East Boston rolls out the welcome (back) mat
Renovated factory and other projects allow more from the old neighborhood to go home
Jo Ann Fitzgerald's story is as ''East Boston" as Santarpio's Pizza.
She grew up in a triple-decker on Cottage Street, where three generations of the Italian side of her family lived under the same roof. Her grandparents bought the house after arriving from Salerno, Italy, in 1917 and lived on the second floor with four of their eventual seven children.
Her grandfather, a shoemaker, opened a shop a few doors down and rented out the first-floor apartment to a young woman from New Jersey and her three sons.
''My mother ended up marrying one of the sons," Fitzgerald said.
''Then my parents moved to the third floor, where I was born." Fitzgerald, however, moved to Worcester in 1987. But now she has returned to the old neighborhood -- just yards away from the house on Cottage Street where she was born. She's one of many who bought a loft at Porter 156, a converted warehouse by Logan Airport that once housed a
And despite the old adage, Fitzgerald was delighted to find that, sometimes, you can go home again.
Like others who have moved back to East Boston, Fitzgerald returned to a neighborhood that, despite some dramatic changes, remains very much the same. In the local markets, for example, mothers still yell at their kids in their native tongues. But the language today is often Spanish, not Italian.
On the squares, Salvadoran and Brazilian restaurants mingle with old-school Italian eateries and specialty grocery stores that are part bodega, part salumeria.
On the streets, the triple-deckers remain, but some are now luxury condominiums.
Fitzgerald may be in an early wave of former East Boston residents who are returning home, whether to downsize from a larger place, invest in a hot real estate market, or simply return to a city life they've missed.
''The neighborhood's more accessible now," said Larry Army, a mortgage broker for Sunset Mortgage in Framingham who has helped baby boomers in the western suburbs move back to the city. ''There is already less tunnel traffic and there will be a lot more green space" once the East Boston Greenway nearby is completed. ''And let's face it, there's simply more to do in Boston than in Andover or Southbridge." Porter 156 is the first in a series of big residential developments coming to East Boston. The lofts, which include underground parking, range from 700 to 1,500 square feet, start in the mid-$200,000s, and rise to the high-$500,000s.
Aside from a few two-level penthouse units, the lofts feature single-floor living with 10- to 19-foot glass windows, many with views of the Boston skyline. All units have concrete ceilings, bamboo flooring, and stainless steel appliances and residents share access to a large community roof deck.
The lofts nearly sold out in the preconstruction phase and many in East Boston predict other developments planned in the neighborhood -- on Pier One, at the Hodge Boiler Works and Clippership Wharf -- will be similarly popular.
Some are already chomping at the bit. ''People are constantly coming up to me and asking, 'When are they putting shovels in dirt down there,' " said Mary Ellen Welch, a lifelong East Boston resident and community activist. Welch's Jeffries Point home overlooks Pier One, and its drop-dead view of downtown Boston. The Portside at Pier One development, slated to break ground this spring, will bring 490 luxury condo units as well as restaurants and retail space to the East Boston waterfront.
Such development, though, often comes at a price, and with a pejorative label: gentrification. But could someone such as Fitzgerald be a gentrifier for moving back into her own neighborhood?
''I do struggle with the idea that the neighborhood will become gentrified," she said. ''I was drawn back to the neighborhood because of the mixture of people who live in East Boston. I think it is important this neighborhood remains affordable for young families and for seniors who have lived here all their lives."
And indeed, throughout East Boston, Hispanic families, like Italians before them, are buying triple-deckers and moving in with their entire families. While next door, a private developer may be converting a similar building to luxury condos.
So for now, East Boston's reputation as an immigrant hub seems safe.
Once overwhelmingly Italian, the neighborhood is now 39 percent Latino; the rest is a hodgepodge of Italians, Irish, African-Americans, Southeast Asians, and Eastern Europeans. Many thriving local businesses are also owned by immigrants.
It remains a tightknit community; where Sunday Mass at Most Holy Redeemer church is so large, with its congregation of Italians, Hispanics, and Brazilians, that crowds often spill out onto Maverick Street.
Another positive sign: much of the home-buying is not coming from outside property speculators, but rather from professionals and immigrants who are moving in and building lives here.
''The majority of properties I've sold stay owner-occupied, which is crucial if a community is to thrive," said Saul Perlera, who moved to East Boston from El Salvador 19 years ago and owns Perlera Real Estate.
This is much different, he said, from the speculative market of the 1980s when absentee landlords allowed properties -- and property values -- to deteriorate.
But as East Boston undergoes a makeover, many of its once-boarded-up homes are getting stainless steel and Jacuzzi jets. While the neighborhood at large still resembles the ''before" picture, artists' renderings of projects yet to come paint a preview of the ''after." At the tumbledown Hodge Boiler Works on Sumner Street, where the boiler for the African Queen of Bogart movie fame was made, a new waterfront development will feature a mix of 116 luxury condominiums, an eight-unit bed-and-breakfast, a cafe, and a 100-slip marina. In addition, the Boiler Works is being designed to use solar power and electrical energy.
Like the Portside at Pier One development, the Clippership Wharf project will revive a rickety old wharf on Lewis Street, building 400 condos and retail space on 13 acres of waterfront.
With all of these developments looming, residents who are returning are finding that East Boston is, like, hip now.
''Growing up, Jeffries Point was where the bad boys lived. Now it's among the most desirable real estate in the city. I love that," said Elaine Leete, who returned to East Boston in September after living in Winchester and Falmouth for more than 20 years. She and her husband bought a 696-square-foot loft at Porter 156 for $217,900.
Leete also wants East Boston to remain diverse but said the lofts, similar to the Greenway and the $17 million Piers Park, help to showcase East Boston's potential.
''People are finally realizing what a little gem we have over here," said Leete. ''Not just the views and being close to the city, but the community as well." Ernie Torgersen, executive director of East Boston Main Streets, said the neighborhood will continue to draw in people such as Leete and Fitzgerald who are attracted to its eclectic mix of culture, community, and convenience.
''In many ways, our diversity is as much an attraction as the new developments," he said. ''This is a community that gets along. The young professionals, the immigrants, the people who've lived here their whole lives all go to the same restaurants and bars, the same gyms and markets and dry cleaners. That doesn't happen anywhere else."
