What do these historic buildings in downtown Melrose have in common? They all were built to function as something else, and were successfully adapted for new uses. The Universalist Church became the 16-unit 99 Essex Street apartments, the Coolidge School became the 46-unit Coolidge Apartments, the Methodist parsonage became the Follow Your Art Community Studios, the Oak Manor dance hall became Temple Beth Shalom, and the former telephone switchboard building became the Melrose Police Department.
Historic preservation is not driven by sentimental attachment to the past. It is about using the material resources handed down to us by our Melrose forebears to create a future that they could never have imagined. When we adapt historic buildings instead of demolishing them, we not only preserve irreplaceable architecture, we also recycle materials and create less waste and pollution.
Historic preservation also generates affordable housing. Here you see two maps: one shows the communities in Massachusetts that have passed a demolition review ordinance, and the other shows the communities that have achieved the 10% affordable housing threshold required by Chapter 40b. The maps show a strong correlation between demolition review and plentiful affordable housing. Just this summer, Brookline became the latest community to achieve the 10% threshold—and they have the strongest historic preservation laws in the state.
For all of these reasons, we encourage you to write to your city councilors and ask for passage of a demolition review ordinance. Please write to melrosehistcomm@gmail.com if you would like to use our sample language.
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