The Boston Landmarks Commission (BLC) voted last week to accept a petition from several Dorchester residents for a further study of an Architectural District for the Blue Hills Bank property in Lower Mills.

The property is at the corner of Washington and Richmond Streets and is used as a private residence now.

Earl Taylor, speaking for the group of 23 petitioners, said this was simply part of a process that he and others in Dorchester are going through to protect potentially significant historic properties. He said a Landmarks Architectural District can involve just one property in the district, as this petition calls for, and only has to be significant locally. A full Landmark has to be significant locally and regionally.

“We petitioned for this one because it is significant locally,” he said. [The bank] had a significant presence in Dorchester for the time and funded all of the commercial activity going on there in Lower Mills.”

He added that there is no pending development or threat to the building at this time that he knows of, but rather this is just one building on a list of properties that he and others deemed potentially significant.

“This is just a group of petitioners looking through Dorchester properties to find significant buildings that should have some designation,” he said.
The original (circa1850) bank was just down the street and was a wooden structure that was robbed multiple times. In 1867, the more substantial brick building was put up and served as the Blue Hills Bank until 1883 when it was sold to the city. It then was a library branch, a police station, and a general municipal building.

The Landmarks Commission usually takes at least one year to complete a study. The home next to the Blue Hills Bank structure has also been designated for study by the panel in recent years.