Ninety Years of Prayer, Now 120 Homes: A Jamaica Plain Monastery Becomes Senior Rentals and Family Condos

• The Poor Clare monastery at 920 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, was sold by its last 10 nuns in 2022
• Plans call for 40 affordable senior rentals in the old monastery and 80 condos in a new addition
• 42% of all units would be affordable
• The addition would use mass timber and was cut from five storeys to four

For about 90 years the Poor Clare nuns’ monastery was a landmark in Jamaica Plain, Boston. In 2022 the ten remaining nuns sold the 2.88-acre site at 920 Centre Street, where the Arborway meets Centre Street. The Jamaica Plain Gazette reported in November 2024 on plans to turn it into 120 homes.

Developer John Holland of Holland Companies told the neighbourhood council’s housing committee that the existing monastery would hold 40 senior rental apartments, 33 one-bedroom and seven studios. A new four-storey addition to the rear, reduced from an earlier five-storey design, would contain 80 condominiums: 54 two-bedroom, 19 three-bedroom and seven one-bedroom.

All 40 senior apartments would be deed-restricted as affordable, along with 10 of the condos, making 42 per cent of the project affordable. The monastery building is owned by the Planning Office for Urban Affairs, the Archdiocese of Boston’s housing arm. Senior rents were expected to range from about $1,300 a month for a one-bedroom to $529 a month on an income-based basis. The design includes parking for 110 vehicles and uses mass timber construction.

“This largely is a residential project right now,” Holland said. Committee member Danielle Sommer-Kieta welcomed the mix: “It’s refreshing to see the large number of family-size units.” Architect Jan Wampler praised the design: “From an architectural point-of-view, this is excellent, very complete, and beautiful.”

The project shows how a closing religious community can hand on its building for a use that echoes its mission of care, with the church’s own housing arm keeping the historic monastery for low-income elders.

Boston has a sizeable Caribbean community. For Jamaican congregations and religious orders with ageing buildings, the Poor Clare plan shows the value of keeping part of a site for affordable senior homes even when much of the rest becomes market-rate homes.

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