LYNN — The former St. Michael’s Church in West Lynn, once a mainstay for the Polish community in Lynn for more than 100 years, has been transformed into 20 condominiums.
The transformation breathes new life into the former Roman Catholic church, rectory and schoolhouse that stood for more than a century on the Summer Street side of McDonough Square. The parish closed in 2006 as part of a reorganization by the Archdiocese of Boston.
Developers David Cutler and Michael Mosko, co-owners of Lynn-based Storm Development, purchased the properties from the archdiocese in 2017 for $600,000, and received City Council approval for their $4-plus million development not long after, according to Mosko and land records.
“We basically have just been trying to find as many things as we can in Lynn,” said Mosko. “This one specifically, we loved the history behind it. We talked to the ward councilors, who were big on keeping the history behind it (and who asked us not to) disturb the building.”
While other developers may have been deterred from rehabbing such run-down buildings, rather than knocking them down, Mosko said the prospect made the project more enticing to them.
“We have never had an opportunity where we had the opportunity to preserve anything,” said Mosko. “We do a lot of new construction (and) house flips. We’ve never really had anything that had any history behind it. This one was definitely a special project to us.”
Built in 1906 by Polish-American residents who raised $3,000 to buy the church site, St. Michael’s expanded with a rectory built in 1909. The congregation bought a schoolhouse from the city in 1911 and erected the school building in 1924.
Parishioners appealed the church’s closing and raised money to pay for an attorney, but ultimately learned they had lost their appeal in the spring of 2016. Two months later, the Archdiocese listed the church, rectory and school buildings for sale.
Mosko said all three have been converted into condominiums, which include a mix of two- to four-bedroom units that will cost between $324,900 to $450,000.
Eight of those units, including three townhouse-style condos, are located within the former church building, said Mosko. Tenants of the church building will be given the first opportunity to purchase one of the three attached garages, he said.
The former schoolhouse has also been converted into eight condos — four are in the front of the building and the other four are in the back. Each classroom has been converted into a unit and a third floor was added to the former two-story building, Mosko said.
“We had to demolish and rebuild because it was too far gone,” said Mosko. “We were able to keep the foundation and rebuild the same building in the same shape and keep it new.”
The final four units are located within the former rectory, said Mosko, noting that the exterior of all three buildings remained the same, but the interiors were completely redone and modernized.
A third floor was added to all three buildings, which required extensive work in the basements to support the new floors. The development team also had to contend with roof leaks throughout the buildings, which meant old, rotted wood had to be replaced before those new stories were added, Mosko said.
“I love projects like this,” said Mosko. “I love extreme projects that people look at and call you crazy. I think there was a lot of doubt behind this project. A lot of developers wanted to knock this building down and start from scratch.
“It was easily the hardest project I’ve done in my life, as far as retrofitting everything, but I think the outcome is something the city is going to like. The exterior didn’t change. The interior is very modernized. It’s just very high-end.”
A ribbon cutting with the Greater Lynn Chamber of Commerce, which was hosted by the development’s real estate company, ReMax 360, was held last week. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the ceremony was significantly scaled back from original plans.
Mosko credited City Councilor Jay Walsh, the ward councilor for the area where the development is located, for helping to move the project forward. It was important to Walsh to keep more of the character of the church, instead of knocking it down, to preserve the history, he said.
“It was actually my church,” said Walsh, explaining that his parents got married at St. Michael’s and he was baptized at the church.
St. Michael’s closed down shortly after the church held its 100th anniversary, Walsh said, which was disappointing for a lot of parishioners in the neighborhood, many of whom were Polish-American. Its ethnicity was definitely Polish, said Walsh, noting that there used to be a Polish priest and one of the masses was said in the language.
“I’m just so happy that they’re getting it to a point where it’s finally up for sale,” said Walsh. “It was a tough project, taking a church and trying to keep the existing buildings and renovating the inside of them. I think it was beneficial for people who were still in that community to recognize the former use of that. I think they did a good job of doing that.”
