Stone Place

Around the turn of the 20th century, the Boston Rubber Shoe Factory #2 was the city’s largest employer and taxpayer. At the turn of the 21st century, city officials dreamed of once again making the rambling property into one of the city’s largest taxpayers—only this time, it would be as a residence. Under the city’s new inclusionary zoning ordinance, it would also add 27 units to Melrose’s subsidized housing inventory.

The property was originally in the hands of a local developer called Stone Place Limited Partnership, which first unveiled its site plan before the Planning Board in 2008. Their plans included restoring the original 1883 factory building, the iconic smokestack, and another substantial structure, 37 Washington Street. Other structures would be demolished and replaced with new buildings.

To accomplish this ambitious vision, the Planning Board created a new overlay zoning district for the site, and the developer negotiated a novel tax deferral plan with the city so that they would be eligible for additional federal tax credits. In 2009, the Board of Aldermen approved this scheme, which then required assent from the General Court, which was granted in 2010. At just that moment, however, the developer withdrew from the project for financial reasons.

The site was then taken up by Wood Partners, one of the nation’s largest private development firms. They largely kept to the original plan, but called for the demolition of 37 Washington and, somewhat later, the demolition of the smokestack. The Historical Commission successfully lobbied for the preservation of the smokestack, but conceded the demolition of 37 Washington Street, a subject we have previously discussed here: https://melrosehistcomm.blogspot.com/2021/05/lost-melrose-volume-seven.html?m=0.

In 2016, construction on the site was finally finished. As had been promised from the very start, 27 affordable units were designated out of 300 total, by far the largest addition to Melrose’s subsidized housing inventory created under the inclusionary zoning ordinance to date.