Photo by
Allston-Brighton TAB photographer Winslow Martin, 11/96.
NEIGHBORS: OakSquare.com
interviews
Charlie Vasiliades
Part 2 in a series of 4
[return
to Part 1]
Both Charlie
Vasiliades and his sister, Tina, had attended the bright
yellow Oak Square School when they were little. Located
between Nonantum and Tremont Streets, it was the last
functional wooden schoolhouse in Boston. Since 1895, the
school had provided Oak Square children with classes from
kindergarden through 3rd grade. For a brief period in the
1970's, the grades shifted to 1st through 5th grades. The
school was shut down in 1981 when State Proposition 2 1/2
slashed funding for education. The School Committee
wanted to do away with "archaic" schools which
had no adequate gym or cafeteria facilities. Some people
thought the empty wooden structure was in danger of
burning, and therefore it was destined for demolition
until a group of committed neighborhood activists
petitioned the City and turned the old building into 10
middle-income condomiums. This way, there could be 24
hour care for the premises and as you can imagine, all
the units were sold by the day of the first open house.
The Oak
Square School during construction in 1894,
Nonantum Street entrance.
Back
in 1976, when you and other members of the community
hoped to save the Oak Square School, you were just 19
years old. What made you think you could actually
succeed?
Charlie: Well, of
course we weren't 100% sure. I was in my 3rd year at
college. I knew I was going into city planning and I
knew I wanted to get involved with community issues.
The Oak Square school was near and dear to my heart.
The principal, Ellen Murray, was a family friend who
came to weddings and such. She had been my first
grade teacher before she became the principal. Even
as a high school student, when the Boston Latin
School had days off (for city-wide testing), a few of
us would go back and be like 'guest speakers' to the
"...this was a
great little neighborhood institution that meant a
lot to us..."
elementary
school classes. When the school was threatened with
closure, we weren't at first thinking about it as a
landmark but more that this was a great little
neighborhood institution that meant a lot to us.
In 1977, our
fight was just to keep the school open and we were
successful at that for 3 or 4 years. This was a
school that had higher than average reading scores
and was somewhat successfully integrated. It was
attended by people from the neighborhood and was
often chosen for busing by others. The ethnic make-up
was about 1/3 white, 1/3 Black, and 1/3 Asian and
others. But the School Department felt it should be
shut it down because it didn't meet contemporary
criteria. During the second year of our effort, we
had applied for historical landmark status as a
back-up plan. That involvement led me to the Brighton Allston Historical
Society.
When
Proposition 2 1/2 slashed state education funding in
1980, we could no longer save the school but we had
already succeeded in having the building designated
as a landmark.
The CDC [ Allston Brighton
Community Development Corporation] had been formed
independently around that time. I was also a member
of that Board. The CDC had wanted to make a name for
itself and sponsored community meetings to talk about
what to do with the two schools that were being shut
down in Brighton and Allston. It became apparent that
the Oak Square building
"....I was also a
big believer in the idea that if you're going to
accomplish anything, you have to join together..."
presented an
opportunity. Initially, the goal was not so much one
of affordable housing but that of preserving a neighborhood landmark that people really wanted. So we
asked them to put in the bid to buy the school and
they did.
The
architects were able to create ten 1 and 2 bedroom
condo units out of the old classrooms which sold for
between $50 - $80,000. Some of the owners chose to
keep the original blackboards on their apartment
walls.
So you don't
know whether you're going to succeed at first, but
you have to get involved to try. I was also a big
believer in the idea that if you're going to
accomplish anything, you have to join together - the
whole 'united we stand, divided we fall' business.
When
you talked about the emergence of the Allston Brighton
CDC (Community
Development Corporation),
you mentioned that "empowering the
neighborhood" was part of the Federal CDC mission. I
didn't know that. What does that term mean in this
context, in your eyes?
Charlie: Unlike most
community activist efforts which are volunteer,
Community Development Corporations are actually
companies. They have a staff, a budget, they can buy
and sell things. Because of the nature and economy of
our community, our CDC has always had a housing focus
(rather than, say, economic development)...how to
strive for a stable, diverse neighborhood while
maintaining and increasing affordable housing.
What I
realized from my city planning background is that the
great thing about CDC's is that they give
neighborhoods a tool to be pro-active
instead of just reactive. Using the Oak Square School
as an example, the
"They have a
staff, a budget, they can buy and sell things."
school had
closed and people wanted to preserve it. But if you
didn't have a CDC, the most we could expect would be
to influence who bought it, and maybe get a
sympathetic developer. A CDC actually allowed us to,
in essence, buy the building and to develop it
ourselves, with our own vision...and this is what
we've done with other affordable housing projects in
the area.
About two
years ago, people from Oak Square were in discussion
with the CDC about a joint effort with the Brighton
Allston Historical Society to buy the small
gatekeeper's house at Faneuil and Dunboy Streets,
which was vacant at the time. It is the only building
left standing from the 18th century Faneuil Mansion
complex on Bigelow Hill. The plan didn't pan out, but
the idea was to renovate it historically and
therefore preserve part of the neighborhood heritage.
To be on the
CDC Board, you have to be from the
community you represent. Members are elected at open
community meetings. Generally, like with most
volunteer projects, people aren't jumping out of the
woodwork. If you're interested, you get on. There's
an executive director
"Members are
elected at open community meetings."
and, at this
point, about 10 staff who generally work to support
the decisions of the Board. Right now, I'm the
Vice-President. There are working committees made up
of Board members and other folks from the community,
such as housing, economic development, "green
space," finance and sometimes ad hoc committees
that come and go.
More
to come...
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