Historic District Study Back Before Selectmen

Historical Commission members on Wednesday are slated to ask selectmen to reconsider authorizing a Local Historic District Study Committee.

The estimated one-year study would focus on Humphrey Street from the monument to the Fish House. Some people have requested that Rockland Street be included in it, according to a letter the commission sent to selectmen.

The last time the commission proposed the study to the board, two weeks ago, selectmen took no definitive action.

The letter to the board states that not all commission members were allowed to speak at the previous meeting about the importance of starting the district study process.

Furthermore, the study request was overshadowed by another issue that night, the demolition delay to Cap'n Jack's Inn.

At the meeting, board members urged the commision to drop the remaining delay to demolition — almost five months — so developers Bruce Paradise and Barry Turkanis could start construction on their condo project on the Humphrey Street property.

The commision did exactly that the following Tuesday, March 6.

Meanwhile the developers pledged $5,000 toward the cost of the Historical District Study as part of the agreement to drop the delay.

Commission members say the local demolition delay, intended to buy time for negotiating preservation of historic elements important to the town's character, has not worked.

They say a historic district can succeed were delays failed because a district packs protection for historical properties.

Commission members say in their letter sent to selectmen that Humphrey Street faces the potential for dramatic change that could strip Swampscott of its links to the past.

Furthermore, the letter states that a historic district could create incentives to improve the area and make it a destination.

Also on Wednesday commission members are scheduled to present a proposal to name the first-floor conference room in honor of the former town administrator, Andrew Maylor.

Commission members say Maylor advocated preserving historical resources in his nine-year tenure as town administrator.