61 North Beacon Street

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​61 North Beacon Street is a 71,000 SF, 5-story brick building, built in 1925 as the New England regional headquarters for International Harvester - company that produced heavy vehicles and farm equipment.  Beginning in the 1980’s, it also served as the world headquarters for New Balance, prior to their new headquarters located on Guest Street.  61 N. Beacon features an attractive, red brick facade with original architectural details such as stone lintels, cornice, and arched windows, but nonetheless, it is badly in need of upgrades.  The building has a large parking lot on the eastern side, and is located just east of Boston Volvo at 75 N. Beacon.


Village Automotive Group is proposing an adaptive-reuse of 61 N. Beacon Street to create a mixed-use building which will house the relocated Boston Volvo dealership.  The new location will include service write-up area on the basement level (accessed through the rear of the building), main showroom on street level with an additional showroom space on the second floor.  The existing service facility at 75 N. Beacon Street will remain where it is currently.  A space within the building’s first floor has been set aside for a neighborhood-scale, small retail area which we anticipate will house a small eatery or other local retail establishment.  Floors 3 and 4 will continue to house tenants’ space for office or other commercial uses.

To maximize efficient access, the project will include the demolition of a single-story brick warehouse located directly behind and adjacent to 61 N. Beacon.  This will result in a net reduction of 6,391 square feet of total building space on the lot.

Since the project entails relocating the existing dealership from the adjacent parcel, there are no anticipated changes in traffic patterns.  We are looking forward to creating a modern, urban dealership that will allow us to upgrade a tired building with wonderful history, while also retaining the 89 jobs presently housed at Boston Volvo Village.  Boston's Auto Mile is an important part of the area's legacy, a tradition Village Automotive has been proud to continue for the past 27 years.
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Project Fact Sheet - click to enlarge.
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Public Process

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​ISD-Board of Appeals Flyer 
01/24/17
​ISD-Board of Appeals Decision
02/13/17
​(.PDF format)
Groundbreaking
​Invite
05/08/17

Historical Significance


​The International Harvester building is important to Allston in many ways.  It is architecturally and historically significant for its associations with the early twentieth-century development of Allston-Brighton.  This area has significant, historical associations with Boston's early twentieth-century automobile industry and is part of its larger Auto-Mile heritage.  The project will return this historic commercial building back to its original use - as an automobile showroom.  

For context on the importance of Boston’s Auto-Mile, the Brighton-Allston Historical Society writes:

"The headquarters of the auto industry in Boston for over a half-century was the Auto-Mile.  By 1929, no less than 117 automobile-related businesses flooded the area.   Even at the depths of the economic turndown, the Auto-Mile was home to no less than 54 car dealerships.  Truck dealerships also located in the general area, tending to cluster at the western end of the district.  By 1932, some seven truck dealerships had taken up residence on North Beacon Street, west of Union Square, including the Mack Motor Truck Company, the General Motors Truck Company, and the International Harvester Company of America.

The Auto Mile went into rapid decline in the late 1970s as many dealers moved their establishments to more accessible suburban locations.  While there were still 21 dealerships in the general area as late as 1975, by 1981 only 11 remained.  The Packard Motor Company building has been converted to condominiums.  The neighboring Oste Chevrolet building has become a Star Market. While a handful of auto dealerships still inhabit the Commonwealth and Brighton Avenue strip, they are but a pale reflection of the auto sales industry that once lined Boston’s thriving Auto-Mile."
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Progress Photos

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09/14/17

09/21/17

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