The Walter Baker Administration Building in Dorchester, a former chocolate factory, will house 13 artists’ lofts as well as community meeting and gallery space when planned renovations are completed.
The smell of chocolate that once wafted through the hallways of the building has long disappeared. But soon the Walter Baker Administration Building in Dorchester – once a popular chocolate factory – will be filled with other smells, sights and sounds.
The building at 1231 Adams St. is being converted into a complex that will include 13 artists’ lofts as well as gallery and community meeting space. In about seven months, the rooms that stood mostly vacant for more than three decades will come to life.
They will likely be filled with artists, paintbrushes in hand, struggling to convert blank canvases into the latest masterpieces; and sculptors molding balls of clay into unique vases and urns. Possibly, graphic artists and photographers also will find a space to call their own in the Georgian Revival-style building.
Renovation of the 15,000-square-foot building will begin in a few weeks. It will be converted into lofts that range between 600 and about 1,000 square feet. Monthly rents are projected to be between $850 and $1,250.
Katie Wade, a project manager and historic preservation planner at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management, said neighbors are anxiously awaiting the rehabilitation.
“The building is an important piece in the community’s history,” explained Wade.
For 46 years, the three-story building was the headquarters of the Walter Baker Co., a chocolate manufacturer since the late 18th century. Built in 1919, it was the centerpiece of the Walter Baker Co. complex, 14 buildings located east of Pierce Square in the Lower Mills section of Dorchester.
All of those buildings became vacant in 1965 when the company was bought by General Foods and relocated to Delaware.
Over the years, some of those buildings have been converted into condominiums, and one is currently used as a health club. The administration building was occupied by the state Department of Welfare in the 1980s, said Wade, but stood empty for most of the last 35 years.
In 1988, DEM purchased the building in hopes of using it as the headquarters for the Heritage State Park Program, a revitalization program for older industrial neighborhoods, according to Wade.
The state funding for the program never materialized and through the years, DEM considered several uses for the building, which appears on the National Register of Historic Places.
‘Wonderful Landmark’
About five years ago, the building became part of the Historic Curatorship Program, a leasing program administered by DEM that promotes private-sector investment in state-owned property.
Wade explained that the curatorship program allows DEM to select tenants to rehabilitate and use 27 designated state-owned buildings, and in exchange offer them long-term leases. In all, nine buildings, including the Walter Baker Administration Building, are under lease agreements. The others are used by DEM or by other organizations.
DEM sought bids for the Baker building, and two years ago signed a long-term lease with Cambridge-based Keen Development Corp.
Keen Development, in conjunction with Historic Massachusetts Inc. and The Architectural Team of Chelsea, is rehabilitating the property. Keen specializes in renovating and preserving historic buildings that have been neglected.
Cory Fellows, project manager for Keen Development, said the project will be a certified historic rehab that will be checked and monitored by the Massachusetts Historic Commission.
Keen Development sees the building’s unique space – with its large windows, high ceilings, spacious atrium and elegant staircase – as an ideal home for artists, said Fellows.
The developers have another connection to the Walter Baker complex. In the early to mid-1980s, Keen Development redeveloped the Adams and Pierce/Preston mills, located across the street from the administration building, into 133 apartments for moderate-income households.
“We’ve been in the neighborhood for a while now,” said Fellows, referring to the apartments in the former mill buildings. “We always looked across the street and have seen the Baker building as a wonderful landmark.”
Since word got out that Keen Development is converting the building into artists’ lofts, Fellows said his company has received a “steady stream” of inquiries from interested artists.
Fellows said the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which provided $500,000 for the project, is screening tenant applications through the end of this month. Applicants are required to submit samples of their work.
Once the BRA certifies applicants as practicing artists, they will enter a pool. Fellows said his company will select tenants – possibly through a lottery system – from that pool of applicants.
Fellows said the developers have already received the building permit and zoning variance needed to start construction. Since DEM has maintained the building – installing a new roof and boiler system and removing asbestos and lead paint over the last several years – the project is likely to move ahead rather quickly. The lofts are expected to be ready by the spring.
“The building is in very good shape considering it’s been vacant for most of the last 35 years,” said Fellows.
