Above: Colonel Tim Murphy, state Sen. Nick Collins, and Major Angela Cincis, executive officer of the 211th Military Police Battalion “First Corps Cadets” that base out of the National Guard Armory on Victory Road. The facility has entered the design phase for a major renovation that will bring it up to date for military operations and return it as a resource for community events. Seth Daniel photo
The Massachusetts National Guard Armory on Victory Road in Dorchester will undergo a $20 million renovation that, state officials say, will modernize the 70-year-old facility and set it up for use as a resource by the local community.
Constructed in 1956, the armory is home base for some 150 Guardsmen – primarily, the 211th Military Police Battalion “First Corps Cadets” and members of the 182nd Forward Support Company. It faces a long punch-list of needed updates, including essential infrastructure like the plumbing and HVAC systems.
The exterior of the Massachusetts National Guard Armory on Victory Road – a facility that is “long overdue” for renovations. Seth Daniel photo
“Modernizing this armory is essential to ensuring our service members have access to a facility that prioritizes modern safety standards, enhances physical security protocols, and supports our operational capabilities to serve both state and national missions,” said National Guard spokesman Donald Veitch in a statement
“Beyond upgrading our operational readiness, a core goal of this modernization project,” he noted, “is to revitalize the armory so that it can once again serve as an active, valuable resource for the Dorchester community.”
The armory has already begun a remediating process for asbestos in the building. Though it has been closed off to public use for years, a large auditorium inside the facility that is used to muster Guardsmen was once used for a myriad of community uses, including as a Ward 16 polling station.
Longtime neighbors recall attending boxing matches there, practicing for parish Color Guard performances, and playing in neighborhood basketball leagues. But as the armory aged, and encountered safety issues, civic functions like voting became impossible to conduct.
State officials said the modernization effort will address ADA accessibility, restroom modernization, climate control upgrades, more asbestos work, building code updates, and enhanced information technology capabilities – as well as upgrades to security and landscaping improvements in the front.
The large mustering room inside the armory where National Guard soldiers gather when they report for training and operations. It’s also a space that was once used routinely by the community for athletics, boxing matches, voting, and civic meetings. Seth Daniel photo
All of it will promote a safer building the public can once again use, they said, but primarily one that helps the state’s National Guard corps be well-equipped and prepared for deployment.
“The Dorchester Armory is an important and historic facility,” said state Sen. Nick Collins. “I am proud that Rep. [Dan] Hunt and I were able to work successfully with legislative leaders to appropriate the funding needed to restore the facility. While this is an important investment for the National Guard for their operations, it will also be nice to reopen the Armory for community use again.”
Outside the facility on Monday, the temperatures were a cool 70 degrees, but it was hot and steamy inside due to the past week’s heat wave. With no central air conditioning, the facility becomes almost uninhabitable in hot weather, and during wintertime cold spells, the heating system doesn’t function properly.
Major Angela Cincis, the executive officer for the 211th who works at the armory, noted that the building remains very active. Their primary mission as a military police operation is responding to events in the region, such as the Esplanade Concert Independence Day celebration and the Boston Marathon.
Cincis said about 10 percent of the 211th is based full-time at the armory, with the other 90 percent reporting one weekend a month or as needed.
“Soldiers don’t complain,” she said. “But when we bring people in to have meetings, it would be nice to show the professionalism of our soldiers in the building they operate out of. That’s really important to me.”
The 211th has an impressive history that goes back to 1778 when the units was known as the First Corps Cadets and mustered at Dorchester Heights during the Revolutionary War. It counts a number of early patriots as members, including Maj. Gen. John Hancock. Previous to setting up on Victory Road, the battalion was based at several other facilities, including the ‘Castle’ in Back Bay.
Members of the 211th Battalion who served in the Revolutionary War are named on a memorial inside the building. Seth Daniel photo
Corporal Tim Murphy, chief of staff for the Massachusetts Army National Guard, called the Dorchester armory necessary and critical.
“This building is very important to us, and our only footprint in the city,” said the South Boston resident. “We are excited to get the public back in here, too. Think of it for me: I came here as a 10-year-old kid [to watch boxing matches] and it became the facility that I serve out of many years later.”
Other military offices in the city, like the one on American Legion Highway, are federal Army Reserve centers.
In 1976, the armory made front page news far beyond Boston when around 1 a.m. on Fri., July 2, 1976 – two days before the nation’s bicentennial celebration – a bomb exploded on its grounds, hurting no one but demolishing a couple of National Guard trucks.
As the story developed, officials noted that there had been a warning call to authorities just before the explosion called in by someone citing an association with “the Fred Hampton People’s Force,” a gang of militants that allegedly had forecast actions against the tall ships that were anchored in Boston Harbor awaiting the July 4, 1976, Parade of Sail.
The incident in Dorchester was just one of a series of bombings in New England that morning: a plane was demolished at Logan Airport and courthouses in Newburyport and Seabrook, N.H., suffered extensive damage.
A few weeks later, city, state, and federal law enforcement officials arrested four men for, among other things, transporting explosives across state lines. They were later indicted and convicted.
To get the armory back in shape, Collins said he and Hunt worked for several years trying to get state funding for the project, which is a 50/50 match with the federal government. Veitch said the federal funding is in place through a maintenance fund within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
“While all defense spending originates with the annual NDAA, the federal funding portion of this project is sourced from existing budgetary accounts designated for Sustainment, Renovating and Modernization, and is not tied to a specific addendum within the NDAA,” he wrote.
For the state, it was only in this budget cycle that they were able to get the state match into the Capital Improvement plan so the project could move forward. Collins hopes to host events in the building, and perhaps coordinate a boxing tournament there in the near future as was common in the past.
Said Hunt: “This is not only an important and critical infrastructure improvement for the National Guard but could potentially be a great community improvement with incorporated space and cleaning up the physical site.”
Collins added: “Special thanks to Gov. Maura Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and especially Adjutant General Keefe and his team for their leadership and partnership in making sure this vision came to fruition.”
The state Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) is partnering with the National Guard to plan and execute the overhaul. A maintenance building next to the railroad tracks on the property is not part of the renovation but is still heavily used and operational.
Project design will start this month and span the remainder of 2026 and much of 2027. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2027 and run through 2028. National Guard personnel are expected to re-occupy the facility in 2029.
