What do you do when your survival is dependent on selling in the name of gentrification? That’s the uphill battle facing residents of Boston’s South End as its historic Harriet Tubman House is on the auction block.
The South End neighborhood of Boston is one of the more diverse neighborhoods in the New England city.
The building, located at 566 Columbus Ave., is currently owned by the long-standing Black self-help community organization United South End Settlements (USES). Inside the Tubman House are six organizations focused on providing aid and services to the city’s disenfranchised population, including child care, housing assistance, job training and educational development.
However, according to HuffPost, those endeavors may be fleeting after tenants were told at the top of the year their beloved home would be sold to real estate group, New Boston Ventures. The new purpose of the Tubman House would be to make way for more commercial and residential space that would include 66 condominiums, 11 of which will be income-restricted, an art gallery and a “social enterprise cafe.”
While David Goldman, principal of New Boston Ventures, is committed to designating some workspace for USES programs and organizations, others within the USES collective said that’s not good enough.
“It’s one of the last symbols of the Black presence in the South End,” Arnesse Brown of Tenants Development Corp. told the Boston Herald. “I grew up in this building.”
Brown is a native of the South End community and attended youth programs at the Tubman House.
“This building was built in the 1970s, brick by brick, by the community,” she said of the three-story structure designed by Don Stull, one of the few Black architects at the time. “You can’t tell me what to do with my memories. Black people’s memories shouldn’t just be relegated to a plaque somewhere.”
Brown’s passionate response came after USES President Maicharia Weir Lytle insisted the sale of the Tubman House is the best decision for the 127-year-old community organization’s future. Brown has since been one of the leading voices amongst other organizers and local residents to save their community home and its history.
“We’ve gotten to a place where we have to make some difficult decisions and changes,” she said. “We need to sell this building so USES can continue to serve children and families.”
According to Weir Lytle, the new Tubman House will be moved for the fourth time to USES’ headquarters just a few blocks away.
“We can continue the legacy of the Harriet Tubman House here in the South End,” she insisted.
The deal, which reportedly cost “well over $20 million” has sparked a large outcry from Brown and others who have watched a growing trend of gentrification in the historically Black parts of Boston.
The Boston Globe reported from 2013 to 2018, the median price of single-family homes in Roxbury, a once-predominantly Black community, skyrocketed 91.6%. Nowadays, the average rent price in Boston is close to $3,000, reports Daily Mail UK.
The Tenants Development Corp., led by Brown, and reproductive rights group Resilient Sisterhood are the only two organizations left in the to-be-sold building, as they continue to defend the legacy of the Tubman House.
USES leaders have given tenants until November 30 to vacate the building.
