The Cefalo Complex

Between 1967 and 1977, Melrose went from having no deed-restricted affordable senior housing units to having over 600. The addition of the five buildings that housed these apartments had caused minimal disruption to their neighborhoods, yet when the Cefalo family tried to build a sixth such complex at 245 West Wyoming Avenue in the late 1970s, they came up against widespread resistance, triggering the first Chapter 40b struggle in Melrose history.

By that time, the Cefalo name was an institution in the city. Giuseppe Cefalo had immigrated from Naples, Italy in 1912, and had found work at Casey’s Florist on Maple Street. After a few years, he decided to enter the business for himself, founding the Melrose Florist Company in 1923 at 245 West Wyoming. His son, Joseph T. Cefalo, continued the family business, and also served Melrose as an alderman and on the zoning board.

The family was devastated when Cefalo died at age 53 in 1973. After a few years, they decided to end the florist business and construct a senior housing complex on the property, which would be named in honor of their father. The housing would be financed under the new federal Section Eight program, which had been founded in 1974 not as a voucher system, as it is known today, but as a fund for building new affordable housing.

 In 1977, Joseph T. Cefalo, jr. filed an application to build a seven-story complex, but encountered stiff opposition from both the city and neighbors. In the end, every relevant body in city government came out against the project, with the exception of the Melrose Council on Aging. Denied permitting by the very zoning board on which his father had once served, Cefalo invoked Chapter 40b, the state law passed in 1969 to expedite the permitting process for affordable housing. After years of negotiations, Cefalo received permits to build a scaled-down, 107-unit complex. At just that moment, however, the Reagan administration cut the Section Eight funding on which the investment relied, delaying the project further. The Joseph T. Cefalo Memorial Complex finally opened its doors in 1983, nearly seven years after the initial application was filed.