Our Lady’s Guild House Restoration Coalition has submitted a proposal to acquire the historic Our Lady’s Guild House (OLGH) to preserve both the property and its longtime charitable purpose as affordable single room occupancy (SRO) housing for low- and moderate-income women. Located in the Fenway neighborhood, Our Lady’s Guild House is a 137-room charitable lodging house for women created by Cardinal (then Archbishop) Richard J. Cushing in 1947 at the suggestion of Boston’s leading Catholic women and organizations.
For decades, the property was operated as a haven for single women without the means to pay for other housing, including low-wage working women, retirees, and other senior and disabled women. OLGH Restoration Coalition is comprised of OLGH resident leaders and Fenway neighborhood activists who have joined to save the historic property and to maintain it as affordable SRO housing for women, along with their partner, a community-based 501(c)(3) land trust. OLGH is owned by OLGH, Inc., a Massachusetts charitable corporation founded by Cardinal (then Archbishop) Cushing in 1947.
Its members and board are currently made up of nuns who belong to Daughters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception, a religious order based in New Britain, Connecticut, which owns a 131-acre New Britain campus. The Daughters first announced that the building was for sale on November 5, 2021. They hired Colliers International Boston, a large commercial real estate company, which sought bids by December 1, 2021. Colliers said a buyer would be chosen soon thereafter.