SOUTH BOSTON, MA – As ever-changing rules and regulations challenge the bread-and-butter end of the commercial fishing industry, something else is threatening the heart and soul of its very way of life – the steady demise of heritage, history, home, and a sense of place.
The chapel’s stained glass windows depict: the biblical story of Jesus walking on water and calming the storm to reassure his disciples, a number of whom were fishermen; Gloucester’s famous “Man at the Wheel” statute. (Photo courtesy of Vivien Li)
A prime example of this loss is the planned destruction of the Chapel of Our Lady of Good Voyage located in the section of Boston known as “Southie.”
The demolition of this Catholic chapel is scheduled as part of the master plan to make way for a proposed 23-acre upscale urban neighborhood development project coined “Seaport Square” by Boston Global Investors (BGI). Demolition is expected to be completed sometime in the spring of 2016.
Located at 65 Northern Ave., the chapel was erected in the early 1950s by, for, and with the help and support of local fishermen, laborers, and dockside workers. It has served generations of fishermen and working class families, though these days, the weather worn faces of the men and women who built and ran the fisheries of South Boston are an increasingly rare sight in the church…
Read the rest and much, much more in the October issue of Commercial Fisheries News.
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