Next chapter for historic Lenox
City’s first housing development for Black residents gets makeover
When the Lenox public housing development opened in 1939 in Lower Roxbury, it was a crucial investment in the well-being of Boston’s Black residents. Over the years, though, the city struggled to keep up with much-needed renovations while preserving its affordability.
But on Thursday morning, city officials and tenants lauded the completion of a long-overdue makeover for the 285 units at what is considered Boston’s first public housing development for Black tenants.
“Today is another huge step in connecting that history of homemaking through to the present, and into our future, said Mayor Michelle Wu.
The renovations to the 85-year-old structure include in-unit washers and dryers, renovated kitchens, new water boilers, accessibility upgrades, building envelope improvements, community space redesigns, as well as Energy Star and green building certifications.
The Boston Housing Authority had considered renovating Lenox Apartments for almost a decade. In 2019, then-Mayor Martin J. Walsh launched a massive redevelopment of both the Lenox Apartments and the Camden housing development nearby. Renovations of the 72 adjacent affordable units at Camden, totaling $23 million, were finished shortly before changes to the Lenox began in spring 2021.
The Lenox Apartments are steeped in history, said local historian and former state representative Byron Rushing. Boston created them in 1939, as both federal and local governments were
‘You cannot talk about Lenox without talking about Black people.’
BYRON RUSHING historian and former state representative
finding ways to house impoverished communities during the Great Depression.
Rushing said Lenox Apartments symbolize a complicated piece of Boston’s history, in which an all-Black housing development was created to maintain segregation, but also intended to provide a dignified living space for the city’s Black community.
“You cannot talk about Lenox without talking about Black people. You cannot talk about Lenox without talking about the struggles of Black people,” he said. “All of that needs to be remembered when you come into this building.”
In late March, the Lenox Apartments Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places, said Dara Kovel, chief executive officer of Beacon Communities, the real estate de
veloper that began managing the complex in 2018.
In its 85 years, the Lenox has seen few facelifts, mainly because the federal government gives public housing authorities such little money per unit for maintenance, said Kenzie Bok, administrator for the Boston Housing Authority. To tap into extra funding, the authority moved from a “public housing model” to the federal Section 8 project-based voucher program, Bok said.
The sweeping investments were one piece of the Walsh administration’s “Housing A Changing City: Boston 2030 plan, which focused on both the creation of at least 69,000 new units and preservation of the city’s existing affordable housing stock by the end of the decade.
“To add that on top of a pandemic, it was insanely complicated,” Bok said. “But that’s completely essential for the longterm sustainability of these communities and making sure they actually get the investment that they deserve.”
The Boston Housing Authority and Beacon Communities funded the renovations through more than 280 Section 8 tenant preservation vouchers, $32 million in low-income housing tax credits, $67 million in permanent financing from MassHousing, $92 million of construction financing from Bank of America, and $17 million in federal and state historic tax credit equity.
“In Boston, we believe that affordable housing isn’t just about being able to pay what you can pay for it,” Wu said. “It must also be comfortable, beautiful, high quality, and energy efficient.”
For former residents such as artists Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs and Damon Butler, the ceremony was a “full circle moment.”
Gibbs and Butler both grew up in the Lenox Apartments, and were commissioned by Beacon Communities to create a piece of art for the complex’s common area. Born in the late 1970s, Gibbs spent his childhood in the development, and has created some of Boston’s most recognizable murals such as his “Breathe Life” series in Roxbury and along the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
“It’s funny how the universe works,” Gibbs said, referring to the request to beautify his childhood home. “But everything has a purpose, everything happens for a reason.”
The pair decided on a rendition of a drawing Butler made when he was a teenager and still living at the historical site.
Butler lived at the site in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and witnessed some of Boston’s most difficult moments as well as the unrelenting activism of his grandmother, Julia Butler. As a witness of some of Lenox’s complicated history, Butler said it was humbling to come back and contribute to a more positive future.
“Don’t forget where you came from, and never lose sight of where you’re going,” Butler said.