OPENING UP THE CURLEY MANSION
Conservancy planning offices, tours
The former mansion of legendary Boston pol James Michael Curley could host an environmental nonprofit and be more open to the public after lying dormant for years, officials said, and Mayor Martin J. Walsh said he’d support the plan.
The Emerald Necklace Conservancy is looking to lease space at Curley’s 21-room mansion at 350 Jamaicaway, according to president Karen MauneyBrodek. Yesterday, city zoning officials approved changing the building’s use from single-family to office with accessory cultural programming, to allow the conservancy to legally set up shop.
“This was a major hurdle so we really consider this important,” MauneyBrodek said, adding she is still discussing a potential lease with city officials. “We think there’s potentially a great opportunity and we’re working with the community to see how we can provide more access to the house.”
Built by Curley a century ago, the massive manse overlooks Jamaica Pond and is valued at $2.6 million. But it has been owned by the city’s George Robert White Fund since 1988 and cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost tax revenue and maintenance and utilities costs, and is rarely used for functions.
The conservancy — which maintains and protects the parks in the Emerald Necklace — would set up eight offices on the building’s second floor and leave the first, which has historic protection, untouched but more open to educational tours, Mauney-Brodek said. Walsh said he was glad to see a proposal to use the building.
“I would love to see something like that happen, it’s not even about making money, it’s about keeping the building used,” Walsh said. “That’s something we have to do more of.”
Curley, the notorious “Rascal King” who was elected mayor of Boston four times, built the house after his initial election and immediately came under scrutiny over how he financed the sixfigure project on a mayor’s salary. Boston’s watchdog Finance Commission repeatedly investigated the construction of Curley’s mansion and in recent years has argued the city should sell it to make money, but Finance Commission executive director Matt Cahill said leasing the building to the conservancy should be appropriate if the lease covers maintenance costs.
“If the property is utilized, fantastic, we want the rent to be able to maintain and preserve the property so it doesn’t have to dip into city coffers,” Cahill said.
Walsh said a nonprofit using the mansion as office space would be a fitting tribute to Curley.
“James Michael Curley had the reputation of being the mayor of the poor, among other things, but he really did help poor people and having a nonprofit there probably falls in line with what he would want there,” Walsh said.