St. Elizabeth's Easter Egg Hunt Saturday Morning

St. Elizabeth's Medical Center is hosting their annual Gerry McCarthy Memorial Easter Egg hunt this Saturday morning. The event will take place on the former St. John's Seminary grounds -- now Boston College "Brighton Campus" -- near the Chancery and Gymnasium buildings.

Saturday, March 15th, 2008
2121 Commonwealth Avenue, Brighton, MA 02135

Preceding the egg hunts: Visits by Mayor Thomas Menino and the Easter Bunny, as well as displays by Fire Department and Ambulance Services

9:30 am -- Toddler Easter Egg Hunt
10:00 am -- Older Children Easter Egg Hunt

BYOB (bring your own basket)

Not only is Easter very early this year, but the hunt is a week before Easter, probably resulting in the earliest date on record for an Easter Egg hunt. Weather forecast? Rain and snow Saturday morning.


St. Elizabeth's Medical Center press release:

Saturday, March 15, 2008 - the week before Easter - St. E’s joins local children and families in festivities; commemorative gifts will be given to each child who attends

Caritas St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center celebrates Easter with its 25th Anniversary of the Annual Gerry McCarthy Memorial Easter Egg Hunt. During the 15-minute hunt, approximately 1,000 neighborhood children and their parents will search for more than 16,000 trinket-filled eggs. A special Toddlers’ Egg Hunt will also be held for children ages two and younger. Event location is the Archdiocese Chancery/Boston College at 2121 Commonwealth Avenue in Brighton.

Morning activities include a scheduled appearance by Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny. There will also be demonstrations by the Boston Fire Department and Armstrong Ambulance and refreshments

Egg hunting for toddlers begins promptly at 9:30 a.m, Hunt for older children begins promptly at 10 a.m. Event will take place rain, snow, or shine.

The annual egg hunt is named in memory of the late Gerry McCarthy, an Allston-Brighton resident and youth activist, who started it in the 1960’s.

Archdiocese Considering Moving Offices from Brighton to Braintree

The Boston Globe ran a front-page, above-the-fold, article in today's paper that the Archdiocese of Boston are in the "final stages of negotiating a deal to move their offices from the campus in Brighton... to a four-story building off route 128 in Braintree..."

Many of us heard unconfirmed reports on Monday that Archdiocese employees at the Chancery are currently packing up their office items, with a move completion targeted before September. The question is: where are they moving the offices?

While the Archdiocese is considering moving their central administration offices to Braintree, they plan to keep the St. John's Seminary itself at the same Brighton location:

"St. John's Seminary will remain at its current location, regardless of the outcome of our assessment of the long-term needs of central administration," said [archdiocesan spokesman Terrence C.] Donilon.

Boston College Vice President for Governmental and Community Affairs Thomas Keady, Jr., has stated publicly several times during the last month that the community can expect certain, additional parts of the Archdiocese property to be sold soon to BC as part of an Archdiocesan sell option within their 2004 purchase and sale contract with BC. Another BC official was heard speculating that the Archdiocese would pack their administrative offices into the St. John's Hall (within the St. John's Seminary buildings)--alongside the St. John's seminarians--but then sell the adjoining Bishop Peterson Hall (and the Chancery) to BC. Here's an old graphic from the St. John's Seminary site:

The Globe story implies that the Archdiocese may no longer be considering moving their administrative offices to St. John's Hall. While the Archdiocese has stated clearly that the seminarians are intended to stay in St. John's Hall, it is unclear whether or not the Archdiocese would sell the building and under what circumstances the seminarians would stay.

The reported sales price for the remaining property is $20 million for the 4.75 acre of the Chancery site, and $40 million for the 13.5 acre of the St. John's Seminary buildings site (and adjoining woods). I am guessing that the library is part of the latter parcel.

Since the Archdiocese and Boston College already have a purchase and sale contract which includes a sell option for these properties and a price, then why would they be in final negotations? My speculation is that they are negotiating sale of part of a parcel specified in the contract, and hence they would have to agree upon the size of the sub-parcel and its price. The likely parcel: selling Bishop Peterson Hall but not St. John's Hall. We'll see.

Note that Boston College's master plans have included buildings sited on the Chancery land not yet sold to them; there is little surprise at this point that it will be sold to BC. The surprise would be if the Archdiocese offices altogether move out of Brighton.

The Boston Herald first broke news of the story last Saturday.

A final note: The Globe's story includes a graphic of the Brighton property already sold, and that which may be sold in the immediate future. The graphic contains two subtle factual errors as to the seller of 196 Foster St (which was actually Virginia Dalton, not the Archdiocese), and the purchase dates of 188 and 196 Foster St (which were both purchased in 2006, not 2004).