According to Pru, the fundraisers in the early days of 1990-1991 were turkey dinners at the First United Baptist Church.  The cost of entry was $6.50.  Apple pies were on sale for $3.50, including the pie plate. The founders also sold placemats comprised of business cards from local construction related businesses.  The ads were sold by Don and another early organizer Sister Claire Cayer.  The first dinner raised $1200, and the 2^nd dinner – attended by 150 people – raised $2500.   Young hockey players from University of Lowell (now UMass Lowell) helped serve.

During the early days 1994-1997, the first three projects (33 Mead Street, 45 Walnut Street, and 50 West 4^thStreet) were rehabilitation projects in Lowell.  (All Habitat for Humanity of Greater Lowell projects were rehab projects until 2002 when the first new house was built.)  Pru Dooley recalls the dedication of 45 Walnut Street in March 1995.  Steve Panagiotakos, MA State Representative at the time who helped with getting permits from the City of Lowell, and Paul Tsongas, former US Senator from Lowell, were both at the dedication.  Pru remembers Paul Tsongas showing up in paint clothes, thinking he was going to be put to work!

Judy Jergens served as president in 1992, Philip Belanger was president in 1993, and Peter Sweeney was president 1994-1995.

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223 and 225 Summer Street, Lowell – dedicated September 1998 

This property was acquired in 1996 and took nearly 2 years to rehab.  Ernie Middlemiss described the house as a “burned out shell” and that he could see through the upper floors to the sky from the entrance.  It was originally a 3 story single family house, but the building committee determined that it would be easier to rehab into two units.  Under the supervision of Roy Peters, volunteers from Harvard, BU, BC, Wellesley and local church groups worked over 10,000 hours to remove the siding and the roof, gut the interior and build new interior walls, and replace the insulation, wiring and windows.  The house also needed a new heating system and plumbing.  The completed duplex housed a family of 7 downstairs and a family of 4 upstairs.

16 Nichols Street, Lowell – dedicated July 2000   

This two story, 4 bedroom house was the long-time residence of Elfrieda Poore who donated it to the Immanuel Baptist Church of Lowell who in turn donated it to HFHGL.  Pierre de Villiers recalls that step one was the removal of cat-smelling clutter that filled an entire dumpster.  Under the supervision of Jim Comeau, the house was gutted in August 1999.  Seven hundred volunteers worked over 9000 hours, primarily on Saturdays and Tuesdays.  One member of the Tuesday “Over the Hill Gang” Ned McCaffrey had been volunteering for HFHGL since 1991, the year of its founding.   Another long-time member of the Tuesday crew was Bill Murphy, who also volunteered for HFH  in Florida in the winter. One of the more memorable tasks done by the Tuesday crew was the pouring of a huge retaining wall during the hottest day of the year.   In July 2000 a family of 8 moved into 16 Nichols Street.

44 Barrington Street, Lowell – dedicated March 2002 

Father Charles Beausoleil of St. Joseph the Worker Shrine found this Lowell house for HFHGL.   Work on this rehab project was started in early 2001.  The house needed all new walls, new siding, new plumbing, electrical and insulation and a new porch.     

7 Orchard Street, Westford – completed 2002

HFHGL was approached by individuals in Westford to rehab this property for the owner, who was living in the house.  The project was selected with the goal of cultivating a relationship with the town of Westford.   In addition to some major infrastructure repairs such as the septic system, the house received some cosmetic repairs. This project proved very challenging because it lent credibility to the term creeping features and the slogan “you never know what’s behind those walls!”

Another key development during these years was the introduction of a website in 2001.  In early 1999 Pierre de Villiers proposed having a website to Roy Peters (then president) and worked with 2 students from Middlesex Community College to create the first prototype.  The first website, hosted on Pierre’s personal website, allowed for the submission of volunteer interest forms online.  Steve Measmer built a mail server in his basement at the end of 1999, and the first e-mail to volunteers soon followed.  Within a few months virtually all volunteer communication was done via e-mail.

May 2000 marked the five year anniversary for the “Take a Hike for Humanity” fundraiser.  300 hikers from 6 local affiliates hiked up Mount Monadnock.  The 36 hikers from HFHGL raised $5027.

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22 Glenside Avenue, Billerica – dedicated September 2002 (fiscal year 2003)

This was HFHGL’s first new construction and first property outside of Lowell.  In August 2001 HFHGL purchased the property for $1.00 from the town of Billerica.  The work was a 4 way partnership between HFHGL, the town of Billerica, Shawsheen Valley Regional Technical School in Billerica, and Cisco Systems Foundation.  Seventy junior and seniors from Shawsheen worked on the construction of the house from September 2001 to September 2002.  In the fall of 2002 a single mother of 4 children from Lowell moved into this beautiful 4 bedroom Colonial.

9 Austin Road, Billerica – dedicated February 2003

This house was acquired from the town of Billerica at the same time as the Glenside property, and the building permit was issued in December 2001.  Under the supervision of construction manager Steve Measmer, an impressive amount of work was completed in one year, starting with clearing a jungle of vines – and finding a car in the backyard.  Assisted by professionals who did the foundation, plumbing, and electrical work, the volunteer crew added a kitchen and bath in the rear, reconfigured the downstairs for a living room and one bedroom and the upstairs for 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, and poured new floor in the basement.  A group of women from MIT’s Alternative Spring Break program assisted the volunteer and professional team. A single mother of 3 girls from Billerica who was attending Middlesex Community College while working full time was selected for this home.  She later served as an advocate for the next Billerica house completed in 2015.

Pierre de Villiers recalls that both Billerica projects had to conform to the LIP (Local Initiative Program) guidelines set by the State of Massachusetts in order for the houses to count towards Billerica’s affordable housing quota.  LIP guidelines also required that HFHGL make a concerted effort to reach out to minority families in all towns of their coverage area.  That meant posting flyers and contacting town officials, churches and schools as part of the family selection process.  And Billerica required that one of the families be a current Billerica resident.

From then on, the houses were all new construction.  The years 2005-2007 were also notable for the hiring of the affiliate’s first paid staff.  The first Executive Director Suzanne Frechette was hired in April 2005 and served as ED until June 2007.  The office was in downtown Lowell in a donated office space across from a Dunkin Donuts.  The affiliate’s first major fundraiser was an event at the Merrimack Repertory Theater in Lowell which raised $5000.  Ernie Middlemiss served his second 3 year term as president of the board from 2003- 2005, and Bill Mersch served as president from 2006-2009.  Another factor contributing to the ramp in the number of projects was an online volunteer system that allowed for an exponential increase in the number of volunteers.  June 2005 was a busy month for HFHGL with the dedication of both Harmony Way in Lowell and Baker Ave in Concord.

Harmony Way, Lowell – dedicated June 2005

In the summer of 1998, property off Charles Street in the Back Central section of Lowell was offered to HFHGL by Cormier Construction Corporation of Andover MA.   Prior to accepting the offer, HFHGL asked engineering students from UMass Lowell to prepare a feasibility and cost analysis study on developing the site as part of their senior project.  (Their estimates were in fact very close to the actual costs of the site preparation.)  HFHGL took title in December 1998.  The Site Committee spent the next 2+ years developing plans that would meet the City of Lowell’s building requirements.  The building crew broke ground on November 2001.  One of the first tasks was to demolish a set of garages in various stages of decay.  During the construction Home Depot donated materials, and Cisco donated funding and volunteers.  Cisco also named the property “Harmony Way”. Among the other groups who regularly worked the site were students from Harvard, who also made a financial contribution, and volunteers from Crescent House, a Lowell organization that works with veterans.  After three and a half years, 3 duplexes were completed.  The dedication of the first duplex was in June 2005. Paul LaMothe, Chairman of the Building Committee, presented a toolbox to a single father of two young children who moved from a housing project near Boston to his new home where his kids could play in the back yard.  Three years after the six families moved in, the island in the cul-de-sac was cultivated by the Northern District Garden Club and the Lowell Parks Department.  

147 and 149 Baker Ave, Concord – dedicated June 2005

The two story clapboard duplex at 147 and 149 Baker Ave is part of a neighborhood of seven affordable three bedroom homes.  In a Boston Globe article dated June 7 2005, a member of the board of the Concord Housing Trust described the development of the neighborhood as follows: “The land belonged to the state of Massachusetts.  The state had allocated the parcel for the widening of Route 2, but they never did anything with it.  Once the land went up for auction, the Concord Housing Trust worried that commercial developers would want to build as many houses as they could on the land. The Trust could never match the bids of wealthy private developers, but we might be able to purchase the land from the state by promising affordable housing.”  The Concord Housing Trust purchased the parcel and built five homes in 2004. The Trust sold one of the lots to HFHGL.  The ground for the 147/149 duplex was broken in August 2004, with the dedication on June 26 2005.   Between the two partner families there were six boys, all under the age of 12.  One of the families moved from a two bedroom apartment in Lowell “with brown water stains on the ceiling, peeling wallpaper, and a hole in the back porch that swallowed Daisy the cat”.  (This quote was from a follow-up article in the Boston Globe, dated December 22 2005.)

26 and 32 Governors Drive, Reading – dedicated June 2007

The two homes on Governors Drive were built in cooperation with the Town of Reading and HFHGL under the MA Local Initiative Program (LIP) guidelines, which required that the homes remain low income in perpetuity.  The land was valued at $500,000, but HFHGL acquired the land for $1.00 and a contribution of $59,000 to the Town of Reading for new curbs and sidewalks on Governors Drive.  Donations came from Winchester Savings Bank, Tocci Construction, and Peerless Insurance.  The building crew broke ground in June 2006 and removed 100+ trees.  Volunteers put in over 5000 hours on Tuesday mornings and Saturdays to build the 4 bedroom homes.  The dedication was held on June 23 2007, and the two families moved in shortly thereafter.  One of the families moved from Somerville to 26 Governors Drive with their 2 sons.  The family in 32 Governors Drive had immigrated from Poland in 2001.  They were living in Reading in a house where all 4 children shared the same bedroom.  The mother learned about Habitat through the ESL teacher at one of the elementary schools in Reading where she was taking classes.  In a newspaper write-up on the dedication, the father said, “We moved to the United States intending to find a place to settle down and offer our children a better opportunity for the future.  We never expected things to go so well.  This house is a big step towards achieving our dream.”

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Dana oversaw the hiring of full-time and part-time staff to focus on grant writing, fundraising, and business development, including Kim Trainor who was hired in January 2009. Bill Mersch served as President of the board from 2006 to 2009, followed by “less-than-3 year” stints from Andy Barlow, Marshal-Ben Tisdale, Brenda Gould, and Jim Saltonstall.  In 2008 the office moved from Lowell to Tadmuck Road in Westford, and in 2010 the office moved to its current location at Hicks Farm in Westford.  According to Bill Mersch, an important development during these years was the implementation of the “Volunteer Up” system for organizing volunteers for the build projects.  Also Bill played a key role in the affiliate’s participation in the interfaith community of area churches and faith-based organizations to sponsor future build projects, such as Rock Street in Lowell.  With more staff resources, the affiliate started to have larger fundraising events, including poker and bridge tournaments, an event at the Chelmsford Senior Center in 2008, an event at Vespers Country Club in 2009, and the annual Galas.   The Westford Academy Pride organization raised $3000 with their own fundraising activities, including selling a book called “Memories of Home” and selling wooden boards at the Thanksgiving Day game on which to write messages to the family moving into 18 Williams Street in Westford.

18 Williams Ave, Westford – dedicated October 5, 2008

In 2007 only 2.7% of Westford’s housing stock was considered affordable, well under the 10% mandate.  With this in mind, the town looked at 2 acres of property in the Nabnasset area as a possible site for affordable housing. The town had owned this land since the late 1960s.  Many neighbors opposed, saying that the development would add to basement flooding problems.  They gathered signatures for a citizens’ petition to transfer the land to the Conservation Commission, but at the May 2007 Town Meeting, residents voted against the transfer.  The town hired a consultant to test the parcel’s drainage, and the test found that drainage was not a problem.  Shortly thereafter the Westford Tax Possession Sale Committee granted HFHGL a Request for Proposal (RFP) to build on the site.  (Of the 2 acres, only a portion was allocated for a build site; the rest was set aside as conservation land.) The RFP required that the house be sold to first-time homebuyers below 80% of the medium family income, which in 2007 meant a family of 4 must make below $59,600.  In November of 2007, the town sold the land to HFHGL for $1.00, with the final transfer of the land on February 13, 2008.   Groundbreaking was for a home at 18 Williams Ave. was on March 2, 2008, and the house was dedicated on October 5, 2008 with a family of four moving into a new 2 story 3 bedroom home.

This house was the first energy-efficient “green” house for Habitat in New England, meaning that it met strict criteria under the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System.  This was achieved under the guidance of Building Science Corporation of Westford.  BSC donated their expertise, building plans, and labor.  Four inches of rigid foam insulation was used to create a high R-value enclosure, and energy efficient lighting, appliances, windows and doors were installed, contributing to a 44.4% estimated energy reduction over the Department of Energy’s Building America Program benchmark. (For a case study on the project by BSC, see https://buildingscience.com/documents/case-studies/cs-ma-westford-hfh)  From this point forward, all houses built by HFHGL were built to ENERGY STAR guidelines set by the EPA.

Carter Way, Bedford – 8 homes; first new home dedicated December 2009

Carter Way in Bedford (originally referred to as 130 North Road) was HFHGL’s largest project to date.  It was comprised of 7 new homes and a renovation of a farm house on a new street, eventually named Carter Way in honor of Jimmy Carter.   It took over 4 years from the first ground breaking in May 2008 to the final house dedication in November 2012, at an estimated cost of $2.5 million.  Also it included HFHGL’s first handicapped accessible house.

The project started in October 2006 when the town of Bedford approved $600K in Community Preservation Act funds for the construction of 8 affordable houses on 3.47 acres of land off 130 North Road.  Tom Garesche, the property acquisitions manager for HFHGL at the time, worked with the Bedford Housing Partnership to prepare a LIP (Local Initiative Program) application.  HFHGL was awarded the bid, and on February 28 2007 HFHGL closed on the property.  Step one was to get a permit from the Bedford Historic District to remove a 147 year old barn on the back side of the property.  The property also had a 150 year old farmhouse which was renovated into one of the 3 bedroom homes.   The Farmhouse received LEED gold certification.

Here is listing of the addresses with their dedication dates:

Carter Way was the largest undertaking to date for HFHGL.  The construction manager for the duration of the project was Jim Comeau.  In addition to the usual Saturday and Tuesday building crews, Board member and Bedford resident Sue McCombs led the local partnership effort to recruit volunteers from Bedford.  Students from Shawsheen Vocational Tech helped to build #6 Carter Way.  The project also had assistance from Building Science Corporation, IBEW local 103, Devens Recycling Center, and financial support from Thrivent Financial (sponsor of #1 Carter Way), Millipore of Bedford, Cisco, Eastern Bank, Middlesex Savings Bank, Keurig, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Re/MAX Real Estate, and Bedford Insurance Agency.  Local businesses Whole Foods and Flatbread Pizza had their own fundraisers to support the project.

Two of the 8 homes were billed as Affordable Homes through the town of Bedford and were not considered HFH homes.  The remaining 6 families were selected through an extensive family selection process. The LIP guidelines stipulated that 2 of the families have an affiliation (currently live, work or go to school) with Bedford. The remaining families were all qualified under 60% AMI and were required to put in sweat equity and financial training in the true tradition of our “hand up” motto.

Side Note on the History of 130 North Road, Bedford:

Job Lane is a well-known name to the residents of Bedford.  The Job Lane House, located at 295 North Road, was built c. 1713 by Job Lane, one of Bedford’s earliest settlers, on 1500 acres land acquired by his grandfather (also Job Lane) in 1664 from Governor John Winthrop.  The grandfather Job Lane built his house sometime after 1664 on what is now 130 North Road.  The property stayed in the Job Lane family for five generations until c.1875 when it was sold to Charles Coolidge. For more information, do a Google Search on “The Bedford Preservationist April 2009”.

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