Jamaica Plain

The Mission Hill School was a small preK–8 public pilot school in the Mission Hill and Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1997 by Deborah Meier, Elizabeth Knox Taylor, and colleagues, the school was administered by the Boston Public Schools. Meier has publicized the school in many of her works.The Mission Hill School was a member of the Coalition of Essential Schools. The school had a diverse student body of approximately 220 students, with democratic decision-making at the school and classroom levels, a curricular focus on five democratic "Habits of Mind", school-wide thematic units, a strong emphasis on the arts, and graduation from the school upon creating and defending portfolios of student work for a panel of evaluators. Students were admitted to the school based on a lottery, within the choice system of the Boston Public Schools (with consideration given to whether families lived within the "walk zone" and whether a sibling already attended the school, among other factors). Graduates were found to achieve academic success in high school and college at high rates, and the school was studied worldwide for its methodology.In 2002, Meier's book In Schools We Trust included substantial attention to the Mission Hill School. It argued that the current climate of high-stakes testing makes running a school like Mission Hill much more difficult. She also wrote about the school in her books, Will Standards Save Public Education? (2000) Keeping School: Letters to Families from Principals of Two Small Schools (with Ted and Nancy Sizer, 2005), Playing for Keeps: Life and Learning on a Public School Playground (with Beth Taylor and Brenda Engel, 2010), and Teaching in Themes: An Approach to Schoolwide Learning, Creating Community, and Differentiating Instruction (co-edited with Matthew Knoester, Katherine Clunis D'Andrea). The school is also the focus of the book by Matthew Knoester Democratic Education in Practice: Inside the Mission Hill School (2012), as well as the 2014 documentary "Good Morning Mission Hill," directed by Tom and Amy Valens. Mission Hill School published a periodic newsletter for the school community, including reflections by staff, students, and family members; digital copies of some issues of the newsletter are available through the Boston City Archives and the MHS website. The school was controversially moved to a different location within Boston in 2012, despite resistance from the school community.In 2021, the City of Boston settled a lawsuit for over $650,000 with several families regarding unaddressed sexual misconduct against their children from other students. In 2021, BPS removed several administrators and teachers from the school and took over operations after additional allegations. In 2022, following an investigation by law firm Hinckley Allen into allegations of failure to properly address bullying and sexual misconduct between students and neglecting students with disabilities, Boston Public Schools superintendent Brenda Cassellius recommended permanently closing the school at the conclusion of the 2021–2022 academic year. Mayor Michelle Wu and many city officials also voiced their support for closure. Despite organizing efforts by some family members, staff, students, and community members, on May 5, 2022, the Boston School Committee voted 5-0 (with one member abstaining and one member absent) to close the school at the end of the 2021–2022 school year in June 2022. Many Mission Hill School family members, teachers, and students criticized Boston Public Schools' lack of transparency throughout the investigation, falsehoods in the dominant narratives promoted by Boston Public Schools and local media, and the harmful impacts of the decision to close the school. Still other families were in support of the closure.

The Sumner Hill Historic District encompasses a predominantly residential area of high-quality late 19th-century residences in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is roughly bounded by Seaverns Avenue, Everett Street, Carolina Avenue, and Newbern Street just east of the neighborhoods commercial Centre Street area. The district features Second Empire, Italianate, and Queen Anne style architecture, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

The Loring–Greenough House is the last surviving 18th century residence in Sumner Hill, a historic section of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, a neighborhood of Boston. It is located at 12 South Street on Monument Square at the edge of Sumner Hill. It is situated on the border of two National Historic Districts (Sumner Hill and Monument Square). This mid-Georgian mansion was built as a country residence and farmstead in 1760 for wealthy British naval officer Commodore Joshua Loring on the original site of John Polley's estate established in the 1650s. Originally, the Loring–Greenough house was situated on a 60-acre (240,000 m2) estate. Loring, a Loyalist prior to the American Revolution, abandoned the house in 1774, just prior to the conflict, and he fled from Boston in 1776. The house was confiscated by colonial forces and in 1776 served as a headquarters for General Nathanael Greene and, soon after, a hospital for Continental Army soldiers following the Battle of Bunker Hill. In 1780, the house was sold to Isaac Sears, the rebel leader from New York, and was then purchased in 1784 by Ann Doane, a rich widow, who soon after married David Stoddard Greenough. General William Hyslop Sumner married the widow of David Stoddard Greenough II (Maria Doane Greenough) in 1836 and by the late 1850s the process to subdivide the estate and farmland had begun. The Greenough descendants lived here for five generations until 1924. At that time the Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club (until 1993 a ladies'-only club and today a community group) purchased the house, along with almost two acres of landscaped grounds, to preserve it and save it from development. The Loring–Greenough House is a very well preserved structure of almost 4,500 square feet (420 m2), on property that includes sweeping lawns, historic flower beds, handsome trees, and the two-and-one-half-story house itself. The property is fenced and gated; the public is invited to enjoy the grounds during daylight hours, and to attend events inside and outside the House throughout the year. The Tuesday Club has been careful to preserve the house and grounds over many decades. The most recent restoration occurred with a $350,000 grant and included painting and other repairs. The Loring–Greenough property is still owned and operated by the Tuesday Club, which offers tours on Sundays and other programming and events throughout the year. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated both a Massachusetts Landmark and a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 1999.

Monument Square Historic District is a predominantly residential historic district north of Monument Square in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The 43 acres (17 ha) district is bounded on the northwest by Pond Street, the northeast by Myrtle and Pond Streets, the southeast by Centre Street (excluding the commercial properties on Centre Street itself), and Holbrook and Eliot Streets to the west. This area, originally developed as country estates, was developed as a residential area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its architecture reflecting a diversity of styles. Prominent non-residential buildings including the First Church of Jamaica Plain, Eliot Hall, and the Eliot School. Also included in the district is Jamaica Plain's Gothic Soldier's Monument, at the junction of South and Centre Streets.The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 11, 1990.

The English High School in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1821, is one of the first public high schools in the United States. Originally called The English Classical School, it was renamed upon its first relocation in 1824. Commonly referred to as Boston English, the school is located in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston and is a part of Boston Public Schools (BPS).

Jamaica Plain High School is a defunct four-year public high school that served students in ninth through twelfth grades in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, United States. The school held its first classes in 1849 and was last located at 144 McBride Street from 1979 until its closure in 1989.

The First Church of Jamaica Plain is a historic church at 6 Eliot Street in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The stone Gothic Revival church was designed in 1854 by the well known Boston architect, Nathaniel J. Bradlee, for a congregation which was established in 1769 as the Third Church of Roxbury. It is built out of ashlar granite, laid in courses without ornament. It has a square tower with Gothic arched windows at the second level, a clock face at the third, and Gothic louvered openings at the belfry, and a parapeted top. A Shingle style parish hall was added in 1889. This new addition was designed by Cabot, Everett & Mead.The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, and included in the Monument Square Historic District in 1990.

Eliot Hall is a historic building at 7A Eliot Street in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, a neighborhood of Boston. It is sometimes referred to as "The Footlight Club," after "America's oldest community theatre," which owns and operates out of the building. Originally built in 1832 in Greek Revival/Italianate style, the hall was slated for demolition by the time the club's members purchased it in 1889. Since then it has served for over a century as the organization's home and performance venue. The Trustees of Eliot Hall were formed by the group in the 1980s to oversee renovations to the deteriorating building, saving it from closure, and in 1988 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.Currently, the hall is used as the offices and performance space of The Footlight Club, and is rented out by the club for private functions.

The Whitehaus Family Record is an independent record label based in the Whitehaus in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. It began as a community of artists, poets, and musicians who would gather and throw hootenannies. The label has distributed over 40 releases.

The District 13 Police Station is a historic former police station at 28 Seaverns Avenue in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The Gothic Revival station was designed in 1873 by George Ropes and built for the town of West Roxbury, as one of its last public works before its annexation by Boston. An addition was designed in 1892 by Edmund M. Wheelwright, architect for the City of Boston. The building is one of the only high-style Victorian municipal buildings in the city.The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It has been converted to residential use.

Among "Boston's most prolific DIY venues," the Whitehaus was a non-traditional performance venue and artists collective located in an eight-bedroom home at 10 Seaverns Ave. in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Music and poetry made by "the hyper-prolific Whitehaus collective" is distributed under The Whitehaus Family Record independent music label. As described by one source: One of the most prolific new DIY collectives in Jamaica Plain, the Whitehaus Family Record, brings together folk, indie, and experimental sound to produce a psychedelic world of music, love, and all that other punk/hippie crossover goodness. Their frequent "hootenannies" were open to anyone to share their musical or poetic talents.The Whitehaus was to shut down in early 2013 after losing its lease on the house.

The Bowditch School is an historic school building at 80—82 Green Street in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The three story brick and granite Classical Revival building was designed by Harrison Henry Atwood, a prominent local architect, and was built in 1892. Its main facade has a projecting three-part pavilion, with square entry openings at the base, and round-arch windows at the top level, with a modillioned cornice. It is named for Nathaniel Bowditch, a noted early 19th-century astronomer and mathematician.By 1981 Boston Public Schools stopped using the facility, and the city government deemed it excess to the city's needs in July of that year.The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.