The Neighborhood Developers (TND) has begun the demolition on the old St. Therese’s Catholic Church campus on Broadway, with the church building likely to begin coming down later this week.
The demolition clears the way for a new 77-unit senior affordable housing development with a health center in the first floor, as well as six townhouse units on Gledhill Street for first-time homebuyers.
St. Therese’s Church was once home to the longest vigil in the Archdiocese of Boston when parishioners courageously occupied the church for more than 1,000 days after the Parish was announced to be closed.
Now, that will begin to become a footnote in the history of Everett, as demolition has started already on the site.
“We started about two weeks ago in late October with the abating the existing the building,” said Steve Laferriere of TND. “This week we’re taking down two buildings on Gledhill and we’ll eventually get to the building on the corner and the church. We’ll start on the back of the church later this week and it will probably take a little while.”
TND will have to clear the entire site for their development, and that includes all five buildings that have been a part of the campus. They include the church, the rectory, the Parish House, a multi-use corner building, and a small house the church owned on Gledhill.
Laferriere said they don’t intend to demo the site and wait. He said they’re ready for construction.
“Other developers occasionally knock a building down and then wait for months,” he said. “We’re knocking it down to go straight into construction. We’ll see the building start to take shape in the spring of 2021.”
This is the first affordable housing project in Everett for TND, but the developer has done extensive work in Chelsea and Revere for many decades.