St. John’s was located in of Roxbury, although some now consider the area to be in Dorchester. Rev. Hugh P. Smyth of St. Joseph’s in Roxbury purchased land on Blue Hill Avenue, Dacia and Dalmatia (now Woodcliff) Streets in 1888. Here he erected a school/chapel. The chapel, on the upper floor, was dedicated as St. John’s on April 2, 1892, and the school was opened in the following September. By 1894 construction had begun on the permanent church on the front of the lot, but the upper church was not dedicated until November 24, 1907. Father Smyth resigned St. Joseph’s in 1901 to become the pastor of the new St. John’s parish.
The second pastor Patrick J. Supple, 1908-1932, finished off and put into use the upper church by 1917, which had hitherto been left bare and usually unoccupied. He also reconstructed the mission church, St. Hugh’s, so extensively that it was rededicated by the Cardinal on November 16, 1913.
The St. John location at approximately 544 Blue Hill Avenue is now the parking lot for Cardinal Madeiros Manor.
Sources:
Lord, Robert H., John E. Sexton and Edward T. Harrington. History of the Archdiocese of Boston. (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1944) 3 vols.