The Steele House

The Steele House at 1 Nason Drive is the second-largest affordable housing complex in Melrose, with 155 units. It is also the only standing building in Melrose whose very existence was declared illegal.

In the 1960s, Melrose was the only city in Massachusetts that had failed to form a housing authority, and so was ineligible to receive state or federal funds to create public housing. In 1968, the Board of Aldermen finally caved to public pressure and voted to create a housing authority for the specific purpose of building senior housing.

Perhaps because the city had waited for so long to create senior housing, they moved all too quickly to make amends. The city opted to apply for funds through the state’s Chapter 667 program, which paid for the construction costs of senior and disabled housing up front and would subsidize rents for residents in perpetuity thereafter.

In 1969, the housing authority settled on constructing a 9-story building on a site between Greenwood Street and the railroad tracks, and pushed the project through the Zoning Board over the objections of neighbors in order not to lose recently granted state funding. The housing authority then hired a contractor and an architectural firm on the advice of state officials.

The Steele House opened in 1971. A year later, a lawsuit that had been filed by abutters made its way to the SJC, which ruled unanimously that the zoning board had overstepped its authority by granting variances for the structure. Rather than order the building torn down, the court ordered that Melrose change its zoning for the site.

In 1979, the walls of the Steele House began to crack and buckle. The contractor hired in 1969 had done shoddy work, and the architectural firm had failed to oversee them. The walls had to be reconstructed. Melrose sued for damages, but the SJC again ruled against the city, arguing that they too had been negligent in their oversight.

The Steele House has now been open for 50 years, and has provided housing for thousands of residents. Yet the difficulties that attended its planning and construction hold a lesson on the importance of municipal due diligence.