This building is an old elementary school, the Bowditch School. Its exterior has not changed much since it closed as a school in the late 1970s/early 1980s. It is listed on the National Register of Hisotric Places. Currently, it serves as single room occupancy housing. It is owned and operated by The Pine Street Inn. They use this building for transitional housing for people moving out of homelessness, who have obtained employment and need a low cost place to live.
Bowditch is an old Salem name. This school was named after Nathaniel Bowditch, who wrote the consummate navigational text, The New American Practical Navigator, after his time at sea as a captain. It was published in 1801. The book is still in print today and is still used by the Navy and the Coast Guard, as well as other mariners. Bowditch was a highly influential natural scientist. Later in the nineteenth century, members of the Bowditch family moved to Jamaica Plain and had an estate, consisting of four houses, on top of Moss Hill. His sons were prominent doctors and abolitionists.