Lost Melrose, Volume Three

In this episode of Lost Melrose, we examine the Aaron Green house, one of the more unfortunate demolitions of the past twenty years, which was located at 160 Green Street.

Aaron Green was a significant transitional figure in the history of Melrose. The son of one of the old English settler families who had been here since the 1640s, he lived during the transformative mid-19th century period when the railroad brought so many newcomers to Melrose. Green was one of the old guard who welcomed the changes the railroad wrought. He stood among the townspeople who successfully petitioned the Commonwealth to create the new town of Melrose in 1850, served as the town assessor for decades, and was a member of the Melrose School Committee. In addition to farming and owning a small shoe factory, he was also active in the local real estate market.

Green’s house was built around 1810. Shortly before it was destroyed in 2005, it had been nominated for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. The Massachusetts Historical Commission concluded that the house was “significant as a rare and unusually intact surviving example of a Federal period, rear wall chimney cottage, a building form that was probably once typical in Melrose, but of which this appears to be the only surviving example.” The nomination also noted that Green’s diary survives, and gives a description of the construction of the house’s kitchen ell in 1849.

Unfortunately, the person who purchased this property in 2004 became concerned that the historic value of the house would slow down or prevent development of the site, so he requested a permit for demolition and used it before any final documentation of the house could be made. As a result, this black and white photo is one of the only visual records of the existence of this house.

Had a demolition review law been on the books—as had been part of Melrose’s Master Plan of 2004—this commission would have been able to prepare a full documentation of the house. Fifteen years later, despite inclusion in the Melrose Forward Master Plan of 2017, we still have no demolition review law, and the number of demolitions has increased dramatically.