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Kerrie
Registered User
(12/7/01 7:56:58 am)
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Castignetti Building news...
I just found these sites re: the Castignetti Building in Boston's North End. I thought they were just fixing things up when I took a walk down there.
There goes her neighborhood
The Sherman Gallery show is named for the last group of pictures (Stephanie) Kay painted in her studio on Endicott Street in Boston's North End, a gentrifying neighborhood
where she also rents an apartment. She and her fellow artist tenants were recently forced to vacate the Castignetti Building when a developer announced he would convert it to luxury condominiums.
www.bu.edu/bridge/archive.../arts.html
December 7, 2001
HOFFMAN ARTISTS OPEN STUDIOS
Come join us when we, together with visiting artists, open our studios to the public.
Works include painting, photography, architecture, design, and sculpture.
The Latin Music group Bambuli will perform, as well as the Tarnations Dance Company.
Refreshments will be served.
WHEN :
November 17th, 18th
Saturday and Sunday
12:00 – 6:00 pm
WHERE: 160 North Washington Street, 8th Floor, Boston, MA
(In the North End, at the foot of the Charlestown Bridge)
Take the Green or Orange line to North Station T stop,
Exit the station and walk towards Commericial Street.
Turn left onto North Washington Street.
The building is on the left at the foot of the Charlestown Bridge.
We are near the intersections of North Washington Street,
Commercial Street, and Causeway Street.
WHO: Former Castignetti Building artists banded together when their Studios were converted into luxury condominiums. Choosing to stay in the North End neighborhood, they
now occupy the 8th floor of the Hoffman Building and formed the Hoffman Artists.
Handicap Accessible: A wheel chair ramp is located on the North Washington Street entrance of the Hoffman Building. Elevator service available to the 8th floor.
Parking is available for free on Sunday only. Use the Causeway Street entrance for parking behind the building.
Questions or for more information
Contact: Deirdre McKenna
Daytime : 617-661-7900 XT 7039
Eve: 617-625-3882
dmckenna@webergroup.com
mckennad@mindspring.com
www.aboutthearts.com/hoffmanartists.htm
Hoffman Open Studios
www.vanpeltart.com/hoffmanartists.html
Edited by: Kerrie at: 12/7/01 8:02:48 am
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Terri
Registered User
(12/11/01 5:09:51 am)
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Re: Castignetti Building news...
Thanks for posting this, Kerrie. I still miss the Castignetti building (where the Endicott Studio was born, in a large loft on the top floor with a fabulous view of the Boston skyline); I spent some very happy years there. It's weird to think of it filled with expensive apartments and yuppies. In memory, it will always be a quirky, dusty industrial space infested with artists, smelling of saw dust, oil paint and the wind off the harbor, with the Castignetti Brother's tuxedo shop on the ground floor and their old Italian moma sitting in back, offering cookies whenever one went in to pay the rent. The neighborhood was almost exclusively Italian then, with Italian spoken in the streets and old women in black sitting in the doorways. And the best espresso this side of Milano. The smell on the street outside Polcari's coffee bean shop alone could give you a buzz...
I ran into the painter who had the studio across the hall from mine not long ago, here in Tucson (where, it turns out, she lives close by). She said her loft is now a million dollar condo. We used to pay $250.00 a month for that space (and during the year I was recovering from a cancer operation, Joe Castignetti refused to take even that nominal fee from me.) When Joe passed on, a friend sent me a copy of the obit, which made me very sad--he and his brother were such kind man, in their gruff way. I was about to go over to Italy (where Midori was living at the time) and I'd been planning to send Joe a postcard saying: "Hey look, I finally made it!" Alas, I made it too late.
The "Big Dig" has changed the North End forever...sigh... Glad I'm not there to see it. I'd rather keep my memory of what it was. Thanks for bringing back those memories today with your post. Perhaps buildings need obits, in addition to people. The bricks of that old 19th century factory still stand, but the Castignetti Arts Building is no more.
Edited by: Terri at: 12/11/01 5:30:09 am
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Kerrie
Registered User
(12/14/01 8:39:16 am)
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Re: Castignetti Building news...
I took a walk down there the other day, and asked an older gentleman, with a bandage on his thumb (I think he worked at a deli or cheese shop on the same side of the street), if he knew which building was the old Castignetti building. He said, "You want to know if I know which one it is?" "Yes." "Yeah, I know which one it is." Classic! Reminded me of my uncles! Very nice man.
I won't describe the building I saw, in case it has changed, but
it was very quiet on that stretch. Around the corner, construction
workers were enjoying lunch and watching the world pass by. It smelled
so good down there! The candies and breads and soups- ok, I think
I need to go to lunch now!
Forest frosts and sugarplum dreams,
Kerrie
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