Those who have ventured across the North Washington Bridge into Boston have probably wondered what will ultimately become of the waterfront area. And now, much to the dismay of some neighbors, one developer has big plans for Lovejoy Wharf.

“The fact that it is going to be a viable and lively section will bring positive activity back to the area. This will bring people into the area and show them what a great resource it is,” said Jane Forrestall, a director of the Downtown North Association, West End Place resident and founding member of the West End Council.

“Anybody who does anything to Lovejoy Wharf is going to [improve it].”

Ajax Investment Partners, LLC of Lexington, Mass., is serving as development manager for the proposed $85 million rehabilitation of Lovejoy Wharf, according to an environmental/project notification form issued by Epsilon Associates, Inc., an engineering and environmental consulting firm based in Maynard, Mass. The plan calls for the rehabilitation of a building at 160 North Washington Street and the demolition of another building at 131 Beverly Street to create a mixed-use facility for residential and commercial purposes. Ajax acquired both buildings from Chardon Realty, a company owned by the Hoffman family which has extensive real estate and business interests in Boston.

The proposed facility would include 260 residential units and approximately 38,000 square feet of ground-level retail space that could accommodate restaurants and a fitness center. In addition, the facility would include 361 parking spaces, 100 of which would be reserved for commercial patrons. The Lovejoy Wharf project also includes the rehabilitation of the existing wharf that would allow the Harborwalk — a 46.9-mile stretch along Boston’s waterfront — to extend out to the new site. Along the wharf side of the proposed facility, hard and soft “scapes” would provide grassy rest areas for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Nowadays, the property at 160 North Washington Street is still used for offices. The building at 131 Beverly Street, which once served as warehouse space, has sat dormant since use of its loading docks and parking were lost due to Central Artery/Tunnel Project construction in the ‘90s.
With the imminent redevelopment of the Bulfinch Triangle District, Lovejoy Wharf abuts a neighborhood that is undergoing a considerable transformation.

Ajax spokesman Robert Easton said Lovejoy Wharf, which faces the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, is located in “the northern gateway to the city.” The new bridge carries roughly 250,000 cars, along with an additional 60,000 cars that come from Charlestown across the North Washington Bridge, into the city each day, he said.

But even with all the obvious benefits of rehabilitating Lovejoy Wharf, some local residents look upon the project with skepticism and feel left out of the decision-making process.

“I think we’re generally supportive of building but disregarding the concerns of the neighbor next door has tainted the process from the get-go,” said Jennifer Hertz, who owns a condominium in the nearby Strada234 complex on Causeway Street.

Hertz and her neighbors recently found out that Ajax plans to raise the buildings at Lovejoy Wharf to the maximum allowable height of 155 feet. She said the realtor assured residents, many of whom paid in excess of $500,00 per unit, that construction at Lovejoy Wharf wouldn’t obscure their views, but now this doesn’t appear to be the case.

“Almost the entire north side of the [Strada234] building will almost be in the shade with the increased height,” she said. “Everyone’s very angry and feels misled. It has the potential to get ugly.”

In addition, Hertz said she feared a decrease in parking and an increase in traffic would result from the Lovejoy Wharf project. Subsequently, she indicated that some Strada234 residents are considering legal action to hinder construction.

Presently, an amendment to the Municipal Harbor Plan must be secured to permit the proposed increase in height, said Bob O’Brien, executive director of the Downtown North Association. The BRA and representatives from the community will then take part in a review process. O’Brien said he expects the permitting process will take “a year or so” and construction could start as early as spring 2006.

Caption: While Department of Conservation and Recreation landscape architect Matt Thurlow and Esplanade Association Director of Planning Herb Nolan watch, DCR forester Peter XXX drives a stake in the ground to identify a proposed site for the planting of a cherry tree.

Rain, sleet and snow didn’t stop a group of committed residents from finding new homes on the Esplanade for the 100 controversial cherry trees now lining the Storrow Lagoon.

A working group convened by the Department of Conservation and Recreation presented the initial draft of a relocation plan for the trees to the Boston Conservation Commission last week. Department of Conservation and Recreation representative Patrice Kish said the working group, which contains representatives from the DCR, Massachusetts Historical Commission, Boston Preservation Alliance, Conservation Commission, Community Boating, Esplanade Association, Beacon Hill Civic Association, Garden Club of the Back Bay and Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, had met several times and subsequently assembled on the Esplanade to pick out spots where the trees could be planted.

Kish said the group had thus far found new homes for 85 of the 100 cherry trees, a gift from Citizen’s Bank President Larry Fish and his wife Atsuko Fish, which the DCR originally planted in a line along Storrow Lagoon. A subsequent outcry from neighbors and community groups about blocked river views and the state’s failure to follow the master plan resulted in an agreement by the DCR to move the trees this spring.

Tish said the working group identified picturesque locations using the historic plan created by landscape architect Arthur Shurcliff in the 1930s. Trees will be clustered between the Hatch Shall and the Storrow Lagoon that not only frame river views and create transitions between plantings, but also are most appropriate for their survival.

State Representative Marty Walz assured commission members that the process was indeed a group effort. She said that some members spent three hours on an inclement January morning tagging the trees and engaging in “healthy debates” about where they should be relocated. “There was lots of giving and taking, but we reached a consensus on the location of almost every tree,” she said.

Only one resident spoke in opposition to the proposed plan at the hearing. Kathleen Kolar of Marlborough Street questioned whether it was environmentally sound to group trees of the same species so near the water. Asking the commission to oppose the plan, she said “It’s a bad idea to plant single species so close together, especially cherry trees that are subject to blight. Fertilizer is needed to maintain the trees, and if they get bugs, they will need to be sprayed. This may affect the future swimability of the river.”

Commission member Stephen Kunian asked Kish to submit a maintenance plan that would address this issue when she returns to the commission on February 16 with the finalized relocation plan.

The DCR plans to hold a public meeting soon. Sharon Malt, president of the Esplanade Association, said her group would do whatever it could to insure that a public process takes place.

The tale of five-year-old Sarah Roberts, whose father sued the City of Boston in 1849 to gain her access to a white school, is little known. And yet, it is a story of great significance because it led to the desegregation of Massachusetts’s public schools.

It was during a 1999 visit to the museum in Memphis where Martin Luther King was assassinated that Stephen Kendrick and his son Paul first heard the story of young Sarah and her obscure court case that had gone all the way to the Massachusetts Supreme Court. They wondered why they had never heard about this case before.

Then, in 2001, the family found themselves living on Beacon Hill. Stephen and Paul vowed to find out more about this largely unknown case and how the whites and blacks in one small neighborhood worked together to change the face of America.

“It’s an amazing story that Beacon Hill has to tell,” said Stephen Kendrick of Chestnut Street, who came from Connecticut to serve as minister of the First and Second (Unitarian) Church on Marlborough Street. He and his son said they were so moved by this community and its leadership role in the civil rights movement that they knew they had to tell the story.

Stephen had already written two books, a novel, “Night Watch,” as well as “Holy Clues: The Gospel According to Sherlock Holmes.” Paul, a student at George Washington University, had never before written a book, but his father knew their writing styles were compatible. Paul took a semester off from school, and father and son spent two years researching and writing “Sarah’s Long Walk: The Free Blacks of Boston and How Their Struggle for Equality Changed America,” which will be released in February by the Beacon Press.

It is a warm readable book that tells of a father’s love for his daughter and what it was like to live as a black on Beacon Hill in the mid-nineteenth century. It is a story of a great achievement accomplished by ordinary people who crossed the line (Pinckney Street) that separated the white and wealthy from the black and poor to create social change.

“At that time, Beacon Hill was a microcosm of America in a small space. It was a hopeful time because whites and blacks lived and worked together on this case, and the one time that blacks led the movement,” said Stephen.

The book is a well-researched legal thriller, telling the story of a court battle that kicked off more than a hundred years of arguments by black lawyers determined to put an end to young children being excluded from public schools simply because they were black.

In 1849 Sarah Roberts was forced to walk past five white schools to the under-funded and overcrowded Abiel School on Smith Court, off Joy Street, on Beacon Hill. Her father, Benjamin Roberts, hired black attorney Robert Morris and white attorney Charles Sumner to prosecute the case.

They lost the case in 1850 and Chief Justice Lemuel wrote a decision that laid the groundwork for the “separate but equal” standard.

But, on the streets of Boston, they won the case. Five years later, a liberal reformer successfully used the arguments from the Roberts case, and Boston became the first major city to desegregate its schools. It was more than 100 years later in 1952 that Brown vs. Board of Education overturned the doctrine of separate but equal, and schools were forced to integrate nationwide.

The Kendricks want this story to be heard because they believe history is inspirational and lessons can be learned that make today’s life better. Both are concerned that Boston is now living in an age of re-segregation, and they are passionate that people look at the moral message of Sarah’s story as a lesson on what people can do better today.

“The story speaks to today,” said Paul. “In 2005, Massachusetts schools are very unequal. We need to look at these people. If they could do the job in 1850, why can’t we do better in 2005? We need to be inspired to embrace their legacy.”

Now 21, Paul has a true passion for politics and civil rights. At George Washington University, he is a Presidential Arts Scholar, president of the school’s chapter of the NAACP and has just completed an internship with Senator Edward Kennedy. “I believe the (civil rights) situation is so vital that we need it to bring us all together. The struggle can’t be won unless we all do it together.”

Stephen Kendrick and Paul Kendrick will hold a reading and book signing at the Old West Church, 131 Cambridge Street, on Thursday, February 3 from 6:30 – 8:00 P.M. A reception will follow at the Beacon Press, 41 Mt. Vernon Street.

Stephen Kendrick will discuss the case of Roberts v. City of Boston and sign books on Thursday, February 10, at 12:15 p.m. the Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington Street.
“Sarah’s Long Walk: The Free Blacks of Boston and How Their Struggle for Equality Changed America” will be available at area bookstores for $26.00.