Collapsing Old Buildings to Make Way for Shiny Apartments

From Dave Brigham:

This post is all about playing the long game.

For more than five years I'd driven past the dilapidated house above, which is in Sudbury, Mass., just over the Concord line on Route 117. No, the windows weren't missing until recently, but this place definitely had that creepy-old-house-from-"Scooby-Doo" vibe going.

At first, the house seemed to be in OK shape, but the barn I spied up the hill through the woods was definitely in a major state of disrepair, although still partway vertical.

Over time, however, I noticed that the house and the trees and garage and yard looked worse and worse, like a rotting corpse. I saw an old pickup truck in the driveway, so I figured somebody lived there. Eventually, the barn collapsed completely. I wanted to shoot this place so badly, even though I don't normally care much for such places.

In late December or early January, I realized I hadn't seen the pickup in quite a while. And then, one day, contractors erected a fence around the house and marked the house with a red "X." I knew my time to check out this property was short, as both of those things meant demolition was imminent.

So, with my dog waiting in the car, I pulled off Route 117 and walked around, shooting quickly, all the while concerned that I would be busted for trespassing. I'm such a chicken when it comes to that. I was surprised at the condition of the barn.

But what really shocked me was the back of the house, where somebody had been living perhaps a year ago.

The house is listed online as dating to 1955; I'm guessing the barn was older. The property was sold in April 2020 for $845,000. In many towns outside of Boston, when a place like this gets demolished, one of two things happens: a McMansion goes up, or the developer crams as many townhouses onto the site as is allowed by law.

Because this property abuts a former quarry that was once owned by the Town of Sudbury, the plan here is larger. Much larger.

Let's start from the beginning. I'll try to keep this brief.

In February 2016, developer Chris Claussen submitted to the Town of Sudbury a Chapter 40B proposal to build a massive apartment complex in the center of town. Chapter 40B is a state statute that enables local Zoning Boards of Appeals to approve affordable housing developments under flexible rules if at least 20-25% of the units have long-term affordability restrictions, according to the Mass. Housing and Community Development web site. The goal of the statute is to allow developers to override local zoning bylaws in order to increase the stock of affordable housing in municipalities where less than 10% of the housing stock is defined as affordable, per this web site.

"The project proposes 13 buildings, some as tall as 50 feet and four stories high, 250 residential units, and 500 parking spaces," according to the Oppose Sudbury Station web site. Sudbury is a town with a deep Colonial history and a largely white, fairly well-to-do population. As you might imagine, people were up in arms over this housing proposal, right in the center of the historic town.

There was a lawsuit and, I imagine, protests and angry letters to the editor. Folks were surely in high dudgeon.

Fast forward to late 2018. The Board of Selectmen voted to do a switcheroo, giving Claussen and his development team the former town-owned quarry along Route 117, in exchange for the nearly 40 acres of land where Sudbury Station would have risen in all its metropolitan menace.

Earlier in 2018, the Town had "put out a request for proposals to develop the Melone property," aka the quarry site, per this Metrowest Daily News article. In addition to Claussen and his Quarry North group, San Diego-based EDF Renewables submitted a proposal for a solar farm and Sudbury-based Cavicchio Greenhouses Inc. put forward plans for an agricultural project.

Quarry North secured the former town property in late 2018. I'm not sure how things shook down for Claussen to buy the old house and barn. Judging by how run-down the property was, perhaps the owner died and the sale was made quite easily with his or her estate. It's conceivable that the owner of the house was holding out and once Claussen received the quarry property from the town, he or she got what they wanted and moved out.

Either way, it's all done now. The new development -- which will be known as Cold Brook Crossing, and which will also include property in abutting Concord -- will include 274 units, a small retail component, recreational facilities and more. The developer applied last year to install a private wastewater treatment plant on the site, as there are wetlands on the property.

This will be quite a change for this area, which still contains quite a bit of farmland, but not unprecedented. A quarter-mile from the proposed Cold Brook Crossing is an office complex (where my son's school is), as well as a few condo developments, all built on a former farm.

For more posts about Sudbury, check out: February 20, 2019, "Finding Some Cool, Mostly True, Memorials in Sudbury"; August 30, 2016, "The Tavern of Death"; and February 17, 2016, "Bunker Buster."

A Revolutionary Cemetery in Watertown

From Dave Brigham:

Established in 1754, the Common Street Cemetery in Watertown, Mass., is nestled right up tight to the small city's high school. You can see the brick building in the background of the photo below.

(Beautiful white headstone with solar-powered light.)

At nearly three acres, the graveyard sits just outside Watertown Square. There are approximately 500 headstones located here. In addition to serving as a burial ground for Watertown, which was the first inland town settled by English colonists in 1630, this site was once the location of the town's second meetinghouse, which played a role in the American Revolution.

From my old pal MACRIS: "During the Revolution, most of the military action took place elsewhere, but Watertown was a focal point for organizing resistance against the British. The Provincial Congress met at the meeting house on Common Street from April 22, 1775 to May 29, 1775. On May 19, 1775 a Committee of Safety was appointed to assemble, dispose and discharge the militia and to direct the army. It included John Hancock, Doctor Joseph Warren and eleven others. On July 19, 1775, the third Provincial Congress, consisting of 206 delegates, dissolved and organized as the General Court of Massachusetts, holding sessions until November 19, 1776 when it moved to a townhouse in Boston."

In 1836, the meetinghouse was torn down, and cattle that had been grazing on this property were moved to other pastures, per MACRIS. It was then that the cemetery was enlarged. I cruised through here quickly, and never saw the plaques for the meetinghouse that are on the grounds somewhere.

The abutting high school was built in 1925. I'm not sure what, if anything, that institution replaced on the site. As I mentioned, the school bumps right up against the boneyard, with no barriers between the two whatsoever.

And at some point somebody, presumably a male student/class clown, decided to make his mark for graveyard enthusiasts to admire (below).

Anyway, included among the several hundred tombstones and burial vaults are "the graves of a number of the town's founding families and of those who contributed significantly to Watertown's history," per MACRIS.

At least two of those interred here have seemingly turned over in their graves, perhaps due to the antics of their next-door neighbors at the high school.

Considering that I live in the town next to Watertown, I haven't written much about it over the last decade. Below are links to a few things I have written. I am presently working on a long post about Watertown Square, and will try to cover more of the town in 2021.

March 2, 2013, "Rebuilding the Lost City: Second Update"

July 23, 2011, "This Old, Decrepit House: Update #2"

May 19, 2010, "Nuclear Dump Playground?"

Jack's Smoke Shop Has Been Extinguished

From Dave Brigham:

Jack's Smoke Shop in Watertown, Mass., was in business for about a thousand years, selling cigars, pipes, lighters and related products. There was also a "sitting area for Keno," according to one customer description I found online. I never set foot in this place, and now I never will.

I polled some folks on Facebook, most who said the shop was around since sometime in the '70s. One person, however, recalled it being in business in the 1950s.

There was a flower shop in the retail space to the left of this photo. Now, a place called La Guanaquita Market is slated to open in that space. I'm not sure whether it will also take over the former smoke shop space. Rough translations of "guanaquita": a small llama; or possibly a word used for Salvadorans that relates to guanacaste trees. Either way, this market will cater to the growing Latinx population in the area.

Stay tuned for an upcoming post about a cemetery in Watertown Square, as well as a more all-encompassing post covering the neighborhood from end to end.