[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, it is 702 will call the meeting to order. This is the Medford Historical Commission. Today is Monday, January 8. And I will read our little statement here for zoom pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021. This meeting of the city of Medford Historical Commission will be conducted via remote means members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so by using the zoom link provided for in the agenda. No in-person attendance or members of the public will be permitted and public participation in any public hearing during this meeting shall be by remote means only. Okay. We are going to start tonight with 43 Austin Street. Last month we accepted their application for demolition. It is for a total demolition of the property at 43 Austin Street. Tonight we will determine whether or not the property is historically significant and just to remind folks what that means. The definition of historically significant is it is importantly associated with one or more historic persons or events, or with the broad architectural, cultural, political, economic, or social history of the city or the Commonwealth, or it is historically or architecturally important in terms of period, style, method of building construction, or association with an important architect or builder, either by itself or in the context of a group of buildings.
[Unidentified]: commissioners I will take a motion for this property when somebody is ready and remember you're all on you you
[Jennifer Keenan]: commissioners would somebody like to make a motion to determine significance for 43 Austin Street.
[Unidentified]: So moved at least open discussion. Okay, thank you, Ed. Second. Thank you, Ryan.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, we have a motion on the table to determine significance for 43 Alston Street. Ryan, can you start the discussion for me?
[Unidentified]: I think the fire damage aside, the building is kind of a large and ambitious example of the type of architecture that was constructed mid to late 19th century in this particular neighborhood. As laid out, it was planned by Alexander Wadsworth, who was a noted landscape architect in the 1840s. It wasn't until the 1860s that this building kind of comes to light along with most of the rest of the development. It wasn't particularly struck by any particular thing from the social history. So I'll just, I'll leave it at that. Okay, thank you.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Doug, I'm gonna go to you next. I see you next on my screen.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I find this property a little hard to see through the damage. I know that's what Ryan's saying, but it doesn't look like an extraordinary example that we've seen before on this particular type of building. When did the fire occur? How long ago was this?
[Jennifer Keenan]: I don't know if we have that information.
[8Sqy8gyjolU_SPEAKER_08]: I think it was pretty recent within the past couple of years, wasn't it?
[Unidentified]: Yeah, it was summer.
[Jennifer Keenan]: It's a. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Are you the owner of the property?
[SPEAKER_07]: No, I'm actually my name is Amy and I work for United Property Restoration Services and where the contractors associated with the job and OK, can we get your full name and address for the record, please? Yes, absolutely. Amy Hargreaves. I did property restoration services. addresses 33 4th Avenue need a Massachusetts to 494.
[Unidentified]: Thank you. So Jen if I could just continue the yes guy.
[Doug Carr]: Looking at the form the it appears that most of the interest of this House is more about the kind of larger context. You know who was there that the contents of the name of the potential for a historic district, which I think is mentioned near the end. But we see a fair amount of that, I think, on properties that come before us. And a lot of them never really go anywhere in terms of actually being a historic district. Obviously, Medford doesn't have a great track record of creating new historic districts very often. And we've struggled with that. I know that's one of our agenda items for next year to have a more detailed conversation with With the district commission, but I, my instincts here is that I don't see anything really extraordinary. I don't think a store district is coming here. Um, to, you know, for this, for this neighborhood of this property part of it. So, uh, my instincts are to find it not significant based on what I've seen so far, but I would like to hear the other commissioners opinions.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, thanks Doug. Do you have anything to add?
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: Again, it's hard to judge this except in the context of what looks like what's represented to be a total structural loss. I understand that's not legally significant, but it's still out there. And again, I'll yield to Doug as to whether it's architecturally significant for what it is. But again, we're not...
[Unidentified]: What we're looking at now is a set of boarded up windows. Okay, thanks, Ed. Kit?
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Well, to answer Doug's question, it appears that the fire actually was in April of 2023, end of April 2020. Thank you, Kit. And the thing that I was going to add, I mean, I totally agree, it's hard to assess this, but I was noticing in the Form B that it was also converted to a two-family pretty late. So, I mean, it's hard to get a sense sort of looking past the fire damage, was there enough of the original structure left to maintain any architectural significance that it may have had?
[Unidentified]: I think I'd be inclined to side with Doug on this one.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, thank you, Kit. Peter, anything to add?
[8Sqy8gyjolU_SPEAKER_08]: Not that much to add. I've walked past the property recently. The back L does seem to be a total loss. I mean, it's just gaping hole and it's very difficult to tell what's going on with the Front main part of the house, although you can see, you know, smoke trails coming up from some of the windows. I don't know if it's, it would probably, I mean, even if we found it preferably preserved it, you know. Probably they would have to reframe the whole thing from the inside out, but I don't know that for sure because of the, because of the, I don't know. I don't, he can't tell what's going on with the front of it. I mean, the front porch, little wraparound porch there is still there, but apparently those are not the original columns. They were redone at some point, although they, the form B says they look, you know, period. they look like they're from the period. So, yeah, I don't see, I didn't find anything super compelling about the history of it. It's interesting for sure. And I think basically, mostly it's because of the age of this thing that we're even talking about it, you know, because, and, you know, of the neighborhood context, the development. So, I think it's a tough call too. I mean, it's possible that there's some good detail under there and stuff, but I have a feeling a lot of it's damaged. So I think I'm kind of siding with Doug as well on this one.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Ryan, with your encyclopedic knowledge of how many houses of various eras there are left in Medford, what's your assessment of this one?
[Unidentified]: There's a lot of these gabled end houses. I mean, there's less than 3,000 pre-1900 buildings, but there's, of them, the vast majority are built in that last quarter of the 19th century. So, you know, this is pretty close to that. I would say there are other better preserved examples of this type of house out there.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, I want to just give Eleni a chance to see if she had any comments. Welcome, Eleni.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you. Thanks, everyone. It's my first meeting. I'm very excited to be here. I did get a chance to read through the Form B and look at the photos, and I agree with Doug and everyone else. It just seems like the fire damage is extensive. The building had already undergone so many alterations over time. It's kind of hard to imagine how much of the original building fabrics might still be intact and I think Ryan just said that there are many other buildings in Medford that are the same, you know, style and built around the same time that are in a better state of conservation. I think I would side with Doug on this one. It's a tough call to make, but having not been able to see the interior or visit that property in person, but it doesn't seem like there's much to save or to preserve.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay great. Okay, so we have a motion on the table to find 43 Austin Street historically significant. I will go around for a roll call vote as I see people on my screen. Doug.
[Unidentified]: No, not significant. Ryan. No. Ed. No. Kit. No. Peter. No.
[Jennifer Keenan]: And Eleni. No. Okay, so the motion fails zero to six. So Amy, we'll get a letter out to you by the end of the week and you guys will be able to be on your merry way with demolition.
[SPEAKER_07]: Excellent, thank you all so much.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, have a good night, thank you.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you, you too.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay next up on the agenda we are taking an application for 3.14 Winthrop Street. So commissioners in our folder is the application, the photos, the plans, and the materials. If somebody would like to make a motion to accept the application.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: Move to accept as to form.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you Ed.
[Unidentified]: Second.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you Ryan okay motion to accept the application. For 3.14 Winthrop street. Doug yes. Ryan yes.
[Unidentified]: And I can't yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: here, yes, and only me. Okay great so the motion passes 5, 6, 0, So next month we will determine significance on this property.
[Doug Carr]: Jim before you leave this one can we have just a brief a brief summary of what we know is being proposed on this side or do we not know that yet.
[Jennifer Keenan]: No we know there are some plans in the file. It's taking a roof off and kind of redoing the second story. So it's changing the kind of the look significantly from what's there now.
[8Sqy8gyjolU_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I would say almost unrecognizable so.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: compared to prior property anyway.
[8Sqy8gyjolU_SPEAKER_08]: Compared to prior, yeah.
[Unidentified]: Okay, thank you.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, okay. Okay, so we will do significance on that property next month. All right, thank you, Salvatore. Okay, next up on tonight's agenda that is it for our cases per se. I wanted to officially welcome Eleni tonight for her first meeting. As you guys know, last month, Jessica Farrell, her term was up and Shoot, it was our last meeting, but we were so lucky to have Eleni's application and Eleni got approved by the mayor. So Eleni, if you'd like to take a minute to just say hi and share a little bit of your background and just say hi to everybody, we would love for that to happen.
[Kit Collins]: Sure, so hi everyone. I think I met all of you other commission members last month when I sort of sat in on the last meeting. But if there are any members of the public who are still here, my name is Oleni Glekas. I'm Director of Historic Preservation at the Boston Architectural College and I live here in Medford. So I sent, I think I sent in my application in November, October. It's been a while. Yeah, a while ago. I don't remember, but I was really excited to get the email from Jen. And yeah, I've been living in Medford for a couple of years now. I really love living in this community. I just think it's a great place, really diverse, just has a lot to offer and is really unique. There's a lot of great architectural character and natural features. And I'm really excited to be on the commission to help preserve Medford's cultural resources. So thank you.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yay, we're so lucky to have you. And glad we have somewhat of a varied evening. So your first case is not too crazy. Okay, Peter Handland, we are ready for you if you are ready for us, but if you're not, we have a couple other things. Oh, there you are.
[MCM00001628_SPEAKER_14]: Yeah, I'm here.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Hi, Peter.
[MCM00001628_SPEAKER_14]: Good to see you, Jen.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Nice to see you, and happy new year.
[MCM00001628_SPEAKER_14]: Yeah, happy new year. And Ryan has gotten me up to speed on this project, and hello to the other, Members of the commission. And I'm happy to hop right into it. I think let's see.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Ryan, can I ask Ryan to just give like a 30 second overview of how we got here and what Peter's going to do for us tonight?
[Unidentified]: Peter's providing a summary overview of the proposed project, which is We did an archeological dig back in 2022, I think it is. It wasn't last year, so that did it in 2022. The Thomas Brooks Park discovered that the site is archeologically sensitive for a number of reasons. And so we want to start the planning process to protect the major archeological resource that is the Thomas Brooks House site after we do an additional round of due diligence there with the archeologists this coming year, thanks to hopefully CPC funding our latest application. So Peter is doing the design for that. And the way that we know Peter is that Peter did the master plan for the whole park, for Thomas Brooks Park, thanks again to CPC for funding that, and kind of laid out a number of projects that we had to do. One of them was the restoration of Palm's Wall. The other one was the restoration of the Peelstone Wall. course, the due diligence with the archaeology and, you know, some other things like ADA upgrades. So he'll talk about that tonight. So I think that's a good summary as to where we are. And many thanks to Jen for roping us into this whole project, because it was her idea to get us started.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Was it? I don't know.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, it definitely was. It's fine. It's a great site. It has a lot to offer our community. And I think it's important that it transitioned from a rugged wood lot to a site that's special for the city of Bedford.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Great. Well, welcome back, Peter. So nice to see you again. And do you need to share your screen?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that would be helpful. I can do that. Let me see.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I need to give you, yeah. Okay. You're all set. You should have the ability to share your screen.
[MCM00001628_SPEAKER_14]: Is everybody looking at, there's a cover slide on there? Yep.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, only to my getting it right. Here we go. Got it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[MCM00001628_SPEAKER_14]: Okay, good. I'll make it I'll make it full screen. Okay, so happy to be back. Just a quick sort of mini bio on me. I'm trained as a landscape architect, also trained as a city planner. Really enjoyed working on the master plan with Jen and Ryan and the rest of the commission a couple of years ago, and it was a great project. We had a It was the first and maybe only project I'll ever have where I had an archaeologist and a historic masonry consultant on the team. Undergraduate, I was a history major, so it was right up my alley. I live right over here in Arlington, so the park is just a couple of miles from my house. easy to get there and then we're going to take a little mini walk back in time which might be helpful for Eleni or other people just on how we got here. Does everybody have the Brooks Estate map up on their screen? Good. Why is this important and why are we thinking about it? So this is a map, and thank you to Ryan and the city of Medford for giving me a lot of historical information and our team during the master plan. And Eleni, that's a document, if you'd like to look at it, there's a lot of background in there. But just to Kind of brief excerpt of it. This is a map circus 1860 of the Brooks estate important family for the city of Medford. This is the original 400 acre homestead sort of traced in green here. It was owned by several generations of the Brooks family beginning in 1660. The park we're dealing with, well, the better look at it coming up here right next to the railroad, is this long sliver of land here. You can see it better here. This is the walling plan circa 1855. It's easy to remember and locate this park if you can find the railroad. The Boston and Lowell Railroad, as it was called, was one of the oldest railroads around, was constructed in 1835. It's diagonally right here. This is the parcel there at this time. Had that parcel across, and this is Grove Street, High Street right here, West Medford. This is what would become known as Lower Mystic Lake, and this is across Grove Street, the Edward Brooks House. Okay, so this is a neat picture and I'm really glad we had it for this project that Thomas Brooks house. That's what it looked like built in 1727 built by Samuel Brooks, it had occurred so we're looking from this is Grove Street here or what is now Grove Street this horses. Yeah, trotting up that way. And this is the brick wall that you just spent time and effort preserving, formerly known as the Slave Wall, now known as Pomp's Wall. And three black walnut trees were in front of the estate house. The estate house is not there anymore, but that's what it looked like. in its heyday. This is a later image. Date is unknown on this, probably around the turn of the 20th century, what's now known as Pomp's Wall. That wall, as you know, was built by the enslaved person known as Pompeii. And this is a neat picture because if you go, a photo, if you go to the park now, Pretty overgrown not quite as overgrown as it was a year ago or a year or two ago you did some nice work on the edge there, but it was pretty open you can see almost through to the railroad and the fence couple big trees the state would have been right on top of that, that rise there. This is the same vantage point, 1899 Pomp's Wall. Again, thanks to the Medford Historical Society for this. A little bit more vegetation here being taken over. There were lilacs planted behind that. Here's the granite fieldstone wall, which you just reconstructed. Kept this one in here, this is a map from 1936-1950, the Sanborn maps, great resources to figure out what's going on. But this is our park, oriented a little bit differently, but this is our long park with the railroad right up above after a lot of the development had come in. It's important to remember, that when the park was conveyed to the city in 1924, there is a requirement in the deed to preserve and forever maintain that brick wall. So if anyone stops you on the street and says, hey, you're a commissioner, why did we spend CPA money or time and money maintaining that wall? Well, you had to, because if that wall fell down and it was leaning, Then it's in the G that the family and estate could actually take it back. It was a great thing to do and a great part of history. When we started the master plan in 2019, we mapped existing conditions. North is straight up. Here to orient ourselves again, the Lowell Branch Railroad is diagonally across here. Here's the six-acre park. The circles are the significant trees. There's lots of little trees out there, but less significant trees. Grove Street, the railroad, the very nice community over on the side here and across the railroad placed at park. The main features with the wall, the former estate area, trails, and that type of thing. What the master plan did, was walk through a process of existing conditions and concept designs, and then putting a master plan together and documenting that. We came up with nine different proposed initiatives or focus areas that could be developed over time in three different phases. Remarkably, you've done three of these, which is a great track record. I've done a lot of master plans. I've been doing this for 20, Um, I think the commission has done an excellent job. Um, in the last three years. And, uh, not all of them. I get built in some of them, unfortunately just sit on a shelf. So I think the commission has done an excellent job. To get things done here and credit you guys for, for doing that. put forward, there are nine different numbers here. Number one was signage at the north and south end. There was a survey that Jen and the commission did before our project, and most people in Medford didn't know that this was a city park. They just drove by it, maybe they saw the wall, but no one really knew what it was. We said, okay, let's identify it as a park. Number two is the restoration of the wall, and you've done that. Number 3 was a proposal for an active archaeological dig at the former Brooks Estate site, which the first step of four. Number four were two proposed raised crosswalks here at Ravine Road and at Jackson Road. It would do two things. It would slow traffic down. Cars really zoom down Grove Street. No stop signs there. It's a bit of an issue. It would also allow access from accessible parking here in blue into the park. It's not an accessible park now. There are no curb cuts. So That was the thinking there. Number five, these victory gardens, we have aerial photos, and in looking at the history, these have to roll this field at the south end of the site. It was used after World War Two, and during World War Two for small community gardens victory gardens as they were known to for local agriculture. Pretty neat idea there was a big demand for that. So that is in the plan it was a little controversial hasn't happened yet but. It's a good idea. Number six, trail improvements throughout the park. And then number seven here, the Grove Street edge improvements, both rebuilding that field stone wall, clearing away from the edge to make the edge more defined and visible. And you already did that. There was funding available, so that got bumped up earlier in the process. We'll see some pictures of that. And then two ideas that were perhaps later term a new railroad crossing has some issues with it, but it's in the plan and a central LA if you walk in this park. You can kind of see the vestiges of these rows of trees that used to be there, there's still a handful of the big ones left so would we ever recreate that LA and put a path in some planting in there was an idea that that came up. Okay, so these nine ideas, again, in picture form, we just looked at, excuse me, got a little, trying to fight this cop that's going around. We just looked at them in plan view, but this is the picture view. So number one, the wall restoration, two, the archeological dig, three, the Grove Street edge, you've done all the top level there, and then new crosswalks, trail, We're just park signage. There's no sign that says Thomas Brooks Park. The idea for a victory garden, a new railroad crossing a little bit, probably further down the line, and maybe there you can see in this picture, that's central LA. If you squint your eyes, it was right down in the middle there. Uh, okay. So this is almost done with the walk back in time here, but the wall restoration, we said, okay, we got Richard irons, uh, out, uh, expert in his field to look with the commission at that wall to propose a couple of different solutions, um, and costs associated with that. And you did it. The, this was a photo from last year and the wall restoration and need a pretty needed a pretty substantial restoration, and there it is, new flashing and caps, and the wall was put back together, and hopefully that wall will be up for a couple more hundred years. Okay, the archaeological dig at the estate. So the concept was, okay, there was this neat estate there taken down a long time ago, 1860, and then the park just, the area just sort of sat there, which is unusual. And so some of the ideas that came up were, you know, maybe having a university partner or working with community volunteers, which you did. Great to get the community involved and ideas of what the DIG might come up with and the potential for both pre-contact and post-contact artifacts of which both were found. This is an important map because we teamed with a PAL archaeologist during the master plan who did a great field document for this. But they determined that the center of the park had high sensitivity and a good potential to for interesting and rich archaeological findings there, largely because it's sat there since the 1860s and has been kind of preserved, whereas the lower end hasn't, because there were the community gardens, there's this 30-foot MWRA sewer easement through there, and that's where the areas have focused on. You did that dig and I read there's 157 page report on that. It's pretty interesting actually. There were over 1,600 different artifacts that were found, mostly post-contact from the colonial period, but a fair amount of Native American findings as well. And then the last part of the master plan that has been implemented were these Grove Street edge improvements and the idea there was to make it look more like it looked a hundred years ago and define that wall, make it look intentional, rebuild that wall. And then also there were lots of invasives up against the wall. So it takes about a 10 foot area to clear away from that wall, showcase some of these bigger trees and to find that edge. And you did that as well. It looks nice, a great edge there. openings where pathways connect with the community and future crossings could happen. Moving forward, some of the recommendations from the 2023 PAO Archaeological Survey, they recommended that the commission proposed site protection and preservation measures for the high sensitivity areas, especially around the estate and the center of the park. That's the 2nd bullet bullet point here specifically recommended for the. Area around that house site and in these areas. To limit or avoid or keep to a minimum below ground disturbances, so you don't mess up anything that's down there. They only went down, I think. a meter, and so there's the potential to do further digging in the future. Okay, so A couple of ideas and just initial thoughts to get things going here. This is a project that I did at UMass Amherst, which I do not think you will do here, but I'm showing it just as what I've worked on and what other people do. This was a project to commemorate the 150th anniversary of what was then known as the Massachusetts Agricultural College and it turned into UMass Amherst. And so what we did were create four of these large display boards that could be seen both during the day, but they would also light up at night. And we worked with the historians there, got a lot of historic information, and as a way to reference the history of the college. They've been pretty happy with it there. I think it's too high tech and too expensive and complicated for a site like Thomas Brooks Park, but it's an interesting precedent when you look at how other sites have tackled thinking about history. This is a site that Ryan recommended I take a look at, and this is the great house site in Charlestown, also known as the Governor Winthrop House. What they did here is just trace the foundation of where that house was. They figured out where that was. These are actual foundation stones that were recovered, that were then set in this, a perimeter which defines a few of these rooms. Then off to the side, they have a historic interpretation signage so you can understand about why this is important and what's going on. This was funded and originally precipitated by a major transportation project. That's another way that groups have done this is to trace and outline and tell the story. In Arlington, where I live, right next door, probably, boy, maybe, was it 10 years ago? Maybe not quite that. The Park and Rec Commission wanted to, and the Friends Group for Robbins Farm. That's a great park. If you've never been on top of the hill in Arlington, great, great views. But they wanted to commemorate the estate house and the farm that was formerly there. So not as historic as what you're dealing with, but what they did is trace the outline of where that house was. On one end, they put these granite blocks, and on the other end, just in-ground flush markers. Then they have this little plaque here. It's pretty short, I'll read it. It says, These granite benches and stones mark the corners of farmer Nathan Robbins' mansion, which stood on this site from 1884 to 1942. The dog sculpture is a replica of the original, which stood guard outside, a feature of the grounds much beloved by local children. And then they got the money and did a separate fundraising project to get the sculpture and get somebody to do this and got the plans. It was kind of neat. And kids now really love going out there and sitting on top of this guy. So that's it. And you can come and take a look at it. OK, so what do we do at Thomas Brooks Park? Well, let's think about it. So this is the approximate house location. If you go out and look at this park, you're really not gonna know that it's there. There are a couple of pink flags left from the archeological dig. So that's a telltale sign. There is some ground cover, some vinca, maybe leftover or something out there. And so this is the path on the Grove Street edge looking south. You can see here the brick wall, Pompe's wall, the granite marker there. This is where that estate house location is. The house was, the location is, and if you zoom on that a little bit more, that's where it is. So kind of unremarkable, right? It's kind of in the middle of the woods there. some newer vegetation, not really any significant trees there, but that's where it is. It is visible from that park. This is the view on the left. There are those pink flags again. Looking north, you can see that newer vegetation that's popped up looking south, you can see that ground cover, probably some invasive species in there, smaller trees, that type of thing, a couple bigger trees. So that's where it is. And this is where a north entrance could be. You can see the wall here. This could connect across the street to the road. And this is looking south. You can see the field beyond that. And just around that corner would be where a south entrance would be. And this is just a dirt path there. So if you zoom in to the master plan area on this focus area this is this is kind of the setup that we have the red, the red wall palms wall is the defining feature there that you just restored that the black line. is the Grove Street Fieldstone wall, which was just restored. The orange here are paths, existing paths, and this is a slate realignment of a path here. And this is where in the master plan we had proposed the accessible parking space on Ravine Road and on Jackson Road This blue circle is the granite marker for Palm's Wall. It does still say Slave Wall on the roadside. I was thinking about this and talking about it with Ryan. We originally called this Archeological Preservation Plaza and those things. I'm like, okay, plaza. There's a long document here talking about preserving this area and not disturbing this area. One other idea came up. The earlier ideas that we talked about tracing the footprint, still entirely valid. But a different idea I had that I wanted to share, and this is the last slide and we can open up for any thoughts is, There's the neat thing about this park is there are so many layers of history. It's not just an estate, it's not just this historic wall from this African American for former slave person. It's there's Native American history there and that really wasn't on our at least my radar screen that much until we got the archaeology archaeologists involved. And there's also a more modern history. So what if there was a project that said okay. we create a little layers of history, a little accessible walk through this park that helps to tell the story about these layers of history in Medford. You could have your new raised crosswalk or flush crosswalk at the north associated with the parking spot and at the south. I think we can make this a ADA accessible walk. I think the grades will allow for that. make it a service that would be compatible. Then there could be a handful of markers that help to tell this story. For the Pops wall on the back of that granite marker is blank. And one of the ideas that came up in the master plan was to replicate, but perhaps reinterpret that plaque on the back. Because right now, if you're a pedestrian, you can't read what's going on unless you stand on the curb here and take your life in your hands, right? Because there's no sidewalk there. This is the safe side, but there's no signage. So we could put a new plaque there telling that story. You could put interpretive signage here and maybe something associated with that estate area talking about this estate house and how this was this part of this Brooks estate and what it was and how that's connected to the wall further down the path or somewhere. We could have interpretive signage about the Native American history for a couple of hundred or thousands of years and what has been found and what might be found in the history of the sort of late woodland Native Americans in the Medford area. And then even as you, at the south end of the park here, this is not a photo from this park, but maybe we can find one. And the World War II Victory Gardens is a pretty interesting historical story that was there, is not anymore, maybe a community garden will come back there. Whether that does or not, it could be an interesting way to interpret a more modern 20th century history. That's my last slide, initial thoughts of where we've been and some initial ideas, and happy to take any comments or thoughts here.
[Doug Carr]: I have a few comments and questions. First of all, it's really great This has been on the table for years, and it's good to kind of see it recapped and revived, kind of the whole story, because there's a couple of years here, and not everyone, again, was on the commission when we started, and it's a great project we're making. We are making good progress, thanks to the Jan and Ryan, especially, who've been shepherding this one through. I'd say a couple of things. I really like the linear idea of telling the whole story, of the park that spans not only the history of Medford, but way beyond it before as well. I think that's a great idea. I hesitate to be kind of stuck with that granite piece that's a leftover from, it's not even an accurate platform on my understanding of the Texas there now. So I feel like let's just start over and tell a comprehensive story with, you know, signage that is is comparable for all the phases, all the stories we're trying to tell, rather than trying to live with that thing, which is a leftover from, and the plaque is just not, it doesn't tell even a fraction of what we want to tell for the African-American story, the slavery story in Medford. This is a real opportunity to tell a much bigger story. And I think you're already halfway down that path. So I think that should be an easy sell, I think. And the only question I had was the, The path that you're talking about here, the linear path that's parallel to the the Ponce wall, that is not the LA, right? That is actually closer to the wall. The LA is further in.
[MCM00001628_SPEAKER_14]: Right, yeah. The LA is kind of up in here. And from what we can tell, it would have extended. Actually, if I go back a slide, it would have maybe terminated at the estate and continued to the north from what we can see. And that's kind of where the, bigger trees are right so you're correct this this walk if that's the way the design goes would more mirror the old entry drive to the estate. Right, right.
[Doug Carr]: which I think was on either side of the wall, right? That was like- Correct, correct. It was like in and out, and the wall was in between the two entrances, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right, yeah.
[Doug Carr]: Okay. Just one or two other comments, and then I want to hear what the other commission is saying. I really liked the idea, and I think you gave great examples of it, of memorializing the only house that's really ever been on this site that is the Brooks House. There's no, the drawing is nice. I'm sure the drawing will make it into the signage, but I do like the idea of immoralizing that in the ground somewhere, in some fashion. It doesn't have to be a plaza in this. It could be very naturalized, it could be very subtle, but I do like the idea of that. I think there's a lot of value in that because it's such, it's the reason the wall is there and tying that together and making sure, making it feel it's not just a wall but it's part of something bigger. It's the last surviving piece of that. I think that tells a great story architecturally and otherwise as well. And my last comment is, I know we've talked about this before, but this I hate this idea, the railroad crossing, under, over, whatever. I want to kill it as much as I can. I hope it will never happen, because it's going to cost more than all the other eight items combined, because it's so expensive and so unnecessary. And I just want it to die the quickest death possible. I'll leave it at that.
[Unidentified]: Sorry, Doug. I'm going to throw it out there and say it's so important to have a safe route for children. Do it for the children.
[Doug Carr]: Uh, they can walk the 2 minutes to the end of the street and the 2 minutes back and save a million dollars.
[MCM00001628_SPEAKER_14]: Okay, hold on. Not part of this plan though. Not part of this study, right?
[Unidentified]: There's no sidewalks as Jen will attest to. So until there's sidewalks, I'll advocate for the bridge.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, I will just say as somebody who lives over here, having that access from one side to the other is huge. Do I think it should be anything other than the very last step in this process? No, no, I mean, it should be after everything is done and said. But I agree with you, Doug, in terms of, outlining or doing something with regards to the house. I really love the first example and the one that Ryan had showed us with the foundation stones and just kind of like the outline. Yeah, I think this is so beautiful and I think it's such a simple way to to say there was something here and maybe we clear out a little bit and we make it a little bit more pressing. I do like the idea of the layers of history. I really like that a lot. However, I think it should tie back to the Brooks family because this is the second site with the Shepherd Brooks house up the street. I think it's important to say this was also Brooks, but there was telling the story, and this was certainly the first site before the Brooks Estate was created, but I think those layers of history as it pertains to Brooks, Thomas Brooks Park, the Brooks family, and yeah, even before the Brooks family was there with regards to the natives, right? So I don't have a problem of weaving those pieces in. I think it just has to relate to, it is still called Thomas Brooks Park. We're not proposing to change the name and we want to, make sure that people know that it's tied to the other site.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, I think there's a bit of history. It's important to know. I think people uh this is somehow its name got changed from Gorham Brooks Park who was the name of the donor to Thomas Brooks Park who is I believe Thomas Brooks of Concord who was the one that bought the land in 1660 not the Thomas Brooks that we're dealing with for the house site. So I think that's important. Doug, I think you should know it's important in the Berks Estate records to note that there was another house on the site probably less than 30 feet from this house. So as part of the archaeological dig this round we're going to go looking for that second house. It burned just before this house got put up and it was one of the reasons why Thomas Brooks's house was built in 1730. We actually found trace elements from the late 17th century, so it's quite possible it's very close. We're going to go looking for that too, but really its history was short. It was one of the first buildings built on the estate.
[Doug Carr]: Is there a map or a drawing that shows those two composite so we can see where those are?
[Unidentified]: No, it's not. It's not composite, but it is in that Brooks family history done by Shepard Brooks III. So we can certainly look at it. We can kind of cross-reference it. They say in their history that, you know, he was interviewing people that were maybe alive or knew, you know, his grandparents were alive at the time, that it was somewhere within the park. So there's definitely a second house site, which doesn't surprise me given that early 17th century cultural material came up. So, 1 other thing that it was that I think it's very important to acknowledge. Is the major site features that kind of define this 1st of all, the Boston railroad. I think it's important we acknowledge that because it's a major defined definition for the whole side of the park. And it often gets forgotten. And I think that it should be remembered it's one of America's first railways. It was built in conjunction with the Middlesex Canal, so it used granite brought by the canal to the site. And then that brings me to my second point that we should probably also acknowledge the canal because During the rebuild of the entire southern half of the wall, it came to light that it is most likely that that wall is constructed out of a nice granite arch bridge that once existed on the Edward Brooks Estate, which was across the street. But pieces of that granite are curved. So we suspect that they just simply dismantled the bridge, used what they need to close in this park, and then probably the rest is in foundations of buildings built around it. So I think that's also important to acknowledge. Less so because there's other monuments in that Virginia Canal, but I think it's important people know that it's very close by. I'm less, I'm less inclined to do the Victory Gardens because I'm actually, I know people brought it up, but I'm not, you know, historic images don't, I don't really have much to show them before 1971. And then they kind of come in in force in 78. So I'm not really sure if they were Victory Gardens per se. They were Victory Gardens in Bedford. Other parks have them, but I don't, I don't think this is necessarily one of those, but we can certainly, you know, talk about the site's history after its acquisition by the city in 1924. I mean, they cater to these trees and I think it's important to acknowledge maybe the landscape as it exists to talk about, you know, what is the LA and getting people to go see it. I think that's more important than talking about the garden history because the gardens left a bad taste in the neighbor's mouth. So we wanna try to drive people to good history.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I think that's a good idea, Ryan. I do agree with you. I think if there's other things we can talk about from the modern era, that would be fine. And I agree, like if we could talk about the trees and the alley and the historic walnuts, the black walnuts, I think that's very interesting, because I don't think a lot of people realize how old those trees are. And I love the idea of bringing the railroad onto that, you know, that layers of history as well.
[Unidentified]: Right. And we can, you know, we can certainly talk about, um, you know, all the, the landscaping that goes in there. I think it's also important when, when these plaques are done, that we talk about the fact that we renamed the, the wall, we changed it from the old slave wall to Pomp's wall to, you know, bring more humanity to the people that lived here. And we should talk about, you know, I know Peter, you mentioned the Afro-Americans, I keep bringing up that there was an entire enslaved family here. So split between Nijsberg and Arlington. So there's that connection.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: I actually also think that the point that Peter made about that it was part of the gift to the city that it be preserved is actually an important part of the history too. Because I think it's so easy I mean, we live in an age where it's so easy for any family that were slaveholders to be sort of just portrayed in a really negative way. And I mean, obviously, sort of to set in the context that yes, the Brooks family were slaveholders and they felt that this was an important piece of history for Medford to hold on to, this particular wall. And to me, that's a powerful message.
[Unidentified]: I think just building on that statement too, it's important to remember that people had a role long after slavery ended in Massachusetts. I think Doug brought up recently that the Brooks family was being scrutinized for their connection with the marine insurance and insuring ships that would go south and carry and cater to the cotton mills and the cotton plantations of the south. So that wouldn't surprise me if their connection existed well into the 19th century, right up to the Civil War. So I think that digging in that history and finding that new history would also be important. Not that that's Peter's role, but you know, that's something that we're exploring. We're looking for, you know, these sort of connections to make sure that they're, you know, uncovered.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: The other thing I was going to say is I love the idea of outlining the foundation of the house. It actually makes me think, I mean, you know, I grew up in Vermont where you're constantly running into cellar holes in the woods. And it makes me think of a place near where I grew up where what is left of the house is the door stone, like the, Threshold. Thank you. That's what I'm thinking. Threshold, the chimney, and in the spring, a whole bunch of daffodils along the front of the house. Oh, wow. It just makes me wonder if there isn't a way with some of the planting that we can because the daffodils, it's just such a sign that somebody was there. You know, it kind of gives me shivers actually.
[MCM00001628_SPEAKER_14]: I love that. That's such a cool idea and the way that, there's a quote, I'm going to mess it up. I shouldn't because I'm a landscape architect. I want to say it was Martin Luther or whatever, but what was the... Somebody said, if you knew you're going to die tomorrow, what would you do today? And he said, plant a tree. But yeah, these landscape vestiges that can live beyond us. And I enjoyed reading that there used to be lilacs behind that behind that wall. So wouldn't that be a cool thing too to give a burst of color? And you're absolutely right, Kit, that if you're talking about low impact sensitive solutions, some kind of ground cover, perennial bulbs, that type of thing would be pretty interesting.
[Jennifer Keenan]: And I would just like to say one more thing about lilacs. it provides another level of sensory with the smell, which I love. And there's nothing better in June, like May and June when everything's in bloom and you just smell it in the air. And I think there's something so special about that one week that everything is in bloom and it's so beautiful.
[Unidentified]: I think lilacs would be a good one. I'm 100% of a fan of cleaning out all the invasives. You know, when you look at that site, Peter, and show the picture, all I could see are little tiny tree trunks and none of those are native species. So perhaps tearing them out to provide a clean slate for that site, mark it, and then let the ground cover take over. But you can also plant some new things that are native there. Maybe we replant the black walnuts. Maybe we find some native species. And Do that in conjunction with, you know, maybe some sound mitigation measures, right? So, we're fitting that area out, maybe planting some lilacs along the fence line. Of the railroad would help get some of the sound. You know, provide that fragrance and color and, you know, they come in different colors. So just necessarily have to be that purple.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I have a pink 1 at my house and it's so beautiful.
[Unidentified]: And there's nothing better than walking in the middle of a New England woods and stumbling upon what most people would perceive as quote unquote a wild lilac. And the moment I see it, I'm like, oh, there was a house here. Sure thing. Absolutely.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Just have to make sure it gets enough sun.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, right. Peter, do you have some comments? You haven't spoken yet. Me? Yes, Peter. Okay. Yes, to Peter. There's 2. A little bit tonight.
[8Sqy8gyjolU_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah. I mean, I like the historical layers. I think. The ADA path there is great. I really do also like the outlining of the foundation or whatever, because. I mean, thinking about this from kids, you know, kids aren't going to be much interested in signage, you know, and something that's like the dog, you know, like in the other project, something that's experiential for kids and You know, it's just experiential. It's like, OK, there was something here. I don't really get it. I'm a kid, you know, but this is kind of cool. I could play here. You know, I think it's having that kind of experience could broaden it. You know, just I think signage is great. But, you know, to kind of feel the size and scale of the house in a subtle way and, you know, And also with the I think the the the landscaping, the flowers or whatever is a great idea to kind of enhance that. But I think I think since there was a house there, I think that it's just a super good idea because people would want to go there and check it out.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: You know, it would be fun to like with a labyrinth. So kids could go, you know, kids could actually walk through the door into the
[Unidentified]: Yeah, so I just I just want to build on what Peter said mentioned the statues. I think it would be if we did something like that. I think it would be important to kind of call on Edwards agricultural past. So for example, the field would have been tended by sheep. So having a sheep monument out there or goats are commonly used for clearing. They'll clear an acre a day. So, having them out there, and they would have been common. I think anything bigger than that, I mean, you could maybe find a way to creatively get other livestock in here. You know, more than just like your neighborhood horse, like things that are long gone, like oxen, which would have pulled the canal boats when they were on their towpath. Cows, everybody would have had a cow. So, you know, just something to find creative ways. I mean, it could also be a real thing, right? So if the city stops mowing the field, you could have live sheep there, you know, for a while to take care of it. They just have to put it in a bed. So it could be, you know, that's long-term, but just throwing it out there. Eleni.
[Kit Collins]: Yeah, Eleni had some comments too. I had two comments, one about, The, uh, you know, the signage that you did at UMass Amherst, I think looked great, but this is not like a high traffic area. Um, and so I don't know if it would, that type of signage would necessarily be appropriate, but going back to the conversation that everyone was having about like doing an outline of the foundation and the ground, which I think is a great idea. There are other things that you could do that, like I've seen, um, I think it's in England. There's, uh, you know, I think it's like an archaeological site of the remains of an old home that's like in a very rural area. And the interpretive signage that was put up was like a clear pane of glass or some kind of like clear plastic that had a sketch of the house or the structure that used to be there that was kind of like in a done in a way, like scaled in a way that when you were standing in this particular spot and looking through this clear piece of glass, you could see the outline of the house, it looked like you were looking at the actual house.
[Unidentified]: I know exactly what you're talking about, but now I gotta find it.
[Kit Collins]: Yeah, it's like, I had a student do it and like use it as a precedent for a project once and I posed. It was very interesting. And also I think like Benjamin Franklin's house, I think it's Independence National Historic Site in Philadelphia. Not only did they uncover the foundations of the house and you can like go look at it, this is like in central Philly, but they also, the National Park Service did kind of like a frame, like a very simple, it looked like PVC pipes, like frame outline of where the house stood. And so it's just like a roof, walls, there's a little outline of the chimney. And, you know, it's kind of neat, like you can walk through it and you can see the foundations and look up. And, you know, so I think that could be like an interesting landscape feature that also is like an interpretive tool as well. But yeah, I mean, I think this is fabulous. All your ideas are just wonderful. And I do love the various historical narratives that exist on this site, from the history of enslaved people to the history of the family, even up until present day and how the family mandated that it be a city park. I think that is, as Kate was saying, an interesting part of the story. Just when we're talking about indigenous peoples, though, One thing that we might want to consider is reaching out to the local Massachusetts or Wampanoag Tribal Historic Preservation Office to consult with them as well. One thing that we tend to do as preservationists or historians sometimes is talk about indigenous peoples like they don't exist anymore, but you know they still have thriving communities in this region and so I think we just need to be a little sensitive about how we speak about them and make sure to use like the present tense and things like that. Ryan?
[Unidentified]: Oh, yeah, I just, I, our former Commissioner Sue Anna Crowley has a bunch of connections that we've just been waiting to get this project started because I think it's important. We actually invite them to the table and rather than us write their history. have them help us, you know, write their own history. I mean, we can provide facts and talk about, oh, there were 27 lodges nearby, but they have so much more that's verbal. And, you know, I'm sure that they have in there. And, you know, we want to make sure that we protect this. This, you know, this site stuff came out of this site, which meant, you know, we knew kind of the burial site nearby. That means that anything in the immediate vicinity here, you know, including Oak Grove Cemetery and all that, all of that is important, you know, landscapes to them. So they should be invited to this, to this part of this conversation.
[Kit Collins]: Okay, good. Well, good. I'm glad we're all thinking about that. So that's great. And those are my comments.
[SPEAKER_07]: Doug, go ahead.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: My only question is what is going to be done to both identify, protect, and presumably continue to use the sensitive archaeological area?
[Unidentified]: Or is that a different question? No, I think, you know, I think part of this, you know, like if we do something on the house site, for example, I think what we would do is rather than dig down, you know, we may be clear cut what we need to clear cut, and then you'd cap it, right? So there'd be a different philosophy there. Some of this will involve signage that basically identifies the site. You know, I told Peter, you know, feel free to incorporate more of the northern part of the park, you know, so that, you know, you start to engage people in the the LA and of course on all the signage which will come this round, hopefully with the amount that we're at CPC for, you know, we'll put on the signage that it's acknowledged that it's an archaeological sensitive site and there's absolutely, I would just say, there'll be absolutely no digging, no metal detecting, no excavation of any kind, so that it's clearly marked. You know, and then it will be up to the, you know, the neighbors to kind of self-police. I mean, we, Jen and I were policing the site from, we were looking for the metal detectorist who was in here multiple times after the wall project and after the archeological dig, you know, to just educate him, you know, because a lot of people are doing it, you know, they're not looters, but there are people that are looters, so. And the cultural material that came out of the site makes the site very important. So we would want to make sure we, you know, it's very clear so that if somebody were caught digging in here, that they face the full extent of the law, basically.
[MCM00001628_SPEAKER_14]: And that's an interesting comment, because if If it was the Hippocratic Oath, do no harm. If it was sensitive at the level, you didn't want anybody to know where the house was, well, you're not going to trace the foundation, right? And you're going to pull up all those flags and just leave it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But our hope is to be able to make it
[MCM00001628_SPEAKER_14]: It seems most of the comments were, okay, let's maybe indicate where the house was and then rely on the community and oversight to make sure that nobody else gets in there.
[Unidentified]: Right. Depending on where you are, the house site, the cultural materialists, Yeah, it's inaccessible, it's down, but there are also areas in this park that we don't wanna draw our attention to because there's stuff that's quite near the surface. So, the particular applications to this project are gonna be particular to this little area and just making sure that we are mindful of all of that. That's a balancing act. It is, it is. I mean, you know, it was so strange to, you know, be digging and be able to go down, you know, a whole meter and, you know, hit some artifacts, but we weren't even close to the historic grade of like the house foundation basement. But then other spots, you put the shovel in the soil and you're looking at thousand year old glacial soil that was left by the last ice age. So pretty, pretty amazing. So what is our next step?
[MCM00001628_SPEAKER_14]: So my next step would be to, I think we had some good feedback. I appreciate it, would be to kind of synthesize what I heard today. Go back to the, The design and the plan and incorporate some of these ideas and work with Ryan and then. I think Brian probably come back to the commission with the next evolution of what a concept design might look like.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, I think I think we should have a loose concept. A very quick meeting and then the next step is to maybe talk with the. City departments get their feedback. And we can do that, you know, Peter, once we get the comments on the commission, you know, we can take it to the city departments and we can certainly take it to the neighbors, you know, to kind of maximize, you know, the feedback and comments that are coming into this. You know, I don't I don't think we need to drag it out to a long meeting.
[Jennifer Keenan]: And Ryan, just to be clear, we have the money for the planning of this chunk, this chunk, and then we will go for the CPC money to actually do it. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Peter's doing like a mini sub plan for this part. Correct.
[Unidentified]: Yeah. We're, we're adding the definition to this section and you know, it can extend outside of this section, but like, we're adding the definition layer now to what are we actually doing with the park? You know, are we adding any paths to this area, that sort of thing. And this is, this is the focal feature. So now we can really dig in kind of like what was done with the, you know, I sent Peter the previous master plan documents that we that were done by the historical society, like. I don't know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, Doug, you might have remembered it, but they were doing their project and just, you know, something was done, you know, so that. that level of of detail talking about like what is the features what are the you know the draws and what are we doing and then most importantly coming up with some conceptual design so that somebody can price it out you know so we know what to go forward with brian what level of drawings will headline design have given the available funds at the end of the cpc round that we're voting on i believe tomorrow night uh that's a good question for peter i think I would like to think a little bit more detailed than he had previously prepared, but not to the extent of like nice, beautiful, you know, highly detailed renderings. Peter, would you tell me?
[MCM00001628_SPEAKER_14]: Yeah, right. So a concept level, Doug. So a good understanding of what's happening where and a nice illustrative plan to accompany that and some images associated with that. But yeah, that that wouldn't be a a construction level document you could give to somebody and say, okay, go build this. But what it would do is identify the concepts and be able to get a concept level cost associated with that.
[Doug Carr]: That makes sense, Peter. I think that's fine. I just think when we get to the construction point for the next round, Ryan and Jim, we've got to build in money to take it from the concept to the CD level, which depending on the complexity of the design will be some dollars. It won't be 5,000 or it'll be significant money. That's okay. One bridge at a time here. I think that's fine.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, there were things that I've been poking around like we'll need topographical information for ADA. You know, that sort of thing. I think I would want to be involved with that, you know, in terms of the archeological sensitivity. So you're right. We're talking some serious money, depending on what we're doing.
[Doug Carr]: So, yeah, I just want to make one final comment. I know we got to move on Jim, because the agenda has got other things on here, but the, to reinforce what Ryan said earlier about making the, both the canal and the railroad be a big part of the, of the story of this site, because it really, It really is. When they built the canal, it was through, right, it divided right through the middle of the Brooks Estate at the time. And that iconic stone bridge, which survived many years after the canal was gone, is one of those iconic images of the 19th century that, you know, was now, it's now Sagamore Avenue, but there's, that's where the bed of the canal was. And I think the railroad became the birth of West Medford. We want to tell that story in all its glory, you know, from the 19th century to the present day, because there was a time In the 1970s, when there was one or two trains a day, now there's like 30 a day. It's like it's come back. You know, the railroad came back from near death. Many people thought that railroad was going to die, like the canal died, and it didn't happen, and it's still here. We want to tell that transportation story and that it's a larger global history of West Medford, I think, in some ways.
[Unidentified]: Great, thanks, appreciate it.
[MCM00001628_SPEAKER_14]: Lots of good comments and engaged commission. It's happy to be back and working on this again.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you so much, Peter. And we look forward to the next iteration.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, Jen. Okay, bye. See everybody next time. Good night.
[Jennifer Keenan]: All right. And just to, we have money in for consideration for this round for CPC, right, Ryan? I'm like a spacing on that. Yeah, we're waiting to hear if we're gonna get it.
[Unidentified]: Come on $1,000, which we'll probably get most of that I've heard from Teresa unofficially.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Right.
[Doug Carr]: Yes, the money appears to be there after some creative jiggering of the Council of the City of Medford.
[Unidentified]: I promise to spend it if you give me every dollar. Ain't that the truth.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Great, that's exciting. Exciting to have that to continue to work on, so. All right, so just a couple, oh, all right. Yeah, a couple more things under new business. Annual report, I know Ryan sent that around. Thank you to Kit and Ed for your editing and comments. I think we're in good shape. Ryan, do you wanna? Did we?
[Unidentified]: Is everybody happy with it?
[Jennifer Keenan]: I'm good, yeah.
[Unidentified]: Okay, I move to approve the annual report.
[Doug Carr]: Okay. If we could hold off for one second, I think it's a great report, and this is not for tonight, but I think some of the things we've talked about in the past about streamlining our processes and trying to accelerate so that we can cut down the number of days and get an automatic Form B. It's kind of hinted at in this report. I think for the next meeting, we should kind of revisit that if we have time, and try to come to a conclusion, because we've kind of, I don't know, not experimented, but we've done a couple of things where we really try to push things to see, A, if they could work, but we actually haven't formalized some of these changes to try to streamline our process, which is one of the critiques of this commission, trying to make sure that we're being as responsive as possible. And I think we have, I think the report is excellent. It gives a great timeline. I love the metrics there about how few properties we actually hold up compared to the, hundreds if not thousands of them that are coming every year from the city of Medford. I think it's a powerful document and I just want to look at visiting the processes at the next meeting.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I'll make sure to put it on the agenda.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, I was actually going to do you one better and motion to create a subcommittee to look at the demo delay process. Second for sure. A three-person committee should be fine.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Wait, don't we already have that?
[Unidentified]: We have a set that sets for demo delay. This is specific to the process. It could be you, me, and Doug if you want. We've already dug into that because we revised the application. Sure. We're going to move this forward. So we're going to meet, just to be clear to the commission, we're going to meet, come up with those changes and present them to you at next meeting.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Unless somebody else wants to dig in, I'll step out.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, Jen's busy if anybody else wants to help. Don't twist anybody else's arm.
[Jennifer Keenan]: No, I mean, we can take a first stab at it and then, you know, I think we've kind of, we have some working ideas, I think.
[Unidentified]: Right.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, so there's a motion on the table that's been seconded to create a three-person subcommittee to look at demo delay. Doug? Are you going to vote?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Ryan? Yes. Elainey? Yes. Ed?
[Unidentified]: Yeah, yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Hit? Yes. And Peter?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay. And then we also have a motion. Well, Ryan made a motion to approve the annual meeting. Is there a second?
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: Annual report.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Oh, excuse me. Yes, annual report. Thank you. It's been a long day.
[Unidentified]: Do you need a second?
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yes.
[Unidentified]: Yes. Happy to second.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay. Okay, motion to approve the annual report. Doug.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Ryan. Yes. Eleni. Yes. Ed.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Kit. Yes. And Peter.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, great. So we'll finish that up and we'll get it to the mayor and then we'll send it to the, do we post that with the clerk too?
[Unidentified]: but I posted on the website.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, yeah, we'll get it up so. OK, so just carry over from last month. We have our slate of officers and committee assignments. So Eleni, now that you're here, we just wanted to kind of go over that again. Let's look at. Slate of officers.
[Unidentified]: Let me share my screen. Ah, I can't share my screen. Why can't I? You want to email it to one of us and we'll share it. Oh, hold on. Sorry, it's like. New computer gremlins.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, yeah, I can't share my screen. Okay, hold on. Ryan, do you have the slate of officers? I think you sent them to me. So slate of officers and then I had slate of officers, members list and meeting date that we didn't finalize last month.
[Unidentified]: We'll do the simple one first.
[Jennifer Keenan]: OK. I'm pretty sure we did the meeting dates, but did we need?
[Unidentified]: Yeah, simple one. Can everybody see this?
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, and did you confirm all the terms are correct?
[Unidentified]: Yes, I believe I did. OK, everybody check your. Just make sure you're caught. This is an internal document, but. You know we use it just to make sure everybody's. Okay, don't worry. So do I have everybody's contact information? Correct? Nobody's changed anything. Nobody's moved. No, nobody had better move. Nobody's allowed to move. You're good for that. I think.
[Doug Carr]: Peter is the secretary now. I think I was, but he took that over. Oh, yeah, years ago. Oh, yeah.
[Unidentified]: And thank you, Peter, for all of your work on that. You're welcome.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Your exquisite meeting minutes.
[Unidentified]: That's done.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, great.
[Unidentified]: A slate of officers. Jen's being proposed for chair, vice chair. here's secretary as the corresponding secretary so to work and if we have official correspondents will be there. As our resident editor-in-chief. Yes, I am now officially the certified local government coordinator. I have stripped from Chris Vader. So, uh, what happened is never happens again. So, Jeff, I are on budget committee for local project. uh, committee that's section 106 review, site plan review, that sort of thing. I would leave it up to Doug and Peter, uh, to review that stuff. Uh, Doug and I often review federal projects, state projects when they come in, like, uh, Walkway Court, for example, and I have one tonight for the, uh, highway department. Doug is our community preservation committee liaison. He's the official person on the board. We have an official seat on the board. Then we have a couple of committees. There's a permit review. That's Doug, Peter, and I. Doug, Peter, and I. Yeah, take, I should not be on there. No, because demo delay committee, once it reaches us, then. Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, we do, me, Ed, Peter, so. For website, I had Ed on here. I'm not sure why.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: I think I talked about it when I talked about when Abby left and something and never got the keys, so to speak.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, same with me. I've done absolutely nothing on the website committee.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, if people want to, you know, let me just put it out there. So I'm happy. Yeah, it's WordPress. It's very simple to do. But if you have interesting tidbits of history, I can give you the keys to the website and social media. and basically you can go forth and share that sort of information as long as it relates to general city stuff.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, Kit and Elainey, like if there's anything, like if you like on some of these local projects, federal and state stuff, like anything, if you want to jump in on, like, you know, we can absolutely add you.
[Unidentified]: So yeah, it's not, it's not constant. Like I have one of the federal review projects tonight, so I'll show you what it is. I have kicked out for archives, but we haven't really done anything with archives. Everything's at the, currently at the library, but there's, you know, it's in sort of order, but we haven't really done anything with it. Jen's our representative on NBELT. Doug also serves on NBELT's board, but Jen is our official liaison to that, because we also have a seat there. We need a representative to the Historical Society. I think it was it.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: I'm happy to do that. They just come over and have wine, it's fine.
[8Sqy8gyjolU_SPEAKER_08]: They don't have to walk very far.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: They don't. We just roll them down the hill at the end of the night.
[Unidentified]: And I'm the survey and planning grant coordinator, but I could always use some help. Jess was helping on that. That's the preparation of the MHC inventory forms. We get about $30,000. We have a $30,000 project every year that we administer.
[Kit Collins]: I would like to help out with the survey and planning grant local project coordination. Great.
[Unidentified]: Anybody else wanna make changes? Anybody wanna share?
[Jennifer Keenan]: You wanna take me off M-Belt?
[Unidentified]: No.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I know, I'm never not gonna be on M-Belt.
[Doug Carr]: Actually, this raises an interesting question, Jim, because both you and I obviously, I mean, the CPC meets almost every month. M-Belt meets roughly every month. We don't really provide regular updates unless it's some big news, but it's really up to this, commission, what level of information you want to get from those two groups, you know, because I mean, tomorrow's big night, because of the CPC, you'll find out, you know, how much you're getting funded for the project for the one we're talking about tonight with headline, Peter England. Do you want things?
[Jennifer Keenan]: God, sorry, I'm sorry, I should I just put a line item on the agenda for, like, M bell, CPC, historical society updates from respective Maybe maybe once a quarter or you know, I think I think like as as necessary if there's an update will update but I forget so if it's on the agenda, then it reminds me to put it on there.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, I think I think. Yeah, I mean, we can have it down the bottom. I think as projects ramp up, like, for example, if they were going to be a huge change to say, you guys are going to move forward with the Brooks Estate driveway, we would want to be updated to know where you are in construction with that big project. Right. So, you know, and I think that there may need to be, you know, you got you guys or I think I want to put this on you guys. I would like you guys to keep in touch with the cemetery trustees as they move forward with their seven acre development project. because that's coming. That's going to face a big impact. Knowing the archaeological sensitivity of Thomas Brooks Park, I fully expect that portion of the estate to be archaeologically sensitive in terms of native artifacts. It's not really been disrupted.
[Doug Carr]: I actually think that was the site of Brooks Village, site B. I don't think there's much there because that was Most of that seven acres, if it's not rock outcropping, was the housing for the veterans after World War II, I do believe. So I think that site might have been pretty much compromised, if I had to guess.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, yeah. OK. Yeah, I forgot about the Brooks Village.
[Jennifer Keenan]: And I think just as it pertains to updates regarding M belt and you know obviously we're in a massive period of change right now with Tom retiring and we're looking for a new president and so I think once we. You know, and we're going to be restructuring what it all looks like, and so I think. once we have a new president on board and we kind of get some of this fundamental stuff restructured, then it will make more sense to do updates. But I think in the meantime, it's all going to be, there's going to be a ton of internal changes at EMBELT for the good. Okay, so we have all of our, kind of our internal stuff done for the year. So that's good in terms of meeting dates. And so Ryan, can we get, do we post those, the committee members and our- Do we need to vote on those by the way?
[Unidentified]: Do we need to vote to- Yeah, we should formalize the slate of officers. That's all our committees. So I make a motion to formalize and approve the slate of officers for 2024. Second.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you Peter. Okay, motion to approve the slate of officers as presented. Doug.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Ryan.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Eleni. Yes. Ed.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Kit. Yes. And Peter. Yes. Okay, thank you guys.
[Unidentified]: Real quick.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah.
[Unidentified]: 2024 meeting dates. Uh, just to be clear, we have a tentative meeting October 7th. We move the October meeting the week after that. Not only for the holiday, but to be in line with the 30 day rule. So it's October 28th. We'll be meeting that's the only change to the normal schedule of the 2nd, Monday of every month. Great if that works for everybody on motion to approve these dates.
[Jennifer Keenan]: second okay thank you peter okay motion to approve the 2024 meeting schedule doug yes ryan yes elaine yes ed yep kit yes and peter yes great i'll send that off to dennis so that gets on the city calendar and we'll get those posted on our website and everybody can put it in their calendars
[Unidentified]: Great.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Ryan, I know you had a new piece of business that was not on the agenda.
[Unidentified]: section 106 review. Okay, so this is what a section 106 review looks like. We get letters from various consulting firms or the Massachusetts Historical Commission alerting us that there's a project. In this particular case, under section 106 review, they're alerting us that MassDOT is going to be doing bridge repairs. They're calling it bridge restoration. Basically, they're repairing the elements from the 1956 bridges. Um, that were not removed during the last major bridge replacement project. Um, that require various repairs. They're just asking if we have any concerns. Um, it's all the bridges in Medford. The whole way and, you know, they have construction documentation, but they didn't include it because they didn't think that we would want to, because the bridges aren't really historic in the traditional sense. So, um. Normally, what we would do is review this information and make a recommendation. I am recommending that the commission just say no comment to this project. And if there's any questions, let me know.
[Jennifer Keenan]: There are 10 bridges on 93.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: Going over vehicular streets or overpasses.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I mean, yeah, I never really thought about it.
[Unidentified]: In the past 14 well, well, they're not including because they're not including Roosevelt circle, which is the one that really needs to be right.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I was going to say, which is about to fall down any second.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, Roosevelt circle is actually having talked to somebody at NASDAQ. It's being considered for major changes. OK, so for just a history sake, Roosevelt circle and. this rotary right here were only constructed because these two locations were the terminus for I-93 for more than a decade. So they're now, I mean, they receive a lot of traffic, but they feel that they could reconstruct the traffic through this area to get it to flow better. And I don't disagree with that. I believe that there is.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: They could. It couldn't flow any worse.
[Unidentified]: And if you've seen Teresa's bumper sticker out there that says something to the tune of like, Fellsway traffic yields to I-93 traffic. Because there's a whole, if you've been there in the morning, you know there's a whole debate over who actually gets the right of way there. So, so something is definitely going to get done there. And, you know, maybe this, you know, we'll see what happens with the route 60 road or any traffic packs up in the Metro Square in the morning. So they're trying to think about what to do there as well. It just takes up a lot of real estate too.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: So, but yeah, so more than- It takes a lot of real estate, but what are you going to replace it with?
[Unidentified]: Yeah, that's a good question. Better traffic mitigation measures, you know,
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: How about something so a pedestrian can actually get from one side to the other?
[Unidentified]: Yeah, it's dangerous on the opposite side. I'm lucky that I'm approaching it from the south side. There's actually a crosswalk there, but the north is really kind of uninviting.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: Well, the south side crosswalk I wouldn't call presumptively safe. I use it.
[Unidentified]: I was going to say, ideally, The Clippership Connector will direct people down to the river instead of walking along dangerous roads. But who knows?
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: Not really. I still get it. But if I want to walk from Medford Square to Target, I got to pass through there, don't I?
[Unidentified]: Yeah. Yeah. All right, so no comment. OK, I'm good. Presence. No, no, no. Good luck to the construction team. Good luck on that walk, yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Right. Okay, does anybody else have any new business for tonight? Moving on to old business. I don't have any update on properties under demo delay. I. Let said no, with regards to 56 where ham. You know, when they're ready to come back and chat with us. About potentially lifting their delay, just let me know and we'll get them on the agenda. I know. There was good some some some sort of eviction hearing for for the owner at court Street, which is think is happening next week so perhaps after that if they have an update.
[Unidentified]: court Street or where.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Oh i'm sorry where him same neighborhood. um. Nothing new on permitting and processes. There's still no new building commissioner. So that is all tabled until I would imagine there's a new person in the building department. We are getting things assigned to us in a trickle. So what comes in, we'll review and I'll send it around to Doug and Peter and Ryan when there's something questionable. CLG annual report, Ryan?
[Unidentified]: I did both of them.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Oh, so I can take, yeah, so CLG I can take off.
[Unidentified]: Yep.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Any update on the cemetery?
[Unidentified]: Yeah, so the powers that be at City Hall have just asked for, just said the feedback is we need to get the answers, so bottom line, tell us what we need to do. to get those answers on whether or not the cemetery's intact. So PAL came back with a recommendation, which is simply strip the soil down to the historic grade, expose the burial vaults. If they're intact, that means that it's potential that they'll have burial remains, disassociated remains, et cetera. Doesn't include the cost for checking them, but they're working with getting the city a cost to actually do that exposure work. I received a letter from Broda Simon basically stating the same thing, that their best course of action that they recommend is to just expose the site to test, go look for burial shafts and when that's exposed and they come up with a number of how many are on that site to check them. I'm sure that's going to be a costly project.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: This is just the city-owned piece, not the part that's under 93?
[Unidentified]: We yeah so there's no way to get the fire under 93. One of the things that Pete we had talked with PAL about is rather than disturb the asphalt side of it to maybe start on the grassy side and to start on the mass dot side and ask them for permission to dig down on their side where it's a little less involved because we're going to have to basically pick up the entire parking lot on that side once we know so when are they going to do their tests like their well they're they're giving us a proposal to do that and then i have to present that to the city with uh with the discussion of where you know now you guys need to put this in your budget for you know either now or spend you know do it now and get it done or put it in your budget for next year But either way, it seems the prudent option is to do this before the city move forward with trying to sell the parcel, develop the parcel, etc. I think for an assignment for the State Historical Commission, it was pretty clear that they should not move forward with a project without this due diligence. I think it would be quite disastrous. I don't think they are. I think that they are planning on looking for this, they're just looking for the cost of how much it's going to take to work. Eleni, were you here for that conversation last time? I don't think, I don't remember.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: You'd remember this one.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: It's a historic burial ground which was obliterated without sufficient thought about 60 years ago.
[Kit Collins]: When they built 93. Ryan, I think you told me about it when we met when you were first meeting about me being involved in the commission.
[8Sqy8gyjolU_SPEAKER_08]: Some were moved over to Oak Grove.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, so 93 is on top of this site right here. And this is sitting on their laying out city hall in this image and. This is Cross Street. It's Medford's second burial ground. So Salem Street Cemetery was established in the late 1700s. They got full by the mid-century and they were planning on putting an almshouse here for the poor, but they decided that that's to establish a second cemetery. So they had this nice burial grounds. First burial, I think, is like 1830, used all the way up until like 1920. And then there hadn't been a burial in this site for nearly 30 years. And supposedly, according to Wade Harvey, on the cemetery stones, there's 550 burials, but there was something like 1,200 burials that actually took place on this site. So there's a huge discrepancy between the number of people that they relocated versus the number of people that were supposed to be buried on this parcel. So there you can see.
[Kit Collins]: Okay now I remember.
[Unidentified]: This is the corner of City Hall and this is the historic extent of the cemetery and this is what we own now. It is proposed with this larger parcel here and I believe the city also owns this parcel here next to Hyatt that he proposed for redevelopment and I think they were proposing a sizable building here so we want to make sure that this and maybe some of the surrounding land around it doesn't include any burials left behind and there is potential that if we find anything here that we could maybe sweep through to the corner of this on-ramp and just try to get as much as possible but we couldn't find any information about this site and the construction project. There's lots of construction information north of this site, lots of construction information south of the site, nothing in and around this which is weird because just to summarize Medford was not keen to remove the cemetery. In fact, the state asked them to, and the solicitor at the time said they were under no obligation to do so. So Medford said to the state, we're not moving it. The state said, well, we'll call your block, either move it or else, or we'll do it for you. And they said, no, you do it. So they did it. And they did it in the two years before the highway came through that they had all this highway construction. But because this is a 10 foot, high raised embankment and all of this land is filled, there's a good chance that this is actually probably completely intact. And in fact, PAL and myself and most of the people that are doing research on this project firmly believe that we're going to find that this is an intact burial ground and that we're going to have to do some more work here. So the goal is to, A, at least get down in the ground to see what's there. And then once we figure that out, then to relocate the people with honor to a new site away from this highway. Because it's unacceptable that anybody be left behind here, even if we don't know who they are. And it's possible we'll find things that even if the burial remains are gone, you'll find remains of artifacts that were associated with the burial, et cetera. So it's inevitable that you're going to find something. With the type of excavation that goes on with the new construction projects, all of the soil, given its industrial use, would probably actually just have been scooped out and removed without a care. And then it's carted off site and sifted and moved through. So the fact that it actually contains remains might not have ever been discovered until it's actually sifted. So we're just, we're going at it as we need to do some serious due diligence here and make sure the site's clear. And if it's not clear, we need to clear it before we actually move forward with developing. Cause even, you know, unlike other sites, like up in Fort Smith where they kind of created a park, this location is no longer acceptable for a resting place for the day. And, you know, I'm, I'm of the opinion that we're going to find something, but it makes me even more sad that if we do find something, there's going to be more under the highway that we'll never be able to get. So, so we'll just, we'll do our best though. That's my, that's my goal. I think that was it. Yeah. This is what it looks like now. So there's a potential that people under people are resting underneath the site. That's great.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you, Ryan, for your important work there.
[Unidentified]: Thanks. That all came out of the, we're going to try to restore the headstones. So what started as looking for information with the headstones, which is still moving forward slowly, but it's moving, turned into, hey, maybe we should check the existing cemetery site first, too, to see if there's anything there. So you can see how projects just snowball.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure the city is delighted.
[Unidentified]: It could be having talked with PA. I mean, it could be 100 to $200,000 proposition. You know, we're talking serious money just to get in the ground and do the archaeological work and then to test every burial shaft. And then if you find burial remains, the process to remove them, you're talking under, you know, not just the archaeologists, but you're talking undertakers and then the reinterment. Right. So lots, lots of them. And where to put them. Yeah, I would like to think that they should go with their neighbors in the Oak Grove somewhere. But, you know, the current internment site, I believe, is completely full. So.
[8Sqy8gyjolU_SPEAKER_08]: I think there's some vacant land adjacent to it, though, on either side, maybe.
[Unidentified]: Yeah. Yeah. The right hand side is actually the stillborn. burial location. The left side, I believe, is wide open right now, for now. Yeah. So it's a whole involved thing, which I'm 100% committed to seeing through. So that's basically that. The only update I have on the actual cemetery headstone project is that we're hoping that the ground doesn't freeze hard because we're looking to, in the next couple of weeks, excavate at the base of one of the stones to see the method in which they were secured to the ground. We unfortunately think that they did it military style, where they just set the stones and then poured concrete around them. And that will make restoration of the stones infinitely difficult than if they were placed in slotted, traditional slotted bases like you would normally see. So we want to discover that because that will impact the cost of the work that's necessary to restore each and every stone. Some of them have fallen over, that sort of thing. And if you can't get the base out of the ground, that's a problem. So we'll see what that is. I'm meeting with the trustees to secure their approval tomorrow. And then there's a cost associated with it. So we may talk about cost as well. Okay, great.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Any update on survey projects?
[Unidentified]: Yeah, the meeting with the consultants on Thursday to get a bunch of survey forms. Brickyards is done, so that just leaves Fulton Heights. They are delivering a bunch of previously done work on like the Hall Estates. That's the area behind Governors Avenue, between Governors Avenue and Forest Street that we had them do for the historic district that was proposed there. And I'll be talking with them about what to do next for their survey. So they're finishing up Fulton Heights, which is kind of the last major neighborhood. One of the things I'd like to see the commissioners do, and maybe we just have a committee of the whole where we post the meeting, but we just focus on survey, is to take the recommendations of survey that were compiled over the last 10 years, review them, and then prioritize what we want to go after for the next 10 years. You're basically making our little survey plan that will cover the next 10 years for the city. There are areas that we haven't done, like the Brooks Estate in West Bedford, over by Thomas Brook Park, we did do major swaths of the Lawrence Estate. Those are uniform 20th century developments that we may consider we may want to do. That's coming up.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Do a couple of commissioners want to think about and maybe start a plan for?
[Unidentified]: Yeah, I can. Yeah, if I take two of you guys, so Lenny will be one of them because she's helping me with the survey planning projects that you can see one of them. I need somebody else that will help me and I can give you guys all the basically the recommendations. It's very clean and neat. You can see what we did for each survey project and. You know the Commissioner, basically the. Consultants will provide recommendations at the end of the project and areas that we didn't do at. Um, and it's up to us to basically prioritize what we want to do.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Are we going to we're going to need this for budget time anyway? Right? Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Yeah. Yeah, because I think. The bottom line is maybe we should have the consultants so we can pay them some money. Once we have the priorities, we have them put it into a revised survey plan that talks about the whole city, all that they've learned, the methodologies that they use, and then say the commission has taken the initiative to prioritize these neighborhoods in order so that all we have to do, no matter who's running the show here, is just that person just has to keep going down the list and following it. It will help vast historical see that where they made a note on one of their recent presentations. They were like, oh, Medford's coming to the end of the first major sweep. And I'm like, yes, and now we're going to go back and keep doing it like we're supposed to. We're not going to stop just because we've reached the end of doing all of these ones. So we want to show MHC that we've taken the initiative and are doing these things and keep it going. How far along?
[8Sqy8gyjolU_SPEAKER_08]: How far along do you think they are in Fulton Estates or Fulton Heights?
[Unidentified]: So they're just turning their attention because they got, we had some pass through the money. So basically free money that the state said we have to spend. So they kind of did a side project for us. So they're in the process of creating inventory forms now for that neighborhood, but it will be, it will be a little while before we get any sort of product.
[8Sqy8gyjolU_SPEAKER_08]: Okay. So it's just kind of almost starting out pretty much.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, they did. You know, they looked at the resources, they looked at the neighborhood, they've walked the neighborhoods, they've gotten lost in the neighborhoods, which is not surprising for that neighborhood in the woods. Like a Robert Warren. Yeah this development we joked up there because I laid out all the developments that went on the plan went oh look nobody coordinated any streets anywhere so they just when they hit the edge if another street didn't align they built like this little jar you know they didn't try to sweep through they just said nope we're sticking to our guns you know the city must have said well you guys come together somehow and they did that thousands of times in that place so. So yeah, it's under work. Okay, great. So if anybody wants to join me in doing the survey plan, I'll try to get that done. Maybe we'll have some recommendations for next month as well. Or more realistically, after we do the demo delay stuff, we'll do it the following month, one or the other. Ryan, what exactly do you need help with? So what we're going to do is we should put everything in the drive. You guys would read through the information that had been prepared for the last 10 years for the survey plans. And I guess it would start with the existing survey plans to see what was there, look at the recommendations, and then we should go neighborhood by neighborhood and just create a list of what are the high priority areas that are left to do. Yeah so you'll you'll see the recommendations are like pre-1900 buildings are important so maybe those neighborhoods are done but also are important they're like if we ever wanted to do like a historic district at say the Lawrence Estates which is uniform largely the same buildings they're in pretty good condition you know you might want to do that instead you know so those are the type of things that we need to decide and, you know, this has no, these are just good information for planning purposes, but it also determines like, what do we do for historic districts in the future? You know, because these are the buildings that are not necessarily the best preserved.
[8Sqy8gyjolU_SPEAKER_08]: Are there any, are there any of the districts like, you know, we often talk about South Street or West Medford or that Hastings area or whatever, are there, areas of those that seem like they could be future local historic districts that are sparsely documented that should be, I guess that would be, that could be a priority, right?
[Unidentified]: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And yeah, we looked at doing the eastern half of West Medford I feel funny saying it, but yes, the eastern half of West Medford where on this side of the railroad tracks between basically between the modern Simon's historic district. That's Winthrop Street. I'm sorry. We'll run street over to as far as the railroad tracks that area really wasn't done because the. The focused on the Smith estate, which is the other side where it's the African American context. So that's a huge area of 3900 buildings. 1 of which we looked at tonight. that doesn't have any coverage whatsoever. So there'll be large holes like that that we can look at. You can look at macro snaps and see what sort of inventory forms have been done. It's not completely up to date with the latest stuff, but you'll see there's huge swaths of Medford that are just completely missing any sort of coverage. So yeah, we can definitely do that. One of the other goals is to maybe work with the HDC and to come up with a plan for historic district. But I think having a survey plan and doing that, that's our literal responsibility written right into the bylaw. We should do that first before we try to tackle the other things. But I think we can do the first thing within three months and then spend the next three months working on the second thing. Okay, we should also just so maybe just one more thing.
[Jennifer Keenan]: If, if someone's not a clock, let's go.
[Unidentified]: Some of these things require City Council change. Let's just get it all together and a little nice little neat package and present it to them to do all at once. Okay. Okay. Okay.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, thank you all. Last thing are just the meeting minutes that Peter sent around. So if somebody wants a motion to approve the meeting minutes.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: Move to approve.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you, Ed. Thank you. Okay, motion to approve meeting minutes from December meeting 2023. Doug?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Ryan?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Delaney? Yes. Ed?
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: I wasn't there, yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: You can abstain.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: Present.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, Kit. Yes. And Peter.
[8Sqy8gyjolU_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay.
[8Sqy8gyjolU_SPEAKER_08]: So is it four, zero, two abstentions?
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, it was five, one, two, three, four, five, five, one.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Because Jess was here.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah just was here a lady was here though, but she just didn't. She was like officially the member. Okay, sorry. Call it 4, 0, 2, 4, 0, 2, we have a forum. Okay.
[8Sqy8gyjolU_SPEAKER_08]: 903 motion to adjourn. Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah. Second. Okay. Motion to adjourn. Doug?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Ryan? Yes. Eleni? Yes. Ed?
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: Good night, yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Kit?
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Peter?
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you, everybody. See you next month. Thanks, everyone. Thank you.
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