Storefront Improvement Program

The Facade Improvement Program (also known as the Storefront Improvement Program) is often one of the most visible program of any Main Street district. Mission Hill Main Streets has provided design assistance to more than thirty businesses and matching grants for the construction of eleven completed facade improvements.

Curtin's Roadside Tavern on Tremont Street utilized both our design services and our grant program for a complete makeover of the Tavern's facade.                                                                    

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Flames opened in the spring of 2005, serving Jamaican food to a line of eager customers. The restaurant sports a bright new paint job and signage, assisted by a Main Streets Facade Improvement grant.

The Mission Hill Main Streets Calendar

Since 1999, Mission Hill Main Streets has published a yearly calendar. Initially, the calendar featured historic photgraphs, but for the past several years the calendar has served as a promotional tool for the twelve businesses that sponsor the calendar as well as for the neighborhood overall. The calendar has been designed as a standard size wall calendar, a desk calendar, and a small wall calendar. Design work has been provided by volunteers as well as by Mass Art work study students. Stop by our office for your free 2007 calendar today!

Elder-Friendly Business District

Mission Hill Main Streets, the City of Boston's Commission on Affairs of the Elderly, and the Boston Partnership for Older Adults are collaborating on a pilot project to develop an Elder Friendly Business District. (click here for more information)

The steering committee is composed of seniors living in the neighborhood, representatives of organizations that both serve and advocate on behalf of the older population, interested institutions, and representatives of city agencies and elected officials. This committee is prioritizing and addressing issues of concern to our older residents. We have discovered that many of those issues - for example, the conditions of sidewalks ad crosswalks - are of importance to the neighborhood as a whole. Both wheelchairs and baby carriages benefit from smooth sidewalks and ramped curbing at corners!

Boston Community Change Card
Boston Community Change rewards you and your community.

Every time you use your Boston Community Change card at a participating merchant across Boston's neighborhoods, a portion of each transaction is:
1. returned to you as a cash rebate
2. donated to a local community based non-profit or school of your choice
3. donated to the local Main Streets organization

The Boston Community Change card is not a payment card. It is magnetic strip card that will be read by any credit/debit card terminal. You have the freedom to pay for your purchase with any payment form accepted by the business.
Cash rebates are recorded in your own account, and you will receive monthly electronic statements detailing your total earned cash rebates as well as the total donations you generated for selected non-profits in your community. The rebate amount you receive for a transaction will vary by business. Visit the online directory to learn more about participating buisnesses and their rebate offers.

The card is free and easy to use and your community has everything to gain when you shop locally and share locally.

Click here to sign up for your free card. Cards will be free for a limited time, so sign up now!

Boston Community Change is a Boston Main Streets program.