The Benjamin Pope School

110 O Street, South Boston, was built as a Boston public primary school. Since 2000 it has been homes.

Illustration of the red brick building in low autumn sun. A green copper cornice with a row of brackets runs under the roof, which has dark dormers and a roof deck with a railing. Two black balconies run across the left wing. Granite steps lead up to black double doors, with a round clipped shrub on one side and a red maple on the other. A golden branch hangs in overhead.
Today The entrance front on an autumn afternoon. An illustration made for this page, after the photograph of 2023 below.

There is also a paper model of the building to turn round, as it is today and as it was in 1901.

Building the school

On February 7, 1881 the Board of Aldermen passed an order to pay Horace J. Hayden and others $6,000 for a 20,000-square-foot lot at the corner of O and Fifth Streets, as the site for a primary schoolhouse1.

Black and white photo of a brick schoolhouse seen from across the street. It has two rows of tall windows, a steep roof with small open towers under pointed caps, and an iron fence along the sidewalk.
1901 The school, from Toomey and Rankin's History of South Boston, page 335. The book's caption misprints the corner as “P and Fifth Streets.”

In January 1883 the Boston School Committee asked the city for a new primary schoolhouse at that corner2. The city built an eight-room brick school on the lot, with $50,000 set aside for it3. On October 25, 1884 the city's Committee on Public Buildings turned the finished building over to the School Committee4.

The City Auditor's report for 1883-84 lists the O Street primary schoolhouse among the public buildings “built under the direction of C. J. Bateman, late City Architect.” It describes a two-story brick building on a high basement, with four classrooms on each floor, granite and brownstone trim, and a roof “finished with four dormers, and two towers of copper, receiving the ventilating shafts”5. A 1982 city survey calls it a well-preserved Queen Anne and Chateauesque primary school and credits the design to Bateman6. The survey lists it under 709 East Fifth Street, and the state's historic inventory lists it as BOS.67997.

Hand-colored atlas map of one city block. A large pink building near the lower left corner is labeled Benj. Pope Primary School. A small pink building at the top left corner is labeled Fire Eng. No. 2. A row of narrow house lots with owners' names runs along the top of the block.
1899 Part of plate 24 in Bromley's atlas of South Boston. The school sits on block 268, with Fire Engine No. 2 at the East Fourth Street end of the block. In this part of the plate, O Street runs down the left edge and Fifth Street along the bottom.

The name

On December 23, 1884 the School Committee named it the Benjamin Pope School4. The South Boston Inquirer printed the news on December 278.

Pope was born in Waterford, Ireland, in 1829 and came to this country as a baby9, 10. He was a lumber dealer. He was an officer of the Mattapan Literary Association at its founding in 1848 and later its president9, 11. He served on the School Committee in 1862 and 186312, was president of the Common Council in 1877 and 1878, and was an alderman when he died in September 18799, 10.

The school years

For about sixty years the building served South Boston's youngest students.

Black and white photo of young children in a classroom. Some sit on chairs along the wall reading picture books. Others sit on a rug in the middle of the floor, building with wooden blocks. A tall wooden cabinet stands at the right.
1919 “The Library Corner, Benjamin Pope School,” from the School Committee documents for 1919.

In 1901 it was the only primary school building in its district, which counted 500 primary pupils11. The city put in new plumbing, finished on August 26, 190413. A kindergarten opened here in 190514.

In 1931 a newspaper survey of city schools found more than 300 young pupils in a 48-year-old building with no fire escapes15. Richard Cushing, later Cardinal Archbishop of Boston, was born in South Boston in 1895 and went to primary school here16.

“Good years”

Richard Cushing, on his school days here16

After the school

In May 1945 the City Council asked the School Committee to keep the school open17. By September 1946 the building stood empty, and the School Committee voted that it should be sold18.

A state sewer-tunnel order of December 1954 names the South Boston Columbus Club as an owner of land along O Street here19, and a 1962 city record names the club as owner of the lot in 196020.

The club sold the building to a developer in 199921. The master deed that created the 14-unit Benjamin Pope Condominium was recorded on October 31, 200021.

Color photo of the red brick building seen from its front walk. Bands of brownstone run across the front under a green copper cornice. The slate roof above has two dormers on the left and a roof deck with a railing on the right. Black steel balconies run across two floors of the left wing. Granite steps lead up to black double doors. A tree with red leaves stands beside the steps, and two cars are parked at the right.
2023 The building from its front walk, in November. The three towers in the 1901 photograph are gone. Dormers and a roof deck sit on the slate roof.

Sources

  1. Reports of Proceedings of the City Council of Boston, 1881, Board of Aldermen, Feb. 7, 1881, p. 72 (“Schoolhouse Site for Gaston District”). archive.org/details/reportsofproceed1881bost/page/n173
  2. Reports of Proceedings of the City Council of Boston, 1883, p. 66 (School Committee request received Jan. 25, 1883). archive.org/details/reportsofproceed18831bost
  3. Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Buildings for 1883, City Document No. 13, 1884. archive.org/details/document1884bost
  4. Proceedings of the School Committee of the City of Boston, 1884, pp. 167 and 219. archive.org/details/proceedingsofsch1884bost
  5. City of Boston, Auditor's Report for the financial year 1883-84, pp. 38 and 40. archive.org/details/report188384bost/page/n41 and archive.org/details/report188384bost/page/n43
  6. Boston Landmarks Commission, South Boston Preservation Study, 1982, p. 50 (survey no. SB 524). archive.org/details/southbostonprese00bost
  7. Massachusetts Historical Commission inventory (MACRIS), BOS.6799. mhc-macris.net
  8. South Boston Inquirer, Dec. 27, 1884, p. 3. Boston Public Library, Digital Commonwealth. ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/t722mg13v
  9. Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen, Sept. 25, 1879, on the death of Alderman Benjamin Pope. archive.org/details/reportsofproceed1879bost/page/n652
  10. A Catalogue of the City Councils of Boston, 1822-1908 (1909), p. 48. archive.org/details/catalogueofcityc00bost
  11. Toomey and Rankin, History of South Boston (1901), p. 152 (Mattapan Literary Association) and pp. 333-334 (Gaston District). archive.org/details/historyofsouthbo1901toom/page/n175 and archive.org/details/historyofsouthbo1901toom/page/n360
  12. Annual Report of the School Committee, 1901, appendix describing the school buildings. archive.org/details/annualreport01bost
  13. City Document No. 35, p. 24, in the city's bound documents for 1905. archive.org/details/document1905bost/page/n829
  14. Proceedings of the School Committee, 1905, pp. 245 and 308 (June 27 and Oct. 10). archive.org/details/proceedingsofsch1905bost
  15. Boston Evening American, May 23, 1931. archive.org/details/bostonamerican19310523
  16. Thomas H. O'Connor, South Boston, My Home Town (1988; 2019 open-access edition), p. 202. archive.org/details/OConnor_SouthBostonMyHomeTown
  17. Reports of Proceedings of the City Council, 1945 (May 21). archive.org/details/reportsofproceed19452bost
  18. Proceedings of the School Committee, 1946 (Sept. 3). archive.org/details/proceedingsofsch1946bost
  19. Metropolitan District Commission minutes, vol. 23, meeting of Dec. 9, 1954, sewer tunnel order, typed p. 11. archive.org/details/metropolitandist23mass/page/n406
  20. The City Record, 1962, pp. 405 and 417 (Collector-Treasurer's notice of May 18, 1962, Ward Six). archive.org/details/cityrecord1962bost/page/n444
  21. Master Deed of The Benjamin Pope Condominium, Suffolk County Registry of Deeds, Book 25505, Page 47.

Pictures

  • The building today, at the top of the page. An illustration made for this page in 2026, after the photograph of 2023. It leaves out the parked cars, the house number and the small fixtures by the door.
  • The school in 1901, from Toomey and Rankin, History of South Boston, p. 335. Published in 1901; public domain in the United States. Scan: Boston College Libraries, Internet Archive. archive.org/details/historyofsouthbo1901toom
  • “The Library Corner, Benjamin Pope School.” Annual Report of the Superintendent, November 1919, in the School Committee documents for 1919; public domain in the United States. Scan: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Internet Archive. The original prints it sideways. It is turned upright here. archive.org/details/annualreport1918bost_1
  • The atlas plate, shown in part. G. W. Bromley & Co., Atlas of the City of Boston, South Boston, plate 24, 1899. Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library. No known copyright restrictions. ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/m900rc123
  • The building in 2023. Photograph by a resident of the building, used with permission. Licence plates, a notice on the door and a few other small details are blurred.