Chris Helms
Inside Blessed Sacrament Church in JP on Saturday, March 29, 2014. It had been closed for 10 years.
Chris Helms
From left: Claudio Martinez of Hyde Square Task Force, Mayor Marty Walsh, Neighborhood Coordinator Jullieanne Doherty and Health and Human Services Director Felix Arroyo. Inside Blessed Sacrament Church on Saturday, March 29, 2014.
Chris Helms
Mayor Marty Walsh, center, gazes at the interior of the former Blessed Sacrament Church on Saturday, March 29, 2014.
Thanks to Claudio Martinez of Hyde Square Task Force, the Jamaica Plain News has photos from an exclusive tour of the closed-to-the-public areas of the former Blessed Sacrament Church.
While it's been a decade since anyone was baptized or married there, the churchstill dominates Hyde Square. On Saturday the community got a rare chance to see inside.
Above is a gallery not only of the striking nave and cupola, all it it richly decorated. But you'll also see several of rooms and a chapel that are off-limits to the public.
Hyde Square Task Force, via a new non-profit created for the purpose, will be turning the old church into a community and arts center. It's a huge undertaking. Martinez said he hopes the space, once finished, will serve to help all of Jamaica Plain's diverse residents bond — not merely pass in the streets, but get to know one another and be a part of each other's lives.