Elm St. was renovated into a handsome, historic housing
complex in 1986. It may look like the expensive Victorian mansions and condos around it, but
two-thirds of the 75 rental units inside were priced for low- and moderate-income tenants.
But subsidies that allowed for that affordability are expiring. Now the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC), which is a partner in the neighborhood trust that owns the
building, is seeking a new path to success by converting 30 units into condos selling at below-market
prices—largely to current tenants.
JPNDC purchased another 20 units to preserve as low-income rental housing. The remaining units will become “market-rate” condos—though the average selling price of $250,000 is still well below the neighborhood’s luxury-level prices.
"The Sumner Hill House is an example of what can happen when the community works together to create housing that is affordable to people at different income levels," said JPNDC Executive Director Richard Thal in a press statement.
Read more
Learn about the Sumner Hill Historic District
The National Register of Historic Places is the nation’s official list of cultural resources worthy of
preservation. Authorized under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Register is
part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate,
and protect our historic and archeological resources. Properties listed in the Register include districts,
sites, buildings, structures, and objects that are significant in American history, architecture,
archeology, engineering, and culture. The National Park Service, part of the U.S. Department of the
Interior, administers the National Register. The text below is excerpted from the registration form
submitted to the National Park Service in 1987. Brian Pfeiffer, Architectural Conservation Trust; Carol
Kennedy, Boston Landmarks Commission; and Nancy Friedberg, National Register Director, prepared
the form. The nomination form is dated April 1985; revised June 1986.
The Sumner Hill Historic District is located in the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood of Boston, approximately seven miles southwest of the city center, in an area roughly bounded by Seaverns Avenue, Centre Street, South Street, Carolina Avenue, and the Southwest Corridor. The district, which encompasses 365 acres, contains 63 buildings and 18 structures, of which 28 buildings are designated as non-contributing due primarily to severe alteration, temporary nature, or recent age rather than intrusion. In the following description, the district’s architectural development is described chronologically by style with selected buildings offered as outstanding and/or characteristic examples of particular styles.
Read more
LOCATION. STYLE. CLASS.
Old Jamaica Plain High School becomes condominiums
High atop Sumner Hill in Jamaica Plain at the end of Greenough Street, overlooking Stony Brook Valley, is the Sumner Hill House, a grand residential complex that was a school for more than 80 years.
Today the building houses 75 apartments and is undergoing a condo conversion.
Twenty-two market-rate homes are available, and Michael Dorion and Juan Murray of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage are selling them.
Current residents have purchased 33 of the units, many of them their own apartments, and another 20 units will be offered for sale to first-time buyers through a lottery by the Jamaica Plain Housing Trust.
Sumner Hill is a delightful neighborhood of narrow, tree-lined streets and Victorian homes. It was declared a National Historic District in 1987.
The building is historic in its own right. Before becoming a residential complex, the red brick Tudor-like structure at 76 Elm St. was Jamaica Plain High School until the city declared it surplus in 1980. It was previously known as the West Roxbury High School.
Read more
Sumner Hill House turns into affordable condos
Sumner Hill House has long been one of Jamaica Plain’s affordable-housing success stories. The
former Jamaica Plain High School at 76 Elm St. was renovated into a handsome, historic housing
complex in 1986. It may look like the expensive Victorian mansions and condos around it, but
two-thirds of the 75 rental units inside were priced for low- and moderate-income tenants.
But subsidies that allowed for that affordability are expiring. Now the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC), which is a partner in the neighborhood trust that owns the
building, is seeking a new path to success by converting 30 units into condos selling at below-market
prices—largely to current tenants.
JPNDC purchased another 20 units to preserve as low-income rental housing. The remaining units will become “market-rate” condos—though the average selling price of $250,000 is still well below the neighborhood’s luxury-level prices.
"The Sumner Hill House is an example of what can happen when the community works together to create housing that is affordable to people at different income levels," said JPNDC Executive Director Richard Thal in a press statement.
Read more
Learn about the Sumner Hill Historic District
The National Register of Historic Places is the nation’s official list of cultural resources worthy of
preservation. Authorized under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Register is
part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate,
and protect our historic and archeological resources. Properties listed in the Register include districts,
sites, buildings, structures, and objects that are significant in American history, architecture,
archeology, engineering, and culture. The National Park Service, part of the U.S. Department of the
Interior, administers the National Register. The text below is excerpted from the registration form
submitted to the National Park Service in 1987. Brian Pfeiffer, Architectural Conservation Trust; Carol
Kennedy, Boston Landmarks Commission; and Nancy Friedberg, National Register Director, prepared
the form. The nomination form is dated April 1985; revised June 1986.
The Sumner Hill Historic District is located in the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood of Boston, approximately seven miles southwest of the city center, in an area roughly bounded by Seaverns Avenue, Centre Street, South Street, Carolina Avenue, and the Southwest Corridor. The district, which encompasses 365 acres, contains 63 buildings and 18 structures, of which 28 buildings are designated as non-contributing due primarily to severe alteration, temporary nature, or recent age rather than intrusion. In the following description, the district’s architectural development is described chronologically by style with selected buildings offered as outstanding and/or characteristic examples of particular styles.
Read more