In spring, the City of Boston promised Allston-Brighton a new community center to replace the aging Jackson Mann Community Center building by the fall, but the project has not materialized.
The Boston Centers for Youth and Families announced plans to demolish the Jackson Mann site and relocate services to Brighton High School until a new center could be built, following concerns from Allston-Brighton residents about the BCYF facility.
In June, Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing graduated its last class from the site after being located there since 1975. BCYF services were suspended throughout the summer, leaving Allston-Brighton residents without a community center in the neighborhood, said Kelly McGrath, executive director of Brighton Main Streets and a lifelong Allston resident.
That was until September, when BCYF wrote on a FAQ document about the community center site that it was backtracking its decision and resuming BCYF services at Jackson Mann, despite portions of the site in disrepair, according to the BCYF.
“[Jackson Mann] was only supposed to be a temporary thing, because we thought we were getting a community center a lot quicker,” McGrath said.
According to the FAQ document, “The long-term plan is still to close the building and to build a new community center.” For now, Jackson Mann remains “in usable condition” and will continue to be used “as long as possible, to meet community needs.”
McGrath said Jackson Mann housed multiple entities under one roof, including the BCYF, Boston Public School and the Horace Mann School for the Deaf.
“That was three entities under one roof, which is fine. For the last 50 years, they made it work … [but] no other community had that,” McGrath said. “Every community in Boston, primarily, has their own community center. Some communities have more than one.”
Allston-Brighton has a population of 76,951, making it the second most populous neighborhood in Boston, according to the Boston.gov 2020 census.
Meanwhile, Boston City Council District 1 — which includes East Boston, Charlestown and the North End — has eight community centers, Boston City Councilor for District 9 Liz Breadon said. District 1 has 4,000 fewer residents than Allston-Brighton, according to the census.
McGrath, who frequented Jackson Mann as a child and worked there in her 20s, said Jackson Mann has created opportunities for residents. She said when she was growing up, children could take dance classes, make pottery, play sports and attend summer camp at Jackson Mann.
“This is the type of place that keeps kids off the streets,” she said. “Places like the Jackson Mann not only change lives, they save lives.”
Building a quality community center will still require funding and time, McGrath said.
Allston residents may be closer to answers after a hearing on Oct. 29 held by the City Council Committee on Strong Women, Families and Communities at Jackson Mann.
Breadon will sponsor the meeting. Breadon said she decided to sponsor the hearing “to have people turn up and say, ‘This is what we need.’”
The City’s capital budget includes $4 million over the next five years for planning and designing a replacement for Jackson Mann, according to the BCYF FAQ document.
Breadon said she estimates the project’s planning and design phase would continue until at least 2029.
“I would hope that in the interim, before we have a new community center, we would be able to sustain operations at the Jackson Mann at the level that would be required to meet the community’s needs,” Breadon said.
