Don Bosco Technical High School (Boston)

Founding and expansion

In 1945, the Salesians of Don Bosco in Boston purchased the neglected former John Paul Jones School building, built in 1898, located at 145 Byron St. in East Boston and renovated it. Don Bosco Trade School, as it was known then, opened for the 1946-1947 school year with two teachers, Br. Julius Bollati, S.D.B. and Br. Angelo Bongiorno, S.D.B. and 16 students. The new school was founded in almost a perfect location and time period: it served large numbers of the underprivileged children of mostly Roman Catholic Italian immigrants, offering both a trade and religious education. By 1954, enrollment had grown to 200, making the Byron St. campus too crowded.

The school in partnership with the Salesian province leadership proceeded to search for a property in Boston fulfilling the necessary requirements. The school leadership looked in a few locations, including Jamaica Plain and the South End. A 14 January 1954 Jamaica Plain Citizen article read:

"New School to be Built on Rockwood St.

Don Bosco Technical School Will Offer Facilities For 1,000 Students

Construction of a new Don Bosco Technical School with facilities for more than 1000 students will be started on Rockwood Street, Jamaica Plain, sometime in March, it was disclosed this week. The New School, a $1,000,000 three-building project, will replace the present school which was founded on Byron street, East Boston in 1946 to provide technical as well as academic training. Present school facilities are inadequate to take care of the number of students who have requested to enroll in the past few years, officials said. The new school will contain facilities for technical, academic, recreational and religious instruction of its students.

To Occupy 23 Acres

The plant will occupy more than 23 acres. Two buildings, facing each other, will border on Rockwood Street.The third will set behind these two structures and face the street. One of the front buildings will house the teaching staff. Directly opposite will be a building containing a chapel, gymnasium and cafeteria. The rear building will house classrooms, a library, science laboratories and the woodworking, printing, auto mechanics and radio-television shops. The new gymnasium and chapel will be connected by a sliding door which when opened will increase the gym when large crowds are expected for service. The school operated by the Salesian Fathers and Brothers of Saint John Bosco, started in East Boston with 16 seventh grade students. The school now has an enrollment of 200 pupils and grammar school classes have been discussed. The first building of the proposed project is expected to be ready for students in February or next year."

Another Jamaica Plain Citizen article from 19 August 1954 announced the choice of the South End site where the school was located from 1954 until its closure in 1998:

"Don Bosco Trade To Be Located On Site Of Brandeis School

Seen In Best Interests Of Local Area Residents

The abandonment of the Jamaica Plain site for the Don Bosco Trade School in favor of the former Brandeis High School on Warrenton Street, South End, was announced today by Councilman Edward F. McLaughlin, Jr. The announcement followed a series of protests by Jamaica Plain residents of the Moss Hill and Jamaica Hills section against construction of the school in a residential area. McLaughlin was the first public official to suggest a delay in construction and recommended the Brandeis school as a site. The school had been declared surplus and was considered one of the best equipped and centrally located high schools for a trade institution. The fathers who operate the present Don Bosco school in East Boston immediately concurred with McLaughlin's plan and asked the School Committee for permission to purchase the Brandeis structure.

McLaughlin arranged for a series of meetings between the interested parties and the sale was concluded last week when the Board of Sale for School Buildings approved a price of about $100,000. The vote was four to two in favor, with Mayor Hynes dissenting to the sale. The Mayor said he wanted the bids opened to all and wanted a higher price. McLaughlin said the change of sites would prove beneficial to all concerned. "There is no doubt," McLaughlin added, "that construction of a high school in the best residential are of Jamaica Plain was not to the best interests of either Jamaica Plain residents or the Fathers of the Don Bosco School."

New campus and growth

The Salesians moved into the Brandeis Vocational School Campus, the main building of which was formerly the City of Boston Continuation School, with the two sides of the building split into Boys' and Girls' Units, in time for the 1954 school year. During this time there was a Salesian seminary program at Don Bosco Tech, which was terminated in later years. The original brick/limestone building was built in the 1920s. This was plenty of space to house the student body of 200 plus Salesian quarters. In the years following the student population rose rapidly, reaching 562 in 1966.

Artist Bing McGilvray recalls on his blog his experience during the 1960s, writing about the hippie movement and Don Bosco Tech's dicey city location:

Don Bosco was located in downtown Boston right on the edge of the ‘Combat Zone’, the city’s red light district. I walked past strip clubs, peep shows and porn stores every morning but they had been closed for several hours by 7am. Occasionally there would be a stray hooker stumbling along the sidewalk. ‘Bosco’ was also two blocks away from the vast Boston Common where everyday there seemed to be some hippie demonstration or happening. Hair was growing longer on men everywhere. Revolution was in the air but Bosco boys were still in ties and suit coats. That didn’t stop the culture from seeping through the brick walls however. We had one teacher who came to school high on LSD. He stood gazing out the window ruminating on how the sun may not actually be there because it takes so long for its light to reach the earth. He wasn’t a science teacher; he taught English; he called himself a poet. We were told at the time he was feeling ill and he was never seen again. Teachers were no match for the Beatles, the Stones and the Who. We were Rock & Roll baby boomers. Many students were being expelled or otherwise getting into trouble because they were too far into the counterculture already."

Decline and closure

By 1974 the school reached its peak enrollment at around 900 students. After that, it went struggled as its facilities aged and enrollment declined. In 1971 and 1985 two new buildings were added to the campus to hold expanded electronics departments which were very popular during those years.

On March 15, 1989, 10,800 spectators packed the old TD Garden to watch the MIAA Division I State Hockey Championship game against highly successful Catholic Memorial. They came back from 2-0 and won the game 5-2, to the delight and surprise of the fans. The championship rings giving to coaches and members were gold, silver an emerald green center, with an engraved bear, Don Bosco Tech's mascot, and the player's name on the side.

By 1991, enrollment had dipped to 625. A few years later, in an attempt to rebrand and attract new students, the school was renamed Don Bosco School of Technology. By 1998, for financial, demographic and other reasons, including a lack of modern computer courses, the school was forced to close.

The building was renovated and turned into a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel, while the gymnasium and pool now serves as the Wang YMCA.

List of Administration

Note: The years listed for many of the school officials listed above may not be complete; only those years which have verifiably been recorded as years at the school have been listed. For example, Fr. Jay Verona, S.D.B. may have served for many years before and after 1966 but sources were only able to confirm the year of 1966.

Basketball

Football

Hockey

Notable alumni

Mark Donovan, almost semi-pro golfer

Popular Culture