CAPTION: The proposed future home of the K of C at 545 Medford St.

The Knights of Columbus may find a new home on Medford Street, while the current site of the Christian fraternal organization is razed to make way for a nine-story residential development.
According to a Project Notification Form submitted to the Boston Redevelopment Authority and obtained by the Patriot-Bridge, an approximately 190,000 square-foot building containing 111 residential units and 174 parking spaces (35 at-grade and 139 below ground) is proposed for 75 West School St., the site that Knight have occupied since 1975. The approximate cost of the project is $30 million, while construction is expected to take one year and be completed by the second quarter of 2009.
The developer for the project is Bruce Daniel, a local attorney with an extensive background in real estate development in Charlestown and other Boston neighborhoods. Charlestown-based Neshamkin French Architects has been selected as the architect.
Public amenities for the project include landscaping and revitalization for the areas adjacent to the Phipps Street Burying Ground and in front of the site, as well as the creation of permanent on-site positions and 350 construction jobs. A percentage of the residential units will also be designated as affordable housing in accordance with city ordinances.
The Knights, meanwhile, are slated to move to occupy 9,300 square feet of the 18,500 square-foot, two-story building owned and operated by hardware distributor C.A. Cunningham at 545 Medford St., said Tom Cunha, the organization’s general manger, building manger, president of the building association. Cunha added that the $500,000 to $600,000 renovation project wouldn’t change the overall “envelope” of the building.
The new facility will have a new hall on the first level with a 220-person occupancy, compared with the 350 people that the upper hall on West School Street now holds. A smaller hall with a 120-person occupancy will be located on the second level, along with the offices of the Grand Knight and the organization’s business manager.
The members’ quarters on the first level will accommodate 70 people and contain a bar, TV and pool table, as well as an outdoor patio. Restrooms, a coatroom and a catering facility will also be located on the first floor.
Approximately 40 parking spaces would be located on site, and negotiations are underway to provide additional parking at other nearby locations, Cunha said.
Cunha said renovations of the Medford Street site are scheduled to begin in early winter, pending approval for the BRA and the community.The move wouldn’t occur until the Knights had settled into the Medford Street site, he said.
“”We’re hoping that the community remembers all the kindness that the Knights of Columbus has given them over the years to help speed up the process,” Cunha said. “It’s our intention to continue to be a strong community resource for years to some in the new facility.”
Bruce Daniel, developer of the West School Street site, is scheduled to make a presentation on the project at the next Charlestown Neighborhood Council, which takes place at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 75 West School St., on Tuesday, Sept. 4, at 7 p.m.

CREDIT: Courtesy of Edge Marketing

CAPTION: The Union coat once owned by Henry Harrison Stone of Charlestown.

A rare Civil War jacket that was worn a Charlestown soldier in battle is now available as part of an online auction being offered by Chicago-based Mastro Auctions.
The Potomac blue coat once belonged to Henry Harrison Stone, a Charlestown firefighter who joined the Union Army on June 13, 1861, at age 20. As a sergeant in the “I” Company of the 11th Massachusetts Infantry (the Hooker’s Brigade), Stone wore the Union coat, which he referred to as his “lucky tunic,” at battles in Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. During the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1963, Stone and the 11th Massachusetts Infantry were positioned at Emmitsburg Road with the Third Army Corps when Confederate troops charged the Union line. Stone was injured during the battle, although the extent of his injuries remains unknown.
Following the Battle of Gettysburg, Stone and his regiment fought in the Battle of Battle of Spotsylvania, where he was captured and taken prisoner on May 12, 1864. Stone was held at the Andersonville prison for six months, during which time he went deaf from illness. He was set free as part of a prisoner exchange in 1864, mustered out of service the following year and died in 1892.
Five weeks before Stone’s capture at Spotsylvania, he shipped the jacket, which still bears a patch and tears attributed to the injuries he sustained in Gettysburg, back to his mother. The coat remained in the Stone family until a Civil War collector bought it in the early 1970s. (It was later sold to a Gettysburg collector of Civil War memorabilia before being its current owner bought it). The Union coat has also been featured in two Time-Life books on the Civil War.
Stone’s jacket is one of only three such items known to exist. General Samuel Crawford’s Union jacket is on display at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum, while another coat iis in the possession of a noted Civil War artist and collector.
“This is Americana at its best,” said Doug Allen, president of Mastro
Auctions. “The coat is the ideal combination of rarity, condition and historical significance. Regardless of its monetary value, the value of what it represents is priceless.”
The auction for the Stone’s jacket commenced on Aug. 13 with an opening bid of $25,000 and runs through Aug. 29. As of Tuesday afternoon, the current bid was $27,563.
For more information on the auction, visit www.mastroauctions.com or call 630-472-1200.

CAPTION: Christy’s owner Jane Vargas.

Christy’s Place serves up some of the best sandwiches in Boston, according to the Web Site Citysearch.
“We are honored to have been selected one of the 10 best sandwiches in the metropolitan Boston area by Citysearch in 2007,” said owner Jane Vargas, who bought the restaurant at 283 Main St. in 2004.
Christy’s came in eighth, ranking among such notable restaurants as the Parish Café on Boylston Street, Darwin’s Ltd. of Cambridge and Sam LaGrassa’s in Downtown Crossing.
Because of the recognition from Citysearch and in gratitude to their customers, Vargas said Christy’s would be raffling of a pair of tickets for an upcoming New England Patriots game.
Citysearch is a self-described “online lifestyle guide with the most up-to-date information on businesses, from restaurants and spas, to hotels and retail.”

“The Green Square Mile: History of the Charlestown Irish” will be seen in a new venue — and hopefully by a new audience — when it comes to the Residence Inn by Marriott on Tudor Wharf next month for a free outdoor screening.
The documentary, which premiered last year, was produced by the Charlestown Historical Society and tells the story of the neighborhood’s Irish population from the arrival of the first settlers in Charlestown in the 17th century through the present. Filmmaker Maureen McNamara and narrator Ed Callahan will give a brief presentation on the making of the documentary prior to the screening and be on hand to answer questions following the movie. (Screenwriter Dan Casey is also tentatively scheduled to appear).
“My intention is to inform newcomers to the history of Charlestown,” Callahan said. “One of the key reasons [for making the movie] was so those of us who grew up here could learn about our history but also so those of us who moved here from all around the world could have a better understanding of their new neighbors and where they came from.”
Callahan added that the movie is now on the cusp of breaking even and that any additional revenue from it would be used to erect a “fitting memorial” at St. Francis de Sales Graveyard, where 9,000 Irish men, women and children are buried.
The screening is a part of the summer programming sponsored by the Friends of the Charlestown Navy Yard and the Boston Redevelopment Authority that began several years ago in an effort to attract residents from other parts of town to the Navy Yard.
“Our intention is to get people into the Navy Yard to see what a real jewel we have in Charlestown,” said David Whelan, who along with fellow FCNY board member Kathia Capellupo, helped organize the event.
Whelan said he recently attended the Summer Movie Series on Tudor Wharf, which is located directly behind the offices of Keane Inc.
“It’s a great location for a movie,” he said. “I thought it was it was a great event for a summer evening, found it to be a wonderful waterfront venue and the folks at the Marriot couldn’t have been more cooperative. I think they’re very community minded.”
In regard to the upcoming screening of “Green Square Mile,” Whelan extended his gratitude to Bob DiDuca, the hotel’s general manager, and his staff for allowing FCNY and the BRA use of the facility.
The “Green Square Mile” screening takes place at the Residence Inn by Marriott on Tudor Wharf on Thursday, Sept. 6. Programming, which also includes light entertainment and a cash bar, begins at 6:30 p.m. First Student will provide free transportation to and from the venue for seniors from the Zelma Lacey House on West School Street, 42 Park St. and 100 Ferrin St. beginning at 6 p.m. Movie refreshments will be provided by the FCNY.

On Sunday, Victory Day Family Day took place at the USS Constitution Museum in the Navy Yard. The event, which commemorated the legendary Aug. 19, 1812, victory over HMS Guerriere, featured free family activities, live period music and a U.S. Navy gun drill.

CAPTION 1: Hannah Waters, age 6, signs her name to a piece of copper that will be attached to the hull of the Constitution.

CAPTION 2: Charlestown resident Molly McGuinness, 2, shakes hands with Tim Vincent, Jeanette Lake Jackson and Anabel Graetz, after they finished a theatrical performance in the Figgie Theatre at the museum.

CAPTION 3: Michael, Patrick and Emery Jakab enjoy ice cream served in the courtyard of the museum.

CAPTION 4: Constitution crew members give a gun drill demonstration with a ship's cannon.

With so much attention nationally on the 2008 Presidential race, local municipal elections are often lost amid the political discussion around Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson and others.
However, just as the cost of running a presidential campaign is once again expected to top the $200 million threshold, it is becoming more and more expensive to run local campaigns as well, particularly when those campaigns must span a city the size and diversity of Boston.
With no mayoral race to discuss this campaign season, we've decided to take a look at the citywide at-large council races and find out how much it might cost to run such a campaign.
With four incumbent at-large councilors all seeking re-election, this year's race will have no vacant seat, the way the 2005 election did. However, in addition to the four incumbents, five other candidates have all declared their interest in serving at-large, with varying degrees of support, both from a voter standpoint and a fundraising standpoint.
Here is what we've found.
City Councilor Michael Flaherty, the top vote getter in the 2005 at-large election, also spent much more than any of his colleagues or competitors. According to records from the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, Flaherty spent a total of $511,993 during the 2005 calendar year on his campaign.
Not that being the biggest spender assures you of anything, Councilor Felix Arroyo had the second highest vote total of the four councilors elected in 2005, yet his campaign spent less money in 2005 than any of his colleagues and less than one challenger who did not win, John Connolly. Arroyo's 2005 spending total was just $131,884, while Connolly spent $309,625 on his bid for a city council seat.
Connolly's total was also quite a bit higher than two other councilors who won seats. Incumbent Stephen Murphy spent $149,371 on his 2005 re-election campaign, and newcomer Sam Yoon spent $220, 076 on his successful run.
With all five of these men in the race and being joined by four other challengers, one would expect that campaign expenditures in 2007 will go up, but that's not exactly what the candidates themselves said.
"Clearly, running a citywide campaign requires a significant amount of money," said Flaherty. "And some of that cost is tied to voter apathy in municipal elections. With this being an off year, I'm sure that we're going to spend a lot of money on the campaign, but for me, part of having a campaign account is that you're spending money all the time, year round."
Flaherty points to charitable donations he makes throughout the year to various causes, to paid advertisements in local weekly newspapers at holidays and other expenditures as part of the cost of being in politics in a big city like Boston. As of the end of July, Flaherty's campaign account showed a balance of $76,459, easily the most among those in the race.
"There's also been a dramatic demographic shift in the voter base in Boston and I'm always trying to reach out to those voters, those constituencies and get my message out."
Other councilors feel that the off-political year and relative quiet in this year's race mean that less money will be spent overall.
"We spent ($220,000) in 2005 and we estimate that we'll spend about the same or maybe a little less this year, because there is less interest in the race at this point than there was two years ago," said Frank Woodruff, a campaign spokesperson for Councilor Sam Yoon. "At the same time, as we get closer to the election, people will be paying more attention and it will be easier to raise money and more important top spend money then as well."
Yoon's campaign had $41,621 as of July 31, but as with all of the accounts, that is understood to be a snapshot of a constantly changing account that brings in revenue, as fast as it spends on the campaign.
Woodruff, referring to the level of campaign contributions currently in candidates accounts added, "Maybe three or four weeks out, we'll have the most money that we'll have in the account at one time and it will just go down from there."
Yoon added, "There are 270,000 voters in the city that you have to get your message out to, and you're essentially asking people to open their wallets to support your ability to get your message across, so that you can represent them. It is by far the hardest thing I do politically. You're asking people to invest money in you, but then they are invested in you as a candidate or elected official"
Councilor Arroyo, whose campaign account had $3,752 as of July 31, said that he faces some unique challenges in fund raising because of upbringing in Puerto Rico, but he also said that how a candidate spends his campaign finances is as important as how much he or she spends.
"Being a person of color and someone who was not raised in the city, I don't have the network of school friends and neighbors to support me, the way some others in the race do," said Arroyo. "Not that those networks are a bad thing, it's just that I have to rely on different means."
Arroyo said his role as a neighborhood activist and his reputation as someone who stands for issues, helps him to attract enough support to run his campaign.
"We spent $130,000 two years ago and we intend to spend about the same this time, but we'll have to do it by going to minority events, asking supporters to host house parties for us and then we have to make sure we spend our money in the right ways," said Arroyo. "I believe a very good campaign could be run for $200,000, but we did well with $130,000, so how you use it and how effective you are at targeting the use of it, that is the challenge."
Councilor Murphy said his campaign expects to spend between $150,000 and $200,000 again this year, but he added that the balance between asking for money and asking for support is sometimes hard to make.
"It's always tough to call people on my donor list and ask them to donate money to my campaign," said Murphy. "I don't think any of us is very comfortable calling around or sending out mailings asking for money, but in order to get elected, we have to spend money. We can't spend money if we don't raise the money. Luckily, I have a good donor base that support me and support my efforts on the Council; they want to see me stay in office so I can continue working for them and the residents of Boston."
Of the other challengers in the race, only Connolly and Martin Hogan have run for office in the past. As was noted earlier, Connolly spent more than $300,000 on his unsuccessful bid for an at-large council seat in 2005 and as of July 31, Connolly had $20,826 in his campaign account for this year's run.
Hogan, on the other hand, spent just $525 on his 2005 campaign and as of July 31, his campaign account shows a balance of just $75 for 2007.
Of the other candidates in the race, only Matthew Geary ($2,312) and David James Wyatt ($64) even have campaign accounts set up for this year's campaign. The fifth challenger for the race, William Estrada has no record of a campaign account having been set up.