Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center

It has been 10 years since SJPHC moved to this beautiful building in December 1998. Since then we have more than doubled in the size of our patient population, from 4,000 to more than 10,000.

Many patients remember the old health center in the storefront across Centre Street, where the Wainwright Bank is now located. But few patients or staff know how SJPHC got started, so I will share a little of the history.

In the early 1970’s, Brookside and Martha Elliot Health Centers already existed in Jamaica Plain. A group of mothers in the South Street area felt that these were too far away to serve their needs, and organized to get a center in the southern part of JP. Out of that effort came a two-room operation located in Curtis Hall, with Nurse Practitioner Barbara Hohman and a small staff providing services for children. Within a couple of years, our first MD was added, pediatrician Martin Leber, MD; the affiliation with Children’s Hospital was changed to a long-term affiliation with Brigham and Women’s; we moved to our Centre Street storefront in 1974; we hired an Adult Medicine physician and were soon able to add a second, Dr. Michael Lambert (our longtime Medical Director). Eventually SJPHC was able to obtain the storefront next door for Adult Medicine.

For the first five years after moving to our new facility, SJPHC experienced very rapid growth. By the end of 2004, the health center was providing services to over 10,000 patients. The number has been stable since 2004 because there is not adequate space in the facility for further growth.

One part of SJPHC that continues to grow is our youth and community programming. Through our teen leadership program, Team Mita, our collaboration in the South Street Initiative, and other efforts, we are working hard to address issues of youth violence, childhood obesity, asthma, and other key health issues that affect Jamaica Plain.

We’re proud of what we have built over the years. When we moved to this location we were the second smallest of Boston’s 26 health centers – we are no longer one of the smaller ones. We now have 9 physicians in Adult Medicine and 5 in Pediatrics. Our Women’s Health and Mental Health services serve many more clients and we have added specialty and community health services. We have been consistent in what we have tried to emphasize: quality care delivered in a personal and respectful way to a diverse community.

If you have memories of the early SJPHC please pass them along to me or one of our community board members.

Tom Kieffer

Executive Director