Curley House revival crawls forward

PONDSIDE—It is taking a little longer than expected, but plans to revive the long-underused historic home of legendary Boston politician James Michael Curley are still ongoing.

Richard Dennis, head of the Friends of the James Michael Curley House, which is spearheading the revival effort, said that the group’s plans to take over operations at the Jamaicaway house from the city are still crawling forward.

“Several [City] departments that have to review the proposed arrangement haven’t finished their review,” Dennis said. “It’s still in the works, bureaucracy being what it is.”

Friends of the Curley House’s plan, announced more than a year ago, is to lease the 350 Jamaicaway property from the City to boost public use of the space. The group plans to finance the management of the property, as well as educational programming there, by marketing the mansion as a reception hall.

Dennis added that he’s hopeful an upcoming meeting with Mayor Thomas Menino might be able to speed up the process.

“My best hope is that we may be able to do some holiday planning for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s,” Dennis said. “It’s like molasses. It’s moving slowly, but I think it’ll still happen.”

City Hall did not respond to a Gazette request for comment.

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