Chasidim [Anshei] Libawitcz (Chabad)synagogue was founded 1889 [1890] in the city of Boston's North End on 188 Hanover St. The location was a very Jewish neighborhood at the time. In 1894, it moved to 180 Hanover, and then in 1897, to 11 Hanover St.
The book pictured (right) has a stamp in the upper right hand corner noting the year the congregation was established in Boston : 1889.
In the 1900's it moved again to the West End on Leverett and Barton St. * (not longer existent, they were bulldozed as part of an urban renewal project). Eventually the congregation moved to 8 Smith Court in Beacon Hill where it remained active till 1972. (Subsequently, it became the African American Heritage Museum).
Interestingly, the previous Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson OBM visited Boston in the Jewish month of Sivan (late spring) 1930 as part of a larger effort to meet local Jewish communities and to galvanize assistance for Russian Jewry.
Pictured here at the train station in Boston. He visited and addressed the crowds at synagogues in Dorchester, Roxbury, and Chelsea.
He also met with Governor of Massachusetts Frank Gilman Allen on June 24th, 1930 and was awarded with medal of honor.
There is also a correspondence between the Rebbe and 8 Court St. synagogue leadership as late as 1960's.
There was another Anshe Libavitz synagogue established 1910/1923 in the South End on 2 Genessee St. (The street no longer exists. Starting in 1955, nearly all of the buildings in the "New York Streets district" connecting Albany Street with Harrison Street were bulldozed as part of an urban renewal project) in 1932 it merged with other synagogues.
Historical documents indicate there was another (Chabad) Lubavitch synagogue as well, in the West End. It merged with Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Beth Jacob in 1960, but their joint building was taken by the BRA in 1964 and razed in 1965. The Boston Synagogue is a successor and the city of Boston "making good"for the two shuls and a number of other "Shtiblach" it razed as part of the urban renewal project .
An additional Chabad Lubavitch synagogue were established in Dorchester in 1923 on 179 Glenway St. (and migrated over to Brighton, MA in 1963). Alongside, in 1944 the New England Hebrew Academy was founded by the Previous Lubavitch Rebbe.
In 1976, Rabbi Chaim and Nechama Prus were sent by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson as emissaries to Boston and regional director of Chabad in Eastern Massachusetts. They established Chabad's first outreach center in Eastern Massachusetts, located in Kenmore Sq.. Today, there are more than thirty Chabad House in Eastern Massachusetts.
The current location of Chabad House of Greater Boston in Kenmore Square, serves as Chabad's regional headquarters. It was purchased in 1979 to serve the large Jewish population in Boston, placing and emphasis on the student body.
In 2011, our director Rabbi Yosef and Shayndel Zaklos were nominated to direct Chabad of Downtown Boston, to address the ever growing Jewish needs of the city dwellers. Proudly serving Back Bay, Beacon Hill, the financial District, Mass General Hospital, the West, North and South Ends and the Waterfront.
Interestingly: Our current location in Bay Village, was home to at least two synagogues, including the Zion holy Prophets of Israel Memorial Synagogue just down the street on what is today 52 Church St. established by Alfred E. Marcus, from 1878-1895 (below is a photo of an 1895 Boston city map indicating the location of the "Jewish synagogue")
Sources:
http://jgsgb.org/pdfs/MassSynagogues.pdf, Toldos Chabad Bartzos Habris p.78, https://wardmaps.com/collections/atlas-of-boston-massachusetts-1895/products/copy-of-boston-massachusetts-1895-plate-011
*Note: Though listed as two separate synagogues one in the North End section and the other in the West End, our research indicates they are most likely the same synagogue.