Boston's Lost Landmarks: The Last Tenement

BOSTON (CBS) - The sound of a Bruins goal bounces off the walls of the TD Garden, to the delight of a sellout crowd. Meanwhile, a stones throw away, Casey Marie sits curled up on her sofa in the basement of 42 Lomasney Way, a postage size apartment house that takes a bit of explaining.

Read-Listen: Boston's Lost Landmarks Series

"I'll say I live by the TD Garden and they will be like, oh, do you live in one of those high rise buildings? And I'm like no, I actually live in the last little tiny brick building, you probably don't even notice it. It looks like a billboard on both sides. And they are like, wait, that's a building, people actually live there? And I'll be like yeah," she told WBZ NewsRadio 1030.

The Last Tenement, as it's called, is the lone building standing in what was once the West End, a packed residential neighborhood. Casey Marie, knew nothing about the West End when she moved to Boston from Austin, Texas a year ago. She recounts her initial impression as she searched for an apartment.

"There was dark wood paneling on the walls and there was a big huge couch that was all dusty. There were newspapers from the 1990's, and old appliances in disrepair," she recalls.

But Casey Marie could see the apartment's potential and the price was right. So why does she think the place survived?

"Apparently, the person who owned the building married a woman who was much younger than he was and he didn't want her to be out of a home. He used his considerable influence at City Hall to make sure she could always stay there. I mean, I loved that story," says Casey Marie.

There is mob connection talk surrounding the Last Tenement.

There are traces of former owner William "Skinny" Kazonis.

"There is a sign that says, you know 'we do not have a maid service, please clean up after yourselves, Skinny," says Casey Marie.

Ultimately, given neighborhood resistance, the construction of the elevated Green Line and rising property values, it wasn't cost effective to tear down the building.

Casey Marie says she would like to stay as long as it's affordable.

"When you stumble across the Last Tenement building, then you realize that there's a different layer that you don't even know about in the history of Boston," she told WBZ.

In part five, we'll head to Spectacle Island.

Listen to Part 4