Reappointment of Darren Brown, 43 School Street, Melrose to the Historical Commission for a term of three years, said term to expire on the last February 2029.

Transcript (~7 min @ 25:40)

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▶ 25:18 Ryan Williams: Okay. Councilor Freeman, councilor President Freeman makes a motion to recommend Councilor Vandiver seconds. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Okay. That passes. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Next step, we have, Uh, 2 0 2 6 3 7 9 reappointment of Darren Brown, 43 School Street, Melrose, to the Historical Commission for a term of three years, said term to expire on the last February last day of February, 2029. Thank you. Same spiel. Anything you'd like to share, please do. Uh,

▶ 25:48 Speaker 2: Yeah. Uh, good evening. Um, my name's Darren Brown. Uh, as was said, I live at 43 School Street. I've lived in Melrose for 16 years. Um, my wife is born and raised in Melrose, and, um, after we started our family and lived in another community, um, came back here for, uh, our kids to go to school. Um, I've been on the commission for two years. I serve as the treasurer. Um, and one of the big things that we've been working on is with regards to, um, awareness and education, and as you were mentioning with regards to, um, research Your Home night. Mm-hmm. So that's one of the things that we've been having, um, two events per year, um, in which every time we've done 'em now over the past several years, they've been completely full. And, um, it's just an opportunity to, you know, give people, um, the tools to use to learn more about their homes, uh, whether it be, you know, historic fire, ma fire maps, um, city directories, historic photographs. We're able to use all of these different items to, you know, give people more information and kind of lead them not only these physical items that we have, but other places that they can go. So, you know, from here, you know, you can use Ancestry, you can go to, um, the Registry of Deeds, um, some of which some stuff's online, some stuff you have to go there and look at physical copies, but just, you know, kind of give them the, the road, the roadmap to be able to learn more about their property. And so that's one of the big things that we work on. And I know you mentioned, like with the, with the age of your home. Um, so a lot of times, like with the old homes, like, you know, you can find a lot of information and sometimes people have, you know, newer homes that may only be, you know, 50 years old. But in a case like that, sometimes even just looking through city directories, you are able to, you know, provide all this information for people. So, you know, not only did they find out who lived in their home and when they lived there, um, did they own the house? Did they rent it, but were they the first home on their block that had a, a telephone, you know, stuff like that, that, you know, even though the home, the home may not be super old, it's able to give them all these little, you know, bits of information so they're able to make that connection to their home. So that's one of the things that, uh, I enjoy doing is getting out and talking to people, um, with regards to the, you know, the, the history aspect and, um, just promoting, you know, the history of the community and with regards to, um, walking tours and bike tours, that's something that, um, definitely interested in. Um, you know, we've talked about it as George had mentioned at the commission level, and I've, um, you know, created and, you know, led both walking and biking tours in other communities for different organizations and the POC service and stuff like that. And so that's definitely something that, uh, I'm interested in. Um, and, you know, with regards to the biking pot, is that, you know, yeah, Melrose is a, is a small city geographically, but you know, sometimes you may have all these great places that you want, you want to talk about that all have a connection, but maybe a foul walk, but, you know, hop on the bike and you can hit all those things in an hour and, um, walk out with all this great information.

▶ 29:18 Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Yeah, no problem.

▶ 29:21 Bradley Freeman: President Freeman. Um, one, one question I have, and, and you know, I was reading your letter and you referenced the melrose hundred 75th celebration. Mm-hmm. Do you have, does your permission have any interaction with our public schools? Do you go in, I know Winthrop, for example, is celebrating its hundredth year next year. Has the historical commission ever gone in, talk to the students about the founding of their school, help them research that, or even done one of, of your researcher home nights as part of a curriculum for a classroom? I can see fourth and fifth graders really getting into that and learning more about it, and getting more excited about learning the history of Melrose.

▶ 29:50 Speaker 2: Uh, we haven't, but something that I think would be great is not only, you know, going and, and talking to the students at the different schools about, um, you know, the history of their neighborhood, the history of their school is, you know, somehow like letting them create almost like an exhibit in their school. So like, you know, every school be able to create something like that would be interesting because then, you know, they have more ownership in this school besides, it's a, a place where they go five days a week, you know, to learn. Um, they actually have that connection. So I think, you know, doing something like that, being able to talk to the students, um, you know, and not only the elementary schools, but you know, middle school and high school as well, um, I think would be a, a great thing to do. And, you know, I'm definitely on board for doing something like that.

▶ 30:41 Bradley Freeman: Okay. Let's, let's, let's have a further conversation. I'd love to partner with you and just try to help, help Yeah, absolutely. You know, introduce you some of the schools and see what we can do there.

▶ 30:47 Speaker 2: Yeah. And in, in the past, um, you mean like, I worked as a museum curator and during that time and stuff, like, I had partnered with, um, you know, the community and stuff where I was, um, with the schools and, you know, um, basically worked with, um, at that time was all third graders, um, but every third grader in the school, in the, in the community, um, you know, basically went out and talked to them and, um, they created exhibits and stuff with me. That's Great. Thank

▶ 31:18 Speaker 1: You. Yeah, not a problem. Councillor Vanderberg.

▶ 31:20 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you. Uh, that does discussion kind of star sparked for me as well. I would love to actually know more about, not at a home level, but a neighborhood level. What, what we see historically in the city, and maybe even have, you know, a map of this area was industrial, this area was orchards, this area was, you know, here's where the first school was and, and things like that. Um, I, I believe, you know, in things I've encountered, my neighborhood used to be an orchard and have a stream running through the bottom. And it's, it's kind of neat to kind of think back through that. And, um, I think that'd be another really nice lens to see the Melrose history through, if, if that's something that you end up working on. Yeah,

▶ 32:02 Speaker 2: Absolutely. And I think just even, you know, your your street name, where does it come from? You know, um, as I said, I live on School Street, it's right near Winthrop, but it's, you know, it, you know, was named after a school that was there prior to the Winthrop, you know what I mean? So just like being able to, you know, talk to people and stuff about like, where the street names come from or, you know, I know earlier, um, several people talked about, you know, Benjamin lined and talking about like, you know, line Street, you know, where's the name come from, and just being able to, to talk with people and stuff and just, you know, share those stories with them. And that way they also walk away learning more and knowing, um, you know, basically having more of a connection within the neighborhood and their community.

▶ 32:42 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you. That, that's wonderful. I, uh, I'd like to make a motion to recommend Second.

▶ 32:46 Ryan Williams: Okay. Motion to recommend by Councillor Van Devin, seconded by Councillor Cal. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? I passes. Thank you so much. No, very

▶ 32:56 Speaker 2: Welcome. Thank you very much for your time.