Historic Boston Inc. names new executive director

Banner Staff

Historic Boston Inc., a citywide preservation group that in the past has focused its efforts on Roxbury, has named Katherine L. Kottaridis its executive director.

Kottaridis established Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s Boston Main Streets program in 1995. She went on to run business and economic development offices at the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development and the Boston Redevelopment Authority before serving as director of the state’s Office of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Most recently, she was associate director of public affairs at Northeastern University.

In Roxbury, HBI helped fund and complete reservation projects for many commercial, residential and religious properties. The organization is now assisting project teams at Eliot Congregational Church and the Second Church of Christ, Scientist as they work to repair and preserve their buildings.

Through its contributions to the rehabilitation of the Cedar Street Marble Row Houses and the Spooner Lambert House, HBI helped a citywide effort to create more owner-occupied housing in Roxbury. HBI also works with owners through preservation restriction agreements to ensure the continued preservation of these buildings.

“Kathy’s background in historic preservation and economic development and her knowledge of Boston are perfectly suited to HBI’s mission of using historic preservation to build community,” said HBI President Matthew J. Kiefer. “Her leadership will help HBI expand our collaborations with community-based nonprofits, city agencies and private entities on preservation projects that enrich Boston’s neighborhoods.”

HBI was founded in 1960 to prevent Downtown Crossing’s Old Corner Bookstore building from demolition. HBI was an early preservation pioneer in Charlestown and in the former Combat Zone, where it preserved the H.H. Richardson-designed Hayden Building after a fire in 1993.

Since 1992, HBI’s Steeples Project has distributed $1.5 million in grants to help preserve 53 historic religious properties burdened by deferred maintenance that threatened the survival of their congregations and social missions.

Kottaridis joins the organization as it develops its Historic Neighborhood Centers initiative, through which it will expand its work in Boston’s neighborhood commercial districts.