By Patrick Gerard Healy  

  GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

     A knock-down battle is rumbling in Dorchester.   

     With buildable space virtually gone, developers are increasingly eyeing some of the area's older structures as opportunities for demolition and new construction, according to neighborhood activists. In many instances, this means knocking down centuries-old structures and replacing them with units that some residents say are ruining the community.   

     "We're losing the architectural integrity that made our neighborhood so desirable," says Philip Carver, president of the Pope's Hill Neighborhood Association. "It's not just the land layout that was attractive to us, but it's what the community is all about."   

    Many types of houses dot Dorchester's streetscape, from the signature post-WWII vinyl-clad triple-deckers to the noble Victorian homes built during the construction boom in the late 1800s. When purchasing one of these properties that has fallen into disrepair, a buyer may find it more cost-effective to knock the structure down and build a new one with rentable units than to restore it.   

     That reasoning outrages St. Mark's Road resident Barry Mullen.   

    "There's a one-family house on Dix Street that they just turned into six units," says Mullen, chair of the Florida Corridor Neighborhood Association and a member of the Saint Mark's/Glenrose/Florida Street Neighborhood Watch. "Twos are being turned into threes and threes are going to fours. Do we have to turn everything into apartment buildings?   

     "A lot of us that own our two-family homes here could have paid our mortgages a lot easier if we made them into three-family homes, but we made a decision to keep our houses two-family houses."   

     Rosanne Foley, a board member of the Dorchester Historical Society, was so concerned about the trend that at the beginning of this year she formed the Architectural Preservation Committee. The 15-member group's mission is to help promote the idea of developers reusing historical structures.   

    Developers "increase the coverage of the lot [and build bigger structures than the preexisting ones] rather than just using existing buildings," she says. The pressure to make money on their projects can make it tempting to use lower-quality materials, she says, "and pretty much anyone who owns an old Victorian house knows that even the wood used in the house is a lot better quality than what's available today. They're not in as bad shape as people think."   

     The preservation committee acts as a conduit for concerned residents to contact the appropriate elected officials when they have a concern about an old building. This opens up a dialogue between the community, the city, and inevitably the landowners.   

     One instance where the process seems to have worked is the 51-acre site across from the Neponset River formerly known as the Boston Specialty and Rehabilitation Hospital. The area is now the site of 98 affordable assisted and independent living units called the Foley Senior Residences.   

    Vince Droser, vice president of Trinity Financial, who was the developer of 27 acres of the site, says their decision to reuse nine historic buildings on the property was beneficial for the company and the community.   

     "We tend not to go in and demolish old buildings," he says. "We always look to save them and reuse them in creative ways."   

     Earl Taylor, president of the Dorchester Historical Society, says he is pleased with the project.   

     Foley says the knock-down situation in Dorchester is not one of evil developers coming in and wiping out neighborhoods, as much as it is an issue of neighborhood preservationists spreading awareness.   

     "Most of the time, once they hear that this property is of historical interest, they change their plans and then they become the good guy," she says.   

     Foley points to a top 10 list of endangered Dorchester properties that her group made public this spring, and how it changed the course of action for developer Denis Keohane, who was going to destroy the home at 606 Freeport St. to put up nine condominium units. Instead Keohane agreed to share the expenses of moving the house, built sometime in the early 1800s, to a nearby empty lot.   

     It was not the top 10 list alone that governed Keohane's actions, though. The Pope's Hill Neighborhood Association filed a demolition delay application with the Landmarks Commission.   

     "It's the maximum profit [developers] are after," says Carver of Pope's Hill. "Where you and I as neighborhood residents see a beautiful home, they see square footage."   

     Although one of the chief threats to Dorchester's historical houses has to do with the limited amount of properties for prospective buyers, that is not the only reason. Sometimes competing agendas figure in.   

    The two-story, two-family house at 44 Virginia St. in Uphams Corner was built in 1884 and has been vacant since April. It has fallen into disrepair, but its elegance reverberates beyond its missing shingles, chipped paint, cracked marble, and boarded-up windows, some of which are over 6 feet high. Although grass grows in the gutters and broken glass is scattered throughout the yard, there is an element of promise about the structure.   

     The building is owned by the Archdiocese of Boston, which had planned to knock it down in favor of a driveway.   

    Alma Finneran, a resident of 29 Virginia St., has been an advocate for the house.   

    "Although the building needs some repair, it is basically a very sound building," she says. "It's square on its foundation, and the floors are very sound."   

     Working together, the community and the Architectural Preservation Committee were able to obtain a 90-day demolition delay from the Boston Landmarks Commission at City Hall. The delay expires tomorrow.   

    Landmarks Commission executive director Ellen Lipsey says her organization has accepted a petition for further study, and has asked the archdiocese to sign a letter letting the commission know in advance of any demolition plans.   

     "If we didn't receive the letter, we would invoke a temporary landmark designation for 90 days to bring this to a hearing," she says.   

    Finneran says although the letter had not been signed at press time, members of the archdiocese have been cooperative in meetings with the neighborhood.   

     Finneran's son, David McKinnon, is interim president of the Uphams Corner Westside Neighborhood Association. He says this isn't a battle of a neighborhood versus the archdiocese.   

     "It's a battle to preserve architectural history and the community," he says. "The archdiocese people have been working with us so both parties could get what they need."   

     The historical society's endangered list includes two structures First Parish Church on Meetinghouse Hill and Second Church in Codman Square that are not threatened by developers but face daunting renovation tasks.   

     Others on the list include the Nelson Manor, a fortress-like structure that was once a nursing home, that is slated to become condominium units, and the Stoughton School in Lower Mills, an 1850s schoolhouse that served most recently as a Knights of Columbus Hall, also purchased for condominium development.   

     Urban Landworks, the developer of the Stoughton School, plans to incorporate the old building into the new condo design, which Foley counts as a success.   

     "To try to be sensitive to the historical fabric of the building whenever possible" is the goal of the Architectural Preservation Committee, says Foley.