Church Center

PROGRESS REPORT No. 4

Any large-scale building project in the midst of a city today brings change into the lives of many people. Special consideration must be given those who need to find new living quarters.

Nearly seven acres of land surrounding the Original Edifice and Extension are being cleared of old buildings in the Church Center development.

Half of this demolition and clearance work has already been completed to provide a site for the new 26-story Administration Building. Before the year is over, four more older structures will have been taken down to make way for the new Sunday School and the Colonnade Building. Later the block of stores and walk-up apartments on Massachusetts Avenue behind the present Administration Building will be removed so that a new entranceway and plaza area can be constructed for the Extension of The Mother Church.

Altogether this involves the moving of some 260 residential tenants, and one of the mast important problems of the Church Center project is the satisfactory relocation of these people.

The way in which The Mother Church responded to the need was the subject of a feature article in The Boston Globe. The writer observed:

"The big difference between this operation and many other similar private undertakings is that the owner of the block of apartments was not content to remain aloof. . . . The owner is 'Church Realty Trust,' an arm of the Christian Science Mother Church which . . . searched for an expert on housing . . . with a warm smile and an obvious interest in people, to set up a church relocation program."

Residents in the first clearance area were notified of the program well in advance, the article explained. Then, one by one, they received direct assistance in finding "the apartment tailored to the needs and income of each family or individual."

Nearby real estate brokers and apartment owners, as well as those in the suburbs, were enlisted in a broad cooperative effort to find the types of apartments needed.

The Boston Globe article pointed out that "the relocation worker also acted as chauffeur for tenants, shuttling them to apartment inspection daily and particularly at night and Saturdays for those people who work all day."

When the time finally came to move, the Church Realty Trust provided financial assistance, using the same scale adopted by city agencies for this purpose. Elderly tenants with special needs were given extra help in arrangements for future care. Other tenants took the opportunity to move out of the city to places where they had long planned to go. "Several thousands of dollars for such moving expenses were expended by the church," said the Globe. "It helped ease any hardship."

By the time clearance crews were ready to begin, everyone had found a place and had been moved. "Cooperation," said the Globe, "was regarded as excellent."

The next Church Center report will be published in the Sentinel of April 22, 1967.

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