The Advent School is considering expanding beyond its Brimmer Street address to the Charles Street Meeting House.
“We’re investigating the potential,” said head of school, Nancy Harris Frohlich. She said the school signed a letter of intent with the building’s owner, John Sharratt, and will work with consultants to see if it suits their needs and if the project is feasible.
The meetinghouse currently is being used for office space, and has been owned by Sharratt since the 1980s.
The Charles Street Meeting House, at 70 Charles Street, is a historic church built in 1804 by architect Asher Benjamin. The meeting house's original congregation was the Third Baptist Church, which used the nearby Charles River for its baptisms.
In the years before the American Civil War, the meetinghouse was where anti-slavery activists Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth delivered speeches. It housed an African Methodist Episcopal from 1876 to 1939, an Albanian Orthodox Church, and a Universalist Church of America turned Unitarian Universalist Association until 1979.
In the 1980s, local architect John Sharratt bought the church and converted it into office and retail space. The meetinghouse remains part of the Boston Black Heritage Trail, and a Christmas tree is set up there every year for the community.
Harris Frohlich said the historic space would most likely be used for grades 4-6 and some offices, school gatherings and group activities. Lower grades would be kept on Brimmer Street, which is about a three-minute walk away. “We would change nothing of the exterior,” she said. “It’s a historic landmark. It’s got the original clock in it, the original bell. It really has quite an amazing history.”
The head of school also seeks a lot of parallels between her school and the meetinghouse. “We share a common purpose,” she said. “We have a tradition of social justice and environmental sustainability, and the meetinghouse has a history of social reform.”
Parents who have heard about the move have been encouraging, said Harris Frohlich, who is excited about the possibility of combining the classroom space with hands-on lessons about its history. “We see it as a wonderful opportunity, a tremendous overlap in our mission and the mission of the meetinghouse, and that is tremendously appealing.”
The building hasn’t been purchased yet, and Harris Frohlich declined to mention what they may pay for the property. “If we were to go forward, it would be a couple of years before work is done,” he said.

The Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) unanimously rejected the application of Hat Realty Trust last week to install two billboards atop the Red Hat Pub building.
Sponsor Spot, a small Boston advertising firm, wanted to put up two 25-by 40-foot signs along the brickwork. Residents and many local officials argued against the bid, citing its impact on the historic nature of the hill and attempts to beautify the street. It filed another try recently, and asked the board to reconsider the ruling, because “we believe it was issued erroneously,” said the legal team.
They sought a conditional permit or a variance, but ZBA Chair Robert Shortsleeve told the group he wouldn’t consider a reinterpretation of the appeal, since it hadn’t been filed as a request for a reinterpretation; that otherwise, there was no additional information presented that would qualify for an appeal; and that he was comfortable with the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s recommendation two years ago to deny the billboard as inappropriate for an historic neighborhood.
The applicant, Michael Schifino, and Commonwealth Avenue-based Sponsor Spot had applied to erect two 875-square-foot signs on a Cambridge Street façade, a project denied by the Beacon Hill Civic Association (BHCA) and the city’s Board of Appeal. In response, Sponsor Spot filed suit against the city, arguing that the decision infringed upon First and 14th Amendment rights.
Attorney Don Wiest insisted they had filed their appeal correctly, but after the ZBA insisted the appeal wouldn’t be considered, they remained quiet as residents and political aides lined up to reject the sign, including: reps on behalf of Mayor Thomas Menino, councilors Sal LaMattina, Michael Ross, and At-Large Councilor Michael Flaherty; State Rep. Marty Walz; Tom Clemens from the Beacon Hill Civic Association; the board chair of 10 Bowdoin St., who presented 150 signatures in opposition; and many residents who also opposed the signs.
The ZBA unanimously supported a motion to deny the application for relief, and board member Anthony Pisani encouraged them to file for an interpretation.
“We are in the process of figuring out our next steps,” said Sponsor Spot co-owner Damien Jacob, who had argued that the building is not in the architectural historic district. “It hurts to hear and actually see all the opposition to our project, but that is what free speech is all about, so I am proud of the residents who spoke their mind. … We have a great deal of respect and affection for the BHCA and residents after today’s hearing.”
According to one media report, Damien Jacob has threatened to erect a large sign of Ben Franklin, the “patron saint of advertising,” in protest of what he sees as a violation of the First Amendment. When Sponsor Spot lost a similar bid in Worcester, company owners plastered Franklin on the wall. When the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) joined the argument, arguing it was political speech, Worcester backed down. An ACLU lawyer who worked on the Worcester case said such a tactic could work in Boston, too, especially since other commercial signs line the Cambridge Street skyline.

The Hat Realty’s repeated attempts to erect a new billboard along the top of a Cambridge Street building brings new light to some fairly dusty proposals for Beacon Hill.
Changing the zoning to expand the Beacon Hill Historic District into Cambridge Street has been discussed for 15 years, most recently taken up by Councilor Michael Ross.
He’s been working to officially convert Cambridge Street, at least the half that is on the Beacon Hill side, into a historic district, a move that would further protect the area from such billboards as that on the Red Hat building.
“We’re working with [Boston Environment Department Director] Brian Glascock, trying to figure out how to protect the area,” said Ross. “What we think we’re going to do is talk to the BRA about some thoughts about signs, codes, districts. I’m not sure what the options are yet. This has been limping along. It’s not a traditional kind of solution. The problem is that we would have to amend the zoning code, so we’d have to create that, then we would meet with people, and gain consensus.”
In the last version of his proposal, he’d extend the historic district beyond the current street, which is 40 feet shy of the southern edge of the street. He’d also limit “inappropriate” signs, and eliminate every news box on the south side of the street. However, that side of Cambridge Street isn’t totally lined with attractive Beacon Hill storefronts. When Cambridge Street was widened in the 1920s, storefronts were ripped off and buildings were demolished, replaced with undistinguished one- and two-story buildings that many think are too short for the street.
The part of the Red Hat Building that would get the billboard treatment has an ancient outline of what is referred to as a “ghost house,” an outline of the building ripped out from in front of the Red Hat building facing Cambridge Street.
“It’s hard to know what the next step is,” said Beacon Hill Civic Association (BHCA) Chair John Achatz.
That would be the purpose of the BHCA’s Planning and Research Committee, which recently began to study the changes that the area is going through, in order to determine what direction the area should strategically move into next.
Co-chaired By Tad Stahl and Ania Camargo, a few years ago this committee began to look at the hill’s demographic data and task planning documents from area residential associations. “The central idea is to pull together some written documentation about what the neighborhood would be like in 10-20 years, and what Beacon Hill residents can do to improve life here during that time period,” said Achatz.
Beacon Hill is experiencing huge changes, with MGH’s and Suffolk’s expansion plans, the new Liberty Hotel, improvements along Cambridge Street, and other projects. But if the residents don’t have a plan, then they will be in danger of not getting their needs met, he said.
“We want to be proactive, and plan the things we want, rather than what people put out as proposals,” Achatz added. The committee was completely distracted with Suffolk University’s expansion plans, until recently, when the civic association decided to take it off the shelf, said Achatz.
Their first steps will be to collect data on the area, and then hold some public meetings to assemble ideas, he said, giving such examples as the historic district expansion and adding a public school. “There are a lot of complaints about rooftop air conditioners that are noisy and block views,” said Achatz. “Beacon Hill is the only district [in Boston] without a regulation for rooftop equipment.”
However, he said, the committee is just in the early stages, and it may be until spring before they hold significant meetings on this issue.

Sonia Chang-Diaz’s campaign for the Second Suffolk senate seat is in gear, with volunteers working the phones to call the elderly during the day, and non-seniors at night, said campaign manager Deb Shaw.
“We’re canvassing every day and weekends before dark,” she said, adding that volunteers aren’t allowed to go out after dark. Over the weekend, mail has been hitting voter doors, and this week, there will be more canvassing, a house party for the campaign tomorrow at Shaw’s house on Tremont Street, and mostly sign-holding.
“We work at least 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, seven days a week, often later than that,” said Shaw. “I haven’t added up the number of hours we’ve worked on this. That would be pretty scary. Sonia is extraordinarily hardworking.”
The headquarters in Jamaica Plain sees new volunteers every day. “Dozens and dozens of people are calling to express support or to do volunteering,” said Shaw, who’s trying to figure out where to hold the election night party, not only for their own campaign. “We’re all anxious to see the results of the national election,” she said. “The night won’t be limited to what’s going on in Second Suffolk.”
The campaign has since collected a slew of endorsements following Chang-Diaz’s narrow win over incumbent Wilkerson, who is now running a sticker campaign.
Repeated calls to Wilkerson’s campaign were not returned, but they issued a sole press release to us this week, charging the Chang-Diaz camp with deceptively listing on her website an endorsement from El Mundo, the Hispanic newspaper. Alberto Vasallo, El Mundo's editor in chief, said his paper never endorsed Chang-Diaz.
"I think there was a mix-up," Vasallo said. The website is linked to an El Mundo column by an editor, Maximo Torres, that endorses Chang-Diaz, but, Vasallo said, that was only Torres' opinion and didn’t represent an endorsement of the paper.
Shaw called it an honest mistake, and said she would be taking down the endorsement. However, in a response sent along by Wilkerson’s campaign, former Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General Brian Monahan stated on PolitickerMA.com that the endorsement questions the “credibility, integrity and honesty” of the candidate, and that this case is being referred to the Ethics Commission and the attorney general.

Get out and vote

Next week, we elect a president and vice president at a time when the future of the economy appears to be hanging in the balance. American hegemony also hangs in the balance. And whether or not we go into the future as the world’s brightest hope is largely dependent on the outcome of this election.
We will not tell you who to vote for. In this blue region of the nation, voters are very hip and not terribly undecided about for whom they’ll cast their vote.
Bostonians, by and large, are American patriots, even though our patriotism is being questioned because we are easterners and live an urban and urbane existence in one of the most liberal areas of the nation.
The presidential election itself this time around is profound political business. It is the stuff of history.
It may very well turn out to be a seminal moment in the life and times of the United States and for the world, for that matter.
We will go on with the Republicans or we will choose the Democrats.
It is as simple as that.
Whatever way we go, it will ultimately be the result of the will of the people, united in the belief in American democracy, and once again proving that American democracy is the strongest in the world.
This giant, lurching, pulsating nation of ours elects its leaders, while a vast majority of the nations on this earth have leaders chosen because of birthright or by military rulers or are led by dictators who are the only name on the ballot.
In Boston alone, more than 50,000 new voters have registered to vote in this election.
It is a similar situation throughout the nation, where millions of new voters have shown a desire to be heard.
And they will be heard.
Next Tuesday, the world will await the outcome of this important election.
And when it is done, when a winner has been established, a new American president and vice president will have been elected without coercion, by a vote of the people.
It is one of the wonders of this nation that we will honor the outcome of that vote, whatever it is, that we will inaugurate a new leader in January, and that we will move on to the imperatives of an uncertain future that awaits us.
God bless the United States of America.