Millennium Tower Developer to Help Spruce up the Old South Meeting House

Photo by Allie Caulfield on Flickr/Creative Commons

The Millennium Tower—that hulking, blue-gray monument to Boston’s luxury housing glut—has received its fair share of criticism here and elsewhere. From its $37.5 million penthouse to its private dining service overseen by an James Beard Award-winning chef, it’s tough finding reason for excitement down here for Boston’s third-tallest skyscraper when the city’s haves have never had so much, and its have-nots, so pitifully little.

So when the tower’s New York-based developer, Millennium Partners, does something good, it’s only fair we recognize that, too.

Millennium Partners will help fund extensive restoration work on the 5,400-square-foot ceiling of the nearby Old South Meeting House. The firm pledged $112,500 toward the 287-year-old structure’s facelift in 2014, and work has begun this week. Crews will remove base paint from 1899 and begin repainting after December’s Boston Tea Party reenactment.

“Boston’s Downtown Crossing and the adjacent historic Ladder District are central to Boston’s attractiveness,” principal Kathleen MacNiel said in a statement. “We believe in sensitively adding new elements to the old urban core in a strategic way, and that means respecting and protecting structures of the past.”

Built in 1729, the Old South Meeting House served as an important gathering place for colonists on the eve of the Revolutionary War. In addition to Millennium Partners’ contribution, the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund—jointly administered by MassDevelopment and the Massachusetts Cultural Council—awarded $95,000 for the project, expected to be complete by March 2017.