Nazareth

A reader has generously passed on this postcard view of Nazareth.



Nazareth campus plus Moss Hill now - satellite photo.



Same location as above: from a 1924 map.



Another corner of Jamaica Plain, another institution. Nazareth was a more recent introduction to the district than many I've covered earlier, coming in the post-war years (that would be The Big One, as my father liked to say). Although it was out of the way, on the far side of Moss Hill, I was aware of it as a child. That may have been because I was raised Catholic, and might have herd mention of it in church. Years later, a good friend of mine told me that he had spent some time at Nazareth, and had even been sent to the Agassiz school. No doubt we had been in the school at the same time, fifteen years or so earlier. He did not remember the experience of Nazareth fondly, although that should be no surprise - the situation was a necessarily unpleasant one to deal with. The four million dollar facility didn't even make a half century of use, being closed and replaced by the Showa Institute.

I think that it's fair to assume that the headline below contains a typo - the children were homeless, not nameless.



Jamaica Plain Citizen March 20, 1952


Abp. Cushing Breaks Ground For Nazareth

$4,000,000 Home On Moss Hill For Temporarily Nameless Children


Archbishop Cushing yesterday broke ground for Nazareth, the $4,000,000 home for temporarily homeless and dependent children, on Moss Hill, Jamaica Plain, on the grounds of the former Slocum estate.

The brief ceremony was attended by Mayor Hynes and other civic officials; nuns and children from the Home for Catholic Children on Harrison ave., which Nazareth will succeed; and representatives from Catholic religious organizations.

Nazareth will be built on a radial plan of 10 cottages, each cottage containing five sleeping rooms, with six beds to a room; a two-bed infirmary; storage, recreation and dining rooms and kitchenette. Play areas will be built between cottages. The recreation center, in the middle of the radial, will contain an auditorium and gymnasium.