Working Boys Home, historic orphanage in Massachusetts.
The Working Boys Home is a four-story brick building in Newton, Massachusetts, designed in Romanesque Revival style. The structure features an H-shaped layout with a distinctive seven-story tower at the front right corner, sturdy brick walls with stone trim, and a slate roof punctuated by small copper cupolas.
The home was established in 1883 as a Catholic charity to support homeless working boys in Boston before relocating to Newton in 1890. Following World War II, demand declined, and the last residents left in 1961, after which Combined Jewish Philanthropies purchased the property in 1979 and repurposed it as JCC Greater Boston.
The clock tower displays Hebrew numerals, reflecting the building's current role as a community space for the local Jewish community. This repurposing shows how neighborhoods evolve and how historical structures can take on new meaning for different groups over time.
The building sits on Nahanton Street in Newton's Oak Hill area, in a quiet setting with nearby trees and open fields that make the location easy to find. It now hosts regular community programs and events, making it a welcoming and accessible historic site for visitors.
The tower features a clock with Hebrew numerals instead of standard Arabic numerals, an uncommon architectural detail. This unusual timepiece stands as a quiet testament to the site's cultural transformation over the decades.
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