The Boylston Street Community Orchard at 195 Boylston St. has been sold to the nonprofit Commonwealth Land Trust (CLT) to preserve it as an orchard.
Department for Neighborhood Development (DND) project manager Bernard Mayo confirmed that the parcel will remain an orchard. He said CLT has been working with the Egleston Square Community Orchard (ECO) team.
According to the City of Boston website, the partnership between CLT and the ECO aims for “vacant land to be made available to a community-based organization for permanent use for gardening and related open space purposes.”
The parcel was used as a dumping ground before ECO cleaned it up, starting in May 2010. The debris and overgrowth was so big and widespread that most of a car was uncovered during cleanup. Since then, the orchard has bloomed into a garden that boasts tomatoes, a composting area, basil, flowers, chard, kale, a path, an arbor for grapes, blueberries, raspberries, currants and apple trees.
A Gazette call to CLT President and CEO Ellen Tan was not returned by press time.
According to a DND memo, CLT purchased the 3,725-square-foot parcel for $100. Its assessed value is $26,700. A closing has not yet been scheduled, Mayo said.
The DND commission voted to approve the sale was taken on May 7.