Boys & Girls Club for sale (Revised post)

I was told tonight by a local resident that the Salesians have sold the property at 189 Paris Street -- which housed a Boys & Girls Club for decades -- to Massport, which intends to use that lot for the affordable housing piece of the East Pier project. However, I have no confirmation on any of this, and a second source tells me that the building is, in fact, for sale, but hasn't been sold yet.

I saw a letter that was signed by Fr. John Nazzaro, the Club's new executive director, to Club members recently and is also on the web site. It says in part:

This is just a reminder that our Club opens on September 24, 2007. We are all looking forward to having you enjoy the wonderful programs we have planned for you.

This year we will be opening the Club full-time at our Byron Street Unit (Savio Hall). Unfortunately, we will not be able to open our Paris Street Unit, but we will have a van which will transport any Club member from the Paris Street area to Byron Street.

I will say right here that Fr. Nazzaro is a stand-up guy who I've known for years, though he is not my source on this, and I haven't spoken to him in weeks.

To fill in the blanks a little for those unaware of the finer points, the Salesians of Don Bosco are an order of the Catholic Church whose mission is to work with young people. The group has facilities, as well as priests and brothers, throughout the world. The main office for the works located in the eastern half of the US is in New Rochelle, NY.

The Salesians came to East Boston in 1945 and bought the Paris Street property in 1947. Eventually they started St. Dominic Savio High School at the corner of Bennington and Byron streets and the Salesian Boys & Girls Club at 189 Paris Street. As a teenager I attended the Club, which was on the opposite side of the block I grew up on, and I went to Savio. I would go on to work at both places.

The Salesians had other works in New England: a camp at Barrington, NH; a retreat house in Ipswich, MA; and Don Bosco Technical High School in downtown Boston. With fewer people dedicating themselves to religious life, the Salesians hired more lay staff to operate their facilities. This increased costs, as did the skyrocketing price of health care as more and more of their priests and brothers got older and retired, ending up at nursing homes. Barrington and Ipswich were sold, and Bosco and Savio were closed (though Savio was reopened by a lay board until last year).

That left the Boys & Girls Club, but dwindling resources seem to have impacted that program as well. Paris Street was an institution for a long time, and I met hundreds of people there who I now call friends.