A window on the neighborhood
Condo owners in 150-year South End fixture are renovating to keep up with surroundings
When the building at the corner of Berkeley and Appleton streets was converted to condominiums in 1982, the South End was a long way from being the hot city neighborhood for young professionals and empty nesters it is today.
A condo conversion was still considered a risky real estate move at the time, and adventurous suburbanites crossed Columbus Avenue for the tabbouleh at the old Red Fez and soul food at Bob the Chef's rather than for gourmet dishes at four-star restaurants with valet parking.
A quarter of a century later, 9 Appleton St. sits in the shadow of high-end developments that have helped redefine the South End as a neighborhood of swank living. That has prompted the owners of the one-time Unitarian meeting house to embark on renovations that, when complete, will give new life to a building that has mirrored the various transformations of the South End for 150 years.
''There is a new generation of owners coming into the building," said John LaFleur, who has owned a condo there since 1987. ''They understand that we need to keep up with our neighbors."
Looking to capitalize on the cachet that upscale residential developments such as Atelier 505 and YooD4, the former police station being renovated with the help of French architect Philippe Starck, have brought to the area, the condo association is funding $60,000 in improvements to the entry on Appleton Street and the interior common spaces. In addition, several of the 34 residential units have been renovated into loftlike spaces with new luxury kitchens and bathrooms, and in-unit laundry facilities.
''Couple that with its central location and there is great potential here," said LaFleur.
Noted Boston architect Charles Bulfinch laid out the first streets of the incipient neighborhood in 1801, and, later in the century, its graceful squares and parks attracted Boston's moneyed business class.
But the South End subsequently endured a long stint as a rundown boardinghouse district, afflicted by arson and abandonment. Its most recent rediscovery has been by upscale urban homeowners drawn to its period architecture and proximity to downtown, the Back Bay, and the neighborhood's restaurants, clubs, and shops.
Built by the congregation of abolitionist and Unitarian preacher Theodore Parker, the four-story Second Empire structure on Appleton Street opened as a meeting house in 1873. By then though, the South End was losing its wealthy population to the Back Bay's larger mansions, upper- and middle-class families were hard hit by a collapsing economy, and the neighborhood gave way to immigrants who transformed Victorian townhouses into tenements and rooming houses.
By 1886, the building was being used for community social work after it was taken over by the Benevolent Fraternity of Unitarian Churches. Above the original entry on Berkeley Street, a huge window depicts the Star of David, leading to erroneous assumptions the building was once a synagogue. Rather, said John Hurley of the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston, the Judaic symbol is more likely a reflection of Unitarians' interest in world religions' coming together.
Like the neighborhood itself, 9 Appleton has since had several incarnations: home to Scottish social groups, a religious group known as the Christadelphians, an antique shop, and by the 1960s, a number of television film producers.
Perhaps its most colorful was as the original home of The Boston Tea Party Club, the edgy night spot that drew youthful Baby Boomers in the late 1960s to hear bands such as Led Zeppelin, the Velvet Underground, and local legend J.Geils.
''People today never experience what it's like to see a national act with just 800 or 900 people in a club like that," said Richard Levin, a Cambridge lawyer who as a high schooler used to ride the Green Line in from Newton to attend shows at the club. ''My friends and I still talk about it when we get together."
The club moved out in the early 1970s and a few years later the building was converted to apartments and later sold as condos, one of the first such conversions in the South End. Many of the buyers were investors who rented their units to the students, waiters, and artists who were the new breed of South Enders at the time.
Today, 9 Appleton is mostly owner-occupied, says LaFleur, who plans to expand his one-bedroom condo into an adjacent studio unit he recently purchased. He also co-owns two studios that were gutted and modernized with new wiring, heating, windows, and hardwood floors and are on the market for $419,000 and $379,000.
Julie Holenport, a real estate broker with Coldwell Banker in the South End, is listing a one-bedroom she owns for $469,000. Her just-finished renovation turned the 830-square-foot space into an open floor-plan living/dining/kitchen area separated from the bedroom, bath, and laundry by a hallway.
The cheery apartment sits above the
''When you're sitting down, you get a great view down Appleton Street," she said.
Next door, her neighbor Kathleen Alexander, a broker with Century 21 Cityside and a part-time potter, has begun hosting occasional art open houses in the 940-square-foot condo she renovated and moved into a year ago.
''This building and this neighborhood are filled with creative people and I love bringing them together," she said. ''This side of Berkeley Street has sort of been on the fringe of the South End, but I think great things are going to start to happen here."
Several of the units at 9 Appleton can viewed during an open house today from noon to 3 p.m. For information visit appletonstreet.com or call 617-306-6264.
Gail Ravgiala can be reached at ravgiala@globe.com. 
