Boston

[Reyne Mayer]

oh, and i realized their new location is actually in Allston, about a mile from their idle morgue building.

i checked records and the vacant property that they bought at the end of 2015 turns out to be tax exempt, though if they leave it sit too long like they have so many others, they'll end up paying commercial rates -- that happened with the Hotel Alexandra that they'd previously bought (and only finally succeeded in selling a couple of years ago), which ought to be a precedent that Boston should treat the CoS more like a real estate holding company than a religion.....

i also sorted out just what's going on with the property, and this view of the back side fully shows two other adjacent single and double story buildings that they also own according to the records. i wonder if at least one of those is full of old CF -- or even squatting staff. and what did they have in mind, some sort of Northeast regional HQ? it looks like the main building is the requisite 50k sq ft for an idle morgue, while the other buildings are about 4k and 13k sq ft.

 

[myrklix]

Article in the Globe about the old Alexandra Hotel finally, likely getting developed. They don't mention that the Boston org once owned it for a bit before buying the isolated office building in the Allston neighborhood which has been sitting empty for many years.

New life for old plans to revive the long-empty Alexandra Hotel

Plans to convert the long-abandoned hotel on Mass. Ave. into condos just cleared their final city approval. Next up? Financing.

www.boston.com

 

[Reyne Mayer]

Article in the Globe about the old Alexandra Hotel finally, likely getting developed. They don't mention that the Boston org once owned it for a bit before buying the isolated office building in the Allston neighborhood which has been sitting empty for many years.

New life for old plans to revive the long-empty Alexandra Hotel

Plans to convert the long-abandoned hotel on Mass. Ave. into condos just cleared their final city approval. Next up? Financing.

www.boston.com

they owned it for a long time, i don't have my notes on the device i'm traveling with, but i'm reasonably sure it's one of the whole slew of ones they bought at the peak of the real estate bubble in 2007, and have then had trouble unloading in the cases like Boston where they changed plans - at least one deal fell through, and the final one contingent i think on planning approval didn't go through until just a couple of years ago, so they owned it for a dozen years or more, overlapping with the purchase of the property in Allston that is of course still languishing for probably now the better part of a decade itself....

 

[myrklix]

Get a load of this:
On the Boston Org website (if you can call it that), it still lists a Boston address even though they relocated to Quincy, Mass., years ago. Then go to the 'directions' page and it'll show a map of the location in Quincy even though it shows the Boston address. I suppose someone should get Comm-Ev'd. Actually, this address might be an office they have at Packard's Corner (the "big bend") on Comm. Ave. right near B.U.

Map & Directions | Church of Scientology of Boston

1105 Commonwealth Ave., Suite 202, Boston, MA 02215, United States

www.scientology-boston.org

 

[Reyne Mayer]

Actually, this address might be an office they have at Packard's Corner (the "big bend") on right near B.U.

Map & Directions | Church of Scientology of Boston

1105 Commonwealth Ave., Suite 202, Boston, MA 02215, United States

www.scientology-boston.org

yes, Comm. Ave. it's the new-new 'temporary' location i posted about on the last page: https://exscn2.net/threads/boston.219/post-142119

 

[Enthetan]

Get a load of this:
On the Boston Org website (if you can call it that), it still lists a Boston address even though they relocated to Quincy, Mass., years ago. Then go to the 'directions' page and it'll show a map of the location in Quincy even though it shows the Boston address. I suppose someone should get Comm-Ev'd. Actually, this address might be an office they have at Packard's Corner (the "big bend") on Comm. Ave. right near B.U.

Map & Directions | Church of Scientology of Boston

1105 Commonwealth Ave., Suite 202, Boston, MA 02215, United States

www.scientology-boston.org

Their Yelp page still lists them at Suite 202. I wonder if they have a mail-forwarding arrangement with the building?

Church Of Scientology - Allston, MA

Established in 1954.

www.yelp.com

The Yelp comments are amusing

UPDATE: Going to Google Maps and getting a street view for that address (1105 Commonwealth Ave Boston MA 02215) shows a sign about getting a free personality test (To the right of the "Cash 4 Gold" place), with the pic having been taken October 2022, so maybe they retained the old space to some degree. It seems like a very small space, just big enough for a Div 6 outpost.

 

[Reyne Mayer]

they relocated to Quincy, Mass., years ago

i should have been clear, they moved down south there after they gave up their old mansion in the central city, Beacon Hill i think. i visited one time when i had a chance to go that inconveniently far out of the way, and it was on the 3rd and top floor of a building that must have been the cheapest rent in the area, with government social services offices that kept the lobby bathrooms locked and required you to ask them for a key.

1105 Commonwealth Ave Boston MA 02215

but that's their newer 'temporary' location east of central Boston, and not far from the idle morgue building, that they moved to in the last couple of years. they took over the second floor space from a company that had provided classes targeted at foreigners, that went out of business during the pandemic.

their 8 year trip around the Boston area - ending up barely 2 miles from where they started (i bet the inconvenience of moving 10 miles of heavy traffic congestion south for so many years, cost them some members):

 

[Operating Wog]

I have such mixed feelings about what happened with the Boston org.

On one hand I've been out for 20+ years and I'm happy that fewer and fewer people are being sucked in there.

On the other hand, I was in that Beacon Street building every day for nearly two decades, at some points virtually living there (and at some points literally living there). Many days and hours when I saw it totally bustling. Many many hours when I was only one of two people in the building all night long. I had an "office" on every floor at one time or another (maybe not the 5th). I probably slept in more than half the rooms and probably cleaned most of them and painted a good percent of them. To this day I can take a virtual walk through almost every inch of that building in my mind. Many great memories. Just as many awful ones. It was more of a "home" than anywhere else I lived during that period.

It just makes me sad that they destroyed all that chasing some stupid dream of an ideal org and winding up in second rate commercial rented spaces.

 

[myrklix]

I happened to be in Quincy the other day and had a few extra minutes to go to 1515 Hancock St. There was no sign of anything Scn-related from the outside so I went into the lobby of the building. On the board listing all the tenants there was no scientology on any floor. I'd say they're gone from Quincy and all that (might) remain is that dinky space in Packard's Corner on Comm. Ave. in Boston as mentioned above in this thread.

On the Boston org website it lists the Comm. Ave. address but a map points to the Quincy location. But when clicking on "get directions" it opens up the Comm. Ave. address. Uggh!

 

[Isaac]

I've heard similar from another who also worked closely with Heather.

I didn't have much interaction with her when she was ED. Only as I indicated above. Plus in the early years I took a drive up to Toronto with her, Jon DeVries, Cary Goulston, and I believe Janet Francis as well. We spent some time up there while getting trained by some of the Div 6 staff in Toronto to sell books up there, and it was really a fun trip. Then later her and I were on the TTC together for some months in the early 80's back when it was at Miami Org. So I never saw the side of her that you did (thank Xenu!)

It seemed that the tactics she used, the "screaming and swearing in your face" were common (and expected) when your seniors were the Sea Org members at the CLO/FOLO in New York. I had personal experience with this when I was brought up to New York to help out on the "Festive Season Program" back around 1985. I was expected to get a program done in each of the East U.S. Orgs which was designed to prevent the stats from crashing during the December holidays (when staff and public wanted to spend more time with their family and friends).

I am normally a pretty laid back person but during the 2 weeks helping out on this I found myself screaming at people to get this program done. It was what was expected of me in order to get compliance, and I got a commendation for my work on the program from the Cont Commander who knew exactly what I was doing as I was stationed directly outside of his office. Several of the S.O. members there tried to recruit me for the S.O. before I came back to Boston. Looking back at it all now I see it was really out of character for me in how I deal with people as a manager.

Also, people who were mission holders in the EUS and had to deal with Cary Goulston when he was the CO SMI EUS said that he was horrible in that regard. He'd call you up and scream at you for half an hour!

I believe upper management screams and cussed at those below them…
Then shit rolls downhill.
Others mimicking the valence that works to survive in that toxic shitshow environment

 

[Reyne Mayer]

I happened to be in Quincy the other day and had a few extra minutes to go to 1515 Hancock St. There was no sign of anything Scn-related from the outside so I went into the lobby of the building. On the board listing all the tenants there was no scientology on any floor. I'd say they're gone from Quincy and all that (might) remain is that dinky space in Packard's Corner on Comm. Ave. in Boston as mentioned above in this thread.

i had visited 5 or more years ago when they were still there. they were up on the third floor, and there was even some sort of sign on the main door about how to get in after hours, related to the purif i think. it was inconveniently out of the way down South of Boston, in a building that had government services offices on the first floor and so must have been cheap to lease.

i could not find anything like leasing listings showing square footage for the Packard's Corner space they moved to, though it looked like it could be a pretty good sized top floor of a commercial building if they have the whole thing. do you know anything about what the space is really like?

 

[Type4_PTS]

A post from @Pooks at The Underground Bunker. Thank you Patty!


Former Scientology spy goes to spy on future Scientology ‘Ideal Org’

Former Scientology spy goes to spy on future Scientology ‘Ideal Org’

We hope you remember our podcast episode with Patty Moher, who told us about her history spying for Scientology, as well as her subsequent fun visit to Scientology’s moribund New Haven “Ideal Org” project. We had so much fun with that excursion, she went on another!

tonyortega.substack.com

Excerpt:

We hope you remember our podcast episode with Patty Moher, who told us about her history spying for Scientology, as well as her subsequent fun visit to Scientology’s moribund New Haven “Ideal Org” project. We had so much fun with that excursion, she went on another!

Bruno and I got up real early and drove to Boston to see how the Boston Ideal Org was doing.

In 2013, Scientology sold the Boston Org’s beautiful building at 448 Beacon Street and moved into a temporary office space in Quincy while they waited for their Ideal Org to be set up.

They had purchased the historic Hotel Alexandra five years earlier, but they eventually decided it wasn’t big enough to become “Ideal,” and in 2015 they settled for more of a business-park looking thing in Allston, a neighborhood of Boston.

It’s been sitting empty ever since.

I visited there, but let me tell you first about my visit to the temporary org, which also got moved from Quincy to Allston, and is just a mile away from the future Ideal Org at a place called Packard’s Corner.

Bruno and I got there about 10 minutes before 8 AM. I read that the org was supposed to be open from 8:30 AM to 10:00 PM, so I wanted to get there before most if not all of the staff arrived.

We pulled up right to their front door and parked. The org is on the second floor and I was under the impression from someone’s reporting earlier that Scientology had the entire second floor, which is big. (That turned out not to be the case.)

It turned out that there was another company up on the second floor called the Computer Systems Institute, and as it turns out this is a very successful company.

So as I’m sitting there in my car waiting for people to arrive I see two guys arrive around a minute apart and they look like mid-30s average white guys.

Each guy goes to the right and up a flight of stairs. The first one straightens up the Scientology display on the stair wall.

Then a 40-plus, heavy-set, poorly dressed, white woman arrives. Next, a 40-plus white guy wearing a black IAS jacket. His clothes were dirty. He looked like he had slept in them and then rolled around on a dusty floor.

After that two 30ish Asian guys arrived separately. You have to realize that at this point I didn’t know about another company being upstairs, and when I see these very nicely dressed Asian guys arrive I’m like, WTF? This, in Scientology lingo, is an outpoint. Seeing two upstat Asian guys going into a complete shithole of an org early in the morning just doesn’t fit.

Minutes later two Sea Org guys arrive and they are not wearing jackets. It’s 15 degrees with the windchill. The two SO guys are carrying takeout bags of food. One guy is very heavy set, they look slovenly, unwashed, and wrinkled.

<snip>

Full Post (and photos) at Link Above

 

[Type4_PTS]

Mark Bunker is converting some old videos he has on VHS tapes to 4K, dramatically increasing the quality.

This one includes a protest at Boston Org in August of 2000.

 

[Pooks]

This guy has been protesting outside the Boston Org for a few months. I'm posting this link because he has videoed a lot of old-time Boston people like Joe Nuccio, Steve Goodwin, Nan Goodwin now married to Ken Sereno, Chris Garrison and more. He videos hours and hours of the org and then makes "shorts" a few minutes long when something happens.

 

[Pooks]

 

[Type4_PTS]

Do you happen to know if Heather is still there as the ED for Foundation org?

Have you seen her in any of the videos?

 

[Pooks]

Do you happen to know if Heather is still there as the ED for Foundation org?

Have you seen her in any of the videos?

No I haven't see Heather at all. I'm not even sure if there is a Day and Foundation anymore. There's a woman named Nancy Hickey who is married to Rick Hickey. Nancy is the D/ED and I'm thinking it's now only one org. Nan Goodwin is on staff. Paul Bradford is still there with OSA, Chris Garrison is on staff. The ED is a young guy. I'm not sure of his name. Oh, I also saw Ray Bloom and James Harrison and Lorraine Barritz. It's a very small crowd and old crowd.

Also it seems Steve Goodwin is in charge of the renos at the new Ideal org and I noticed he's driving a Jaguar.

 

[Operating Wog]

No I haven't see Heather at all. I'm not even sure if there is a Day and Foundation anymore. There's a woman named Nancy Hickey who is married to Rick Hickey. Nancy is the D/ED and I'm thinking it's now only one org. Nan Goodwin is on staff. Paul Bradford is still there with OSA, Chris Garrison is on staff. The ED is a young guy. I'm not sure of his name. Oh, I also saw Ray Bloom and James Harrison and Lorraine Barritz. It's a very small crowd and old crowd.

Also it seems Steve Goodwin is in charge of the renos at the new Ideal org and I noticed he's driving a Jaguar.

Oof. I'm largely responsible for Nancy Hickey being there. She came in through some basic courses and I got her on the Purif and put her through the Purif. We got along great, she was cool. Then she joined staff and hooked up with Rick and wound up in HCO and maybe went out for training at some point. All that was 25ish years ago. I left about the time she was moving up the ranks.

 

[Operating Wog]

Man, I don't know how they can carry on there. Going from several dozen staff in a beautiful 5 story mansion with hundreds of public on service every week, to a handful of staff in a second floor rented space. It's got to be so demoralizing. It must take so much effort to convince yourself that it's all going to go back to how it was somehow...

 

[Type4_PTS]

Also it seems Steve Goodwin is in charge of the renos at the new Ideal org and I noticed he's driving a Jaguar.

Seeing Steve Goodwin's name always brings back memories for me.

Back around 1985, almost 40 years ago, I was on Foundation staff working in HCO on reception, telex op, Dir Comm stuff and Steve was Ethics Officer for the Day org. Both of us were in ethics trouble, busted off our post. The CLO/FOLO in New York needed to send a mission to the org in Washington D.C. (FCDC org) to be the advance people for the LRH Birthday event there. And they sent us! We had to find a venue, organize the whole thing, and get org staff to call all the public, getting them to come to the event.. At Boston org I hated call-in and usually refused to do it. So it was pretty ironic that I ended up at another org responsible to get their staff to do it.