Mattapan Infill and Small Developments

I like that 43-47 Fremont Street. It’s kind of a modern take on older small mill-town style apartment housing—the kind you might see in Grafton or South Barre, or even Dedham along the Mother Brook. The garage door is doing its best to ruin the look but the rest of it is pretty good.
 
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It is in Lower Mills, next to the Spukie Shop where the Lil Peach used to be. The Spukie Shop is moving because it is involved in a development across the street, next to where they started selling subs at a walk up counter 50 years ago. I imagine that they will tear down their current one story, 40 yr old building and that will open up another development site next to this.
 
mssrro said:
Huh, thanks. This must be another edge case...the demo permit had a Mattapan label, so seems like ISD and the Planning Department can't agree on the location of this one hah.
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If you click around on google, it’s literally on the border and the next address over is mattapan — by zip code at least. I actually was surprised and didn’t realize mattapan has this jagged point sticking into dorchester, since I think of that general area as being pretty solidly dorchester… I’m curious what locals say though.
 
FK4 said:
If you click around on google, it’s literally on the border and the next address over is mattapan — by zip code at least. I actually was surprised and didn’t realize mattapan has this jagged point sticking into dorchester, since I think of that general area as being pretty solidly dorchester… I’m curious what locals say though.
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Former Dorchester Resident Here - This is the heart of Dorchester Lower Mills. To me Mattapan doesn't start until the old Chronic Hospital on River Street. My Mom's phone exchange number (287) is a Mattapan number though and that came off of Temple Street 5 blocks west of here in the 70's
 
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I would agree the Mattapan Chronic is the line. It is where the old mill housing stops and where housing was built after WW2, from Mattapan Square, on marshland
 
I mean I know we're splitting hairs at this point, but I've always considered Washington st to be the dividing line between Mattapan and Dorchester. All of those businesses @ River and Central are in Mattapan.

@JohnCostello I would say that's the Mattapan portion of Lower Mills. Kinda like how Chestnut hill is a neighborhood that straddles 3 separate towns (Newton, Brookline, Brighton). Lower Mills straddles Dorchester, Milton and Mattapan.
 
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40-condo building approved for Cummins Highway in Mattapan​

Rendering of proposed condo building


“The Zoning Board of Appeal yesterday approved a five-story, 40-condo building at 813 Cummins Highway in Mattapan.
The proposal by EJS Investments of Quincy, calls for seven of the units to be sold as affordable.
The proposal calls for 25 parking spaces and internal storage space for 46 bicycles, with outdoor bike racks for 5 more bikes….”


www.universalhub.com

40-condo building approved for Cummins Highway in Mattapan

The Zoning Board of Appeal yesterday approved a five-story, 40-condo building at 813 Cummins Highway in Mattapan. Read more.
www.universalhub.com www.universalhub.com
 
8/16:


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150 River Street (30 affordable senior units)




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43-47 Fremont Street (14 condos)




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844 Morton Street (14 units)




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17 Wichita Terrace (7 units - existing building being demolished)






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13-17 Tanglewood Road (4 townhomes)




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22 Wilmore Street (3 units - new construction on vacant lot)




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23 Regis Road (3 units - completed last year)




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10 Woodhaven Street (2 units)




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(Bordering Mattapan in neighboring Lower Mills...1153 Washington Street (24 units))

 
mssrro said:
5/26

Happened to run across this one on Memorial Day...1153 Washington Street (24 units). The developer is marketing it as a Dorchester project, but the city considers it to be in Mattapan since it's on the west side of DOT.

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Google maps agrees with you.
 

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cooper said:
Google maps agrees with you.
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Google can say whatever it wants, but it's listed under Dorchester right on the city website which I posted above. Also this, below. The project is in Dorchester and the discussion above should be moved by a mod to the Dorchester developments section.
Screenshot 2025-08-18 at 11.12.44 AM.png
 
FK4 said:
Google can say whatever it wants, but it's listed under Dorchester right on the city website which I posted above. Also this, below. The project is in Dorchester and the discussion above should be moved by a mod to the Dorchester developments section.
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Take a deep breath. In with the good......out with the bad.

And... Google maps still agrees with him. lol
 
cooper said:
Take a deep breath. In with the good......out with the bad.

And... Google maps still agrees with him. lol
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Not sure why you’re replying as if my simple stating of a fact is some sort of histrionic anxiety attack. We organize developments by neighborhood on this board and when something is on an incorrect thread, the mods move it. Not much else to it.
 
cooper said:
Google maps agrees with you.
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The city (or at least some of its departments) seem to use the same neighborhood boundaries that Google does...both the building permit itself and the Planning Department's website give this a Mattapan/02126 address.





That being said, there's formal boundaries and then there's the boundaries that are commonly understood by people. Everyone here has said that Lower Mills is Dorchester, and Bostonography's neighborhood survey likely found that more people thought this area was in Dorchester as opposed to Mattapan (although Mattapan in general was treated as a very-ill defined area by the respondents). So I think that by consensus, it's reasonable to say this is Dorchester.





Designated boundaries can be funny things. Technically, the city considers everything on the north side of Morton Street to be in Dorchester, so 808 and 844 Morton St. above actually fall on the Dorchester side of that line, even as the pictures themselves were taken from the Mattapan side. I didn't even realize that one at first until I started further digging into those projects. If you were just standing on the street and didn't have a map in front of you, it'd be very hard to see that Morton represents a hard transition between two neighborhoods.



All this is to say, it's not baseless for someone to state that this is a Mattapan location as there are official municipal maps that would back up that claim....but I also certainly understand why people who live in the city might gag at that designation. I'm trying to be respectful of that fact by noting that this is a bordering project, but I get that may not be satisfactory for all.
 

Building Permit Issued for 1471 Blue Hill Avenue Residences​

“A permit valued at $20.8M has been pulled to begin construction on a new 5-story multifamily project at 1471 Blue Hill Avenue in Mattapan. The project consists of 41 affordable rental units and onsite parking for 12 vehicles. The building will be constructed using a 4/1 configuration, with four levels of wood framing above a single level of structural steel. The first floor houses the amenity and community spaces, offering areas for social interaction and neighborhood activities, while residential units occupy floors two through five……..”

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Building Permit Issued for 1471 Blue Hill Avenue Residences

Building Permit Issued for 1471 Blue Hill Avenue Residences
www.bldup.com www.bldup.com
 
FK4 said:
Not sure why you’re replying as if my simple stating of a fact is some sort of histrionic anxiety attack. We organize developments by neighborhood on this board and when something is on an incorrect thread, the mods move it. Not much else to it.
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I mean, there isn't really a definitive nature. You could have simply noted that some city agencies consider it to be Dorchester, but as others have pointed out, some other parts of the city consider it to be Mattapan. It's just one of those funny quirks of Boston neighborhood definitions not being super established. Your comment came off as a bit sanctimonious, whether or not that was your intent.
 
Here is an older article on how the city has shrunk Dorchester for administrative reasons
www.dotnews.com

Analysis: City counters bend boundaries, thousands cut out of Dot - Dorchester Reporter

BRA map: Click for larger (4mb) ver.The Boston Redevelopment Authority — or BRA— says that there are 91,982 people living in Dorchester, based on newly-released data collected for the 2010 census. If that were a correct count of Dorchester’s residents, it would mean that the population of...
www.dotnews.com www.dotnews.com
 
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