Massachusett’s largest day shelter had operated out of a building constructed for a utility company in 1906 for the past 40 years, forcing shelter employees to make the most of the unconventional space.

Renovating the historic building will flip the script, helping St. Francis House better meet the needs of Boston’s surging homeless population.

“We made do with the space as it had been laid out for an electric company, but our needs are obviously very different,” said Andrew Russell, the shelter’s vice president of philanthropy and external relations.

“It will be pretty transformative,” Russell said of the multimillion-dollar renovation, all fundraised, while speaking with the Herald at the shelter’s temporary space during its annual Christmas celebration.

St. Francis House purchased the office tower on Boylston Street, past the Common, in 1984 — four years after the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It served as the headquarters of the Boston Edison Illuminating Company for decades, until the 1950s.

President and CEO Karen LaFrazia spoke of the challenges that she and fellow shelter staffers faced as they tried to manage an increase in new guests last year that has only grown over the past 12 months.

“It is so crowded inside this building,” LaFrazia told the Herald last Christmas. “In this back room, literally you have to step over people. In the upstairs room, there are no chairs. … In the morning, we open at 6:30, there’s already a line of people waiting to come in.”

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The renovation is expected to be completed by next October, with an entire overhaul of its first four floors, a new dining and assembly hall, a modern case management suite, an updated clothing distribution center and an art therapy room.

A partnership with Boston Healthcare for the Homeless will also lead to a new healthcare clinic.

“We will serve people with more dignity in a more trauma-informed space, less chaos, more welcoming,” LaFrazia told the Herald on Wednesday. “Next year, we will be back across the street in the new space.”

The renovation is expected to be completed by next October, with an entire overhaul of its first four floors, a new dining and assembly hall, a modern case management suite, an updated clothing distribution center and an art therapy room. (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)