Reappointment of Joseph Hunt, 132 Mount Vernon Avenue, to the Melrose Historical Commission for a three-year term set to expire on the last day of February 2029.

Transcript (~15 min @ 32:57)

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

▶ 32:58 Ryan Williams: Next up we have ID number 2 0 2 6 4 4 4. The reappointment of Joseph Hunt of 1 32 Mount Vernon Avenue to the Melrose Historical Commission for three year terms, had to expire on the last day of February, 2029. And hello, Mr. Hunt, and thank you so much for your time tonight.

▶ 33:20 Speaker 4: Well, I guess I'm the fourth person to appear. I guess that means I'm batting cleanup.

▶ 33:28 Ryan Williams: Take it. Well, anything you wanna share with us about your experience or tell us about, um, please do.

▶ 33:33 Speaker 4: Well, I'd be glad to because it's been a very, uh, illuminating and exciting time for myself where my parents moved to Melrose after the war, which for me is World War ii. And that was about 1947. And I have to say, I really wasn't that interested in Melrose's history very much until I, 30 years ago, happened to buy a house on Mount Vernon Avenue, which was 136 years old now. And so that got me interested in the work that the commission did. And so about 15 years ago, I joined the commission. And in those days, uh, we had, I would say probably negative visibility. Uh, Melrose wasn't built out 110% or so like it is now, so there was no real, um,

▶ 34:37 Speaker 4: pressure onto preserving and taking care of, uh, historical heritage, particularly physical heritage with respect to structures.

▶ 34:50 Speaker 4: So our main purpose was to submit information to the Massachusetts Historical Commission, uh, which would put it in a database called ris, Massachusetts, uh, cultural resource, something or other. Uh, and there are about 703, uh, Melrose,

▶ 35:17 Speaker 4: uh, houses in that database. And if you are interested in researching your home, one of the first things to do would be just to see if someone during those years has actually researched your home and it's on the database. Just put MA into Google and, uh, go to the sites. It's very easy to navigate. Uh, the other thing we did is, was already mentioned, we participated in the Victorian Fair, and we had your research, your own home night, which we held in the library where we could expose participants to the city directories, uh, all the maps we had, as well as giving them, uh, some of our own personal hints and experience.

▶ 36:10 Speaker 4: However, since those days has been a big shakeup in the commission for a variety of reasons. And I have to say that the people who constitute the historical commission today,

▶ 36:30 Speaker 4: uh, and I'm using a judgment of on the last 15 years of my participation on the commission, the group we have now is the most exciting and knowledgeable and self-motivated group that I've been, uh, privileged to work with as far as my own personal participation for about 10 years. I was the secretary.

▶ 36:57 Speaker 4: Uh, my main problem with that was reading my notes because I wasn't that good on the computer yet. Uh, today for about the past six or eight months, I am the vice chair. Now, with respect to what's happening currently, first of all, I wanna compliment the library and the people responsible for getting the library funds to do this is to digitize so many of the resources that they have. Uh, in particular, the newspapers have been a, a wealth of information, and they're currently in the process of digitizing the city directories, which are absolutely indispensable. And this is important work because it not only makes it physically, uh, more easy for Melrose residents to access these resources, but it has the fantastic advantage of being searchable. Now, you don't have to go through 400 pages looking for Eldridge Goss or, or one of the famous families or information about your own home. You can just plug your street in and, and do a great search. Uh, so we're very happy with the, uh, what's going on at the library. Secondly, I want to compliment those folks who have worked on generating a demolition delay document. I've done two things. One is I've examined the document that was the council item, I think back in October, October 21st, I think.

▶ 38:54 Speaker 4: And I have to say, uh, comparing it to some of the demolition delay documents that are in adjacent towns, like, oh, I looked at Medford, Malden sga and there was another one I can't recall right now. But ours is by far the most organized, well, it's still a little bit, but it's way better organized than some. And from my own experience, while I haven't ever had to participate in a demolition delay event over the years, I've had a lot of contractors work on my house, and I hear little rumors here and there around town about demolition delay from contractors. So I have kind of an inventory of anecdotal information, and I can say they, they really don't respect

▶ 39:53 Speaker 4: demolition delay. And over the decades, they've have a lot of, uh, nefarious ways of defeating the purpose, and in particular, by reinterpreting definitions

▶ 40:12 Speaker 4: and, uh, doing schemes that sound like they're appropriate, like examining the structure to make sure it's safe. And, oh, gee, uh, finding things. Uh, one of the more popular ones is a demolition by neglect. Anyway, there was a whole series of those things, and I was very happy to see that those are called out in the demolition delay document from October 21st. And there were penalties, uh, at the end of the document. So, uh, I'm really happy bet how things are going between all the personnel on our commission, the digitizing that's going on at the library, and the, uh, in my view, very satisfactory. I'm sure there's some tweaks that need, but very satisfactory, uh, demolition delay document that I think is better than others. So I also, uh, finally want to say I'm very glad the confidence that the council has expressed in us, uh, to,

▶ 41:28 Speaker 4: uh, include us as one of the team organizations, uh, with respect to demolition, delay, and preserving as many of the, uh, historical assets we have. So with that, I'll entertain any questions you have. I am having a little trouble with the echo in the room from time to time, so,

▶ 41:52 Ryan Williams: Okay. Thank you. Uh, Councillor Cal.

▶ 41:55 Elizabeth Kowal: So I just wanna thank you for all of the work that you've done. You are quite an inspiration, and it's really just lovely to see you here. And I didn't know if you were gonna throw your fellow counselors under the bus. I was a little nervous about where you were going with that comment, so I'm so happy to hear that you are really enjoying your time. Um, I live in a very old house as well. I live in the Finney Sprague homestead that was built in 1798. So, uh, this has been really fun for me to hear. I did not even know about the learn about your house, although the tenants who had the house before me, the ARDS certainly left me a lot of information, including the old walking tours. Um, I have the, those pamphlets. So, um, but what I wanted to just, uh, echo what, uh, Councillor Williams has said earlier is when you talk about the demolition delay and sort of some loopholes that people may be finding, or ways to sort of lessen what the intention was, please do speak up about that, because obviously, when it was drafted, there was intent behind it to help, um, with all of this. And so I really just wanted to reiterate that point again, is that it's new. Um, and so there's gonna be ways that we need to perhaps strengthen it, perhaps change it, perhaps, amen. Whatever it is. And so I would just ask, um, that you do, if you are hearing these things or you are witnessing these things that you don't stay quiet about it. I don't think you will, but that you bring, bring it back to us, because if we didn't get it a hundred percent right, I think the goal, and, and, you know, Councillor Williams was helpful in drafting that to begin with. Um, we wanna get it right and make sure that it's intent, it's played out in what its intent was meant for.

▶ 43:22 Speaker 4: Well, thank you very much. Very ahead. Happy to provide feedback. Yes, thank

▶ 43:27 Speaker 1: You. Thank you.

▶ 43:29 Bradley Freeman: I just wanna echo Councilor Kowal, um, thanks and appreciation to you. And one thing one of your colleagues had mentioned, I I wanted to reference it was the sign program that you have as someone who lives in a house from the 1950s. I don't have the honor of having one on my house, but I loved when I was knocking doors going up and, and seeing those signs and just the pride those individuals have in their house. And so thank you for, for that effort, and I think it really does help tell the story of Melrose. So thank you.

▶ 43:53 Speaker 4: Well, you may find this surprising folks, but I actually have a couple of applications with me. Uh, if you're interested in a historic fact, 75 years old or or older,

▶ 44:06 Speaker 1: Okay. I'll take one. Yeah,

▶ 44:08 Speaker 3: I would take one. Yeah.

▶ 44:08 Ryan Williams: All right. Um, councilor Vandiver,

▶ 44:12 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you. Can you, uh, I, I am familiar with the sign program to some extent. I haven't participated in it, um, but I believe there's some research that's done and you come back with a sign that says the name of the original owners and their occupation. Is that correct?

▶ 44:28 Speaker 4: You have, uh, two areas where you input what's going to be on the plaque. Uh, the top one is a little factoid about your house. Uh, I happened to be working on my own application and, uh, in this case it was the owner original occupant was from a, the Goss family, famous Goss family, Willis c Goss, son of Curtis Goss. And, uh, it's interesting, quick aside to read in the newspapers where they refer to him as Willie, but, uh, so that's one thing I put on the top line, Willis c Goss. But you can also add another factoid on a second line, in my case merchant. But you can put almost anything you want about your house. We have one that was, uh, uh, a laboratory at one time to investigate gypsy moss. And so form a site of gypsy moth laboratory. Uh, so anything like that in the application, uh, shows four plaques, kind of different examples of things you could put on those little factoid lines. Now you may say, gee, my house is maybe old and venerable and has seen a lot of the Melrose scene over the years, but I really, The facts I

▶ 46:09 Speaker 4: found are kind of boring. So what do you do? Uh, well, I think what we propose is you put the official name of your house, which is your address, and I, I tell you the, uh, the prime delivery trucks will certainly appreciate that. So, um, and, uh, then of course, what everybody wants, and in the biggest letters, all nice and incised and painted black on a white plaque, uh, is the date.

▶ 46:46 Speaker 4: And then finally, uh, since we vet your application, uh, we have Melrose Historic Commission as kind of a IMP tour, if you will.

▶ 47:01 Kimberly Vandiver: Great. Thank you so much for explaining. And I, I, that was actually one of my questions and why we hadn't necessarily done it yet. I wasn't sure what goes on that line and what if we find out that their occupation wasn't very interesting or nothing much to put there. So that, that's very helpful to know about the options. Sure.

▶ 47:16 Speaker 4: It could be the architect or the builder or what

▶ 47:24 Speaker 4: social events were happening. I know for example, um, for Rus Hinchey

▶ 47:34 Speaker 4: down in the corner of Wick and, uh, west Wyoming Avenue, if that was still around, that was a social center for that whole area. So in a lot of houses have turned out to be, uh, neighborhood clubhouses, especially if there's a lot of, uh, children in the neighborhood. So that would be something. Thank you very much.

▶ 47:57 Speaker 4: Such a street clubhouse.

▶ 48:00 Kimberly Vandiver: Absolutely. Sure. Thank you. Um, Can I make a motion to recommend?

▶ 48:04 Ryan Williams: Yeah, sure. Uh, motion by Councillor Vandiver, seconded by Councillor Cal.