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CHARLESTOWN 1820 POND FELLDE 1638
MALDEN; NORTH END 1649
Melrose Public Library Melrose, Massachusetts
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CITY OF MELROSE MASSACHUSETTS
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Annual Reports 1920
WITH
Mayor's Inaugural Address
Delivered January 3, 1920
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PLORE
1628
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CHARLESTOWN 1629
POND FEILDE 1638
· MALDEN ·
NORTH END
1649.
850.
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INCORPORATE
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE CITY CLERK AND SPECIAL COMMITTEE
THE COPLEY PRESS
1921
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MELROSE PUBLIC LIBRARY MELROSE. MARS.
CHARLES H. ADAMS MAYOR
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1
Inaugural Address HON. CHARLES H. ADAMS Mayor of Melrose
DELIVERED JANUARY 3, 1920
Mr. Chairman. President and Members of the Board, and Citizens:
Following the World War it is indeed good fortune that our City finds itself so comfortable, with a degree of prosperity, high reputation, and good things never before found here, and in very few places in the world.
The general condition of our community. the general prosperity of the people, the vast number of contributions to happiness and comfort, make our City most unique.
Since we met here last year our boys have returned from the War.
During the past five years, in spite of war, we have moved steadily forward. We are among the few cities that have not increased its municipal indebtedness.
In five years our debt has been slightly reduced. We owe $30,000 less than we did five years ago. But to acomplish this we have not allowed the City to run down. We have not ceased to grow, or to do things necessary for the progress of the community. In five years we have expended for permanent improvements more than a quarter of a million dollars. We have extended our system of sewers at a cost of $45,000. the water system has been extended to meet the growth of the City to the extent of $63.000; our underground drainage system $62,- 000 and to extend our system of granolithic sidewalks and edgestones $97.000. or a total of $267.000. These are permanent improvements, wholly outside the current expenses of the City. And yet we find our- selves owing $30,000 less than five years ago.
I have not included in this statement the new streets built or re- built. because streets wear out so rapidly with automobile traffic that such new streets hardly more than make up for the wear of others, but we may remind ourselves that we have also built or rebuilt these streets wholly out-ide our repair work.
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CITY OF MELROSE
We have built these new streets under the betterment act :
Extension of First Street, Garfield Road, Lynde Avenue, Warwick Road, Hopkins Street, Stevens Road, Natalie Avenue, Argyle Street, Lincoln Street and Folsom Avenue, and we have rebuilt a dozen other streets under special appropriations at a cost of $53,000.
The net City debt is $593,000 and we have City property to show for it amounting to $2,300,000, or nearly five dollars in property for one of debt.
We have met many unnsual items of expense, which are of in- terest to the City.
We were obliged to spend $12,000 for changes in our school build- ings to make them safe against fire, and put new plumbing in the Mary A. Livermore School at a cost of $2,500. The Fire Department has been equipped with a great motor pumping engine and a motor ladder truck at an expense of $20,000; the Police Department has a new motor ambulance which cost $3,200.
We have established and maintained four branches of the Public Library. We have increased the pay of school teachers 26%, amount- ing last year to $20,000. We have increased the pay of laborers from $2.50 to $4 per day; the firemen and police, and nearly all others who work for the City, have had needed increased compensation.
We equipped our State Guard Company at a cost of $4,500, said to be the best company in the State, as well as the best equipped. Dur- ing its service in Boston the City spent about $1,800 for its main- tenance, giving them a support which was commended by State officials and the public. as a great contribution to the support of law and order.
We paid city employees who enlisted in the War the difference in their pay while in the Service, amounting to $5,000.
We held varions receptions for the men returning from the War, expending about $3,500.
We expended $15.000 in State Aid for families of Melrose men in the Service, and we have erected the portable school house at the Wash- ington School, costing $4,500, and have built the playground at the Lin- coln School at a cost of $2,500.
While the City improves all the time, we have not increased our debts, nor shirked any duty, nor passed along our burdens to the future.
Splendid citizens have been good to us. In five years we have re- ceived many gifts for the public welfare.
This past year, this Great Memorial Organ, which is destined to make Melrose famous as a center of music and patriotism, the gift of
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MAYOR'S ADDRESS
Mr. Jolm C. F. Slayton; another gift from him of $10,000 as a fund to insure its upkeep and development.
Three years ago Mr. Charles M. Cox gave ns two great playgrounds, to furnish for all time ample spaces for play and recreation.
Mr. Slayton and Mr. Maguire gave some thousands of dollars to develop Spot Pond Brook and to dispose of the unsightly ice houses on our Main Street at Ell Pond.
A great gift in aid of the poor by Mrs. A. C. Marie Currier brings in $1.500 a year, used for clothing and dinners for the children and ad- ministered by the Charity Board,
Hon. Levi S. Gonld gave $1,000 to the schools, and Norman F. Hesseltine, in memory of his mother gave the schools $100.
Two wonderful pianos in this building and two great paintings in G. A. R. Hall were also the gifts of Mr. Slayton, and the generous aid of clubs and citizens is giving to the City a great. generous, beautiful heart and life. These flags were a gift, the clock in the G. A. R. Hall was a gift. George Munroe gave some fine engravings to our Library.
This . Memorial Building has become a great center of patriotism and music. It is the place best suited for publie leadership, publie edn- cation, the home of our social and civic line. It is one of our greatest assets and a great opportunity.
The committee in charge of this building has a great responsibility. All that is gathered here must be kept in constant nse.
We shall need a municipal organist. Like a library or public park, it will cost something to make it serve its best purposes.
It will be a great factor in education. With this organ and our great musical organizations, no child should go through our public schools withont acquiring a love of fine music, without knowing the works of great composers, without being acquainted with the great oratorios and operas, and the fine things in sacred and secular music. This building is a great institution, and here will be gathered all the souvenirs and memorials of the wars, and the Grand Army and the Legion will have homes here.
The Memorial Organ is one of the first great memorials of the men who served in the World War to be established in the Country.
Other Memorials will follow, whenever our people decide upon what shall best express their affection.
But the immediate work should be to preserve the names of those who served from this City. There seems to be no better way than by Bronze Tablets.
It was 40 years after the Civil War before the tablets containing the soldiers' names were put up here.
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CITY OF MELROSE
It is 20 years now since the War with Spain and no memorial or tablets of any kind are here in honor of the 43 men who went from here, and it is 144 years since the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775, and we have yet no permanent memorial or the names in bronze or marble of the 18 men who went from old North Malden and served in the War for Independence.
Tablets are not to be deemed a sufficient "memorial." Tablets are a way of preserving permanently the simple list of names. If there is anything better than bronze, or any better place than here, we ought quickly to find it and not let the years go by and the names be neg- lected or forgotten.
We shall need a special memorial of those who died in the War.
We ought to provide suitable headquarters for the Melrose Post of the American Legion, just as we have quarters for those splendid heroes of the Civil War.
Public Library
The increasing circulation of books at the Library and Brancher calls for better facilities, and especially at the Highlands. We ought to build a branch library building on Franklin Street on the site of the old Franklin School, on the west side of the track. We have the land. It is finely located. With the library should be also a suitable room or hall for a voting place, and for meetings of the citizens of the Ward. It would be of constant use and convenience, and an ornament to that section of the City.
The branch at the South East will naturally go into the new school house to be erected within a few years, for that growing and constantly improving section.
Police
The Police Department has added four men the past year. The force is composed of men of character and fine conduct, substantial citizens with homes and families. The department has everything needed except headquarters.
We need a new, separate, modern building, with ample inside space and a yard for ambulance, patrol wagon, and automobile-a building with suitable office, guard room, cell room and separate quarters for women, and for the safe care of any insane person, for whom this City has now no place. We have no place for the detention of children.
The State authorities have often criticised our police quarters and they urge us to bring the police headquarters up to the Melrose stan- dard as a City.
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MAYOR'S ADDRESS
Fire Department
The Fire Department, save for the East Side Honse, has been motorized.
With one more combination motor we shall be rid of horses, and the department will have ample equipment for a generation.
We are just closing out the old fire engine which we bought thirty years ago.
The question of the two-platoon system for the men was rejected by the voters, because we could not afford the expense.
I think that we should arrange in some way the hours of firemen, so that they may have more nearly a normal home life. Now, a fire- man, save for meal hours, is on duty four days and nights in succession, or 96 hours. They have one day and night at home. Save in the Army, I know of no service that so nearly destroys the home life. I shall ask the fire department, including the men, to study and present to the City Government a plan, which shall be a step in advance of the present conditions, without any great increase in the force.
The present system completely eliminates the fireman from the church, the lodge, evening entertainments, and also from the home, except for meals, save one day in five.
We shall some day look back on the present system as belonging to another age.
Health
The Melrose Department of Health ranks high among public health boards.
We have never expended much money on public health matters, but have depended to a great degree upon cooperation. . It costs one cent per person per week for the public health department.
We have the generous cooperation of the Melrose Hospital. We have an excellent arrangement with the City of Malden by which we use their fine contagious hospital for our contagious cases, and we use the State Hospitals for Tuberculosis cases, and we seek to furnish good care, supervision and aid in the home. Tuberculosis goes side by side with the thin pay envelope, the lack of nourishing food, and the high prohibitive prices for the necessaries of life. We have our public health nurse doing donble work-the schools and the department.
We have a local anti-tuberculosis society that deserves public support.
I would like to have a public health campaign put on this year. It is a factor in teaching people how to keep well. We have about 50 cases of Tuberculosis all the time, some here and others in hospitals.
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CITY OF MELROSE
Knowing how to keep well is a great medicine. Dr. Holden in his report upon the epidemic of Influenza, which cansed 69 deaths, says: "The conditions under which some people were living, even in this City. . was a very sad revelation."
We must enforce every regulation for good housing, extend our system of sewers to abolish every cess pool, have dry sidewalks for the children, teach right ways of living in the schools, use our playgrounds, keep our streets oiled and free from dust, have ample inspection of school children, and give to our department of health a strong support.
Charity
We have an excellent Charity Department that works in co-opera- tion with private organizations.
Adequate aid, good food, deceut housing and warm clothing are the needs. Aided families are restored to self respecting citizens only as they are properly aided and nourished. Immediate aid, investiga- tion, home care, hospital care, the physician, with aid rendered in good spirit, is the spirit and policy of the City as expressed by our Board of Charity.
We have many fine organizations of men and women, ready to aid at all times. The Currier Fund is a great blessing to many chil- dren.
We need now as a City a Day Nursery, like a childs' school, where mothers who work may find care and good training for their little folks. It could be conducted as a kindergarten, and many small chil- dren taught to play and study, and fine habits and cleanliness.
I had thought that some citizen would give this Day Nursery to us just as Mr. Converse gave one to Malden.
Whoever has seen our annual distribution of Christmas and Thanks- giving Dinners and presents has seen something of the spirits of this department of the City.
Parks
Every year sees some development in our parks and playgrounds. It is 20 years since we bought the land on the north side of Ell Pond. Last year we bought the last vacant land on the Tremont Street side. Not much was done during the War but Mr. Slayton and Mr. Maguire helped us to buy and take down the ice houses that had so long dis- figured the pond.
A new bath house is needed. The little old one was used 14,000 times last summer. In building a new one it should be of cement, suit- able for use in winter in connection with the ice sports, and the City should also control and manage the boating, and have safe boats, with some supervision over the conduct and the safety of those who use the pond.
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MAYOR'S ADDRESS
The playground at the Lincoln School has been graded at a cost of $2,500.
With Pine Banks and the Common we have ample properties for as fine a system of public grounds as any City around Boston. We should have a public recreation board to take charge of reereation and sports, both winter and summer.
We need especially to promote the outdoor sports. We must fur- nish coaches and develop leaders in games and sports to keep our boys rugged and self reliant and fit.
Public Works Department
Outside the Public Schools our largest department is that of Pub- lic Works, combining street building and repairs, engineering, lighting, sewers, drainage, the water system, including its management as well as repairs and construction, street cleaning and sprinkling, building sidewalks, care of brooks, buying supplies, care and management of stable and yard, care of the City Hall Building and the Memorial Building, employing and supervising men, accounts and payrolls, and a great miscellaneous business.
It take a great deal of ability, character and conscience to con- duet this department. If done by private business it would require managers, directors, treasurers, and a whole layout of highly paid officials.
We are fortunate in our organization in having men who stay with the City year after year and know the system thoroughly.
So large a business demands good facilities, a good city stable, storage yard, and storehouse for machines, machinery and supplies, and these we have not yet acquired.
We have faithful men all through the City Departments. Con- tractors and corporations pay slightly higher wages, but the City seeks to give fair wages, liability insurance, to take note of their good citi- zenship, never to meddle with their political affairs, and as far as possible supply steady work through the working season.
Much is written and preached about the relation of employers 'and men who work. The City should set the example of good wages, rea- sonable working conditions, and that interest which the employer should take in his own family group. whether they be few or thousands.
Fifty thousand dollars has been appropriated to build Upper Main Street from Porter Street north. We had expected that the Street Railway Company would pay for that part of the street which they occupy. This $50.000 will cover one-half the distance to the Wake- field line.
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CITY OF MELROSE
The street will be similar to that built five years ago in the center, will be done by contract, being a type requiring a special equipment.
We should have a very liberal policy in the building of sidewalks. Where the property owners are willing to pay one-half of the cost, there should be no hesitation on the part of the City in paying the other half and building the walk. It is the one section of the public street used by men, women and children alike, it promotes health, and is one of the most attractive features of the City. Property with- out sidewalks is hardly worth half price.
In 1878 Melrose was one of the first, if not the first town to lay concrete sidewalks under a new law which permitted the town to as- sess one-half the cost upon the abuttors. E. H. Goss, the Melrose His- torian, comments upon this, and how it attracted people to Melrose to live, and writing 20 years ago he said: "One thing is yet needed, an enforced ordinance making it obligatory upon every freeholder to clean off the sidewalk after snowstorms." On that part we have been able to make no progress in all this time.
Schools
The department to which people are most devoted is the Public School.
Five years ago the cost was $100,000 and last year it went to $160,000. We thought that we had reached the peak, The rising cost of living makes the question of the pay of school teachers, and of everyone employed by the City. a financial problem of first import- ance. We need also additional school buildings, and to repair and equip our present buildings.
To put our present school buildings in repair the committee ask for $15,000 and for a manual training equipment, including a printing plant $2,500, and they need for their physical, chemical and biological laboratories $5,000 more. This last item may be spread over two years.
And then the pay of the teachers: they ask for $400 each, a flat advance, the amount reached by them after much study and endorsed by the Committee. That would require $42,000 more, so that we have before us a requested appropriation in advance of last year of from $60,000 to $65,000.
In 1917 we advanced most teachers $50 and the same amount again in 1918. Last year the advance was $100, amounting in the Budget to $20.000. But again the cost of the necessaries of life had taken it all before it was even paid to the teachers.
We can now see a very high tax rate for many years as a part of the cost of war. Whatever advance we may be able to make in the
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MAYOR'S ADDRESS
pay of teachers, or indeed in the pay in all the other branches of the City, has really nothing to do with the schools or the cost of govern- ment. It has only to do with the cost of living. with the high prices of all the things necessary to life.
We call it the cost of living, the French say the cost of life. We may call it the cost of the War. We are still paying the cost of the Civil War of 55 years ago. It will take a much longer period of thrift, economy, work, production and labor in essential fields of energy, to pay the losses that the World has met to preserve our form of gov- ernment.
School Houses
We must also provide suitable school accommodations. There' is overcrowding at the Livermore, Warren, Whittier and Washington Schools.
The Committee recommends three more of those small portable houses as temporary makeshifts. Should we not have the courage to face our needs as they come along and put up in the right locali- ties, fine, large, well appointed buildings, that will ornament the com- munity, command respect, have an influence in improving and build- ing up those sections in which school houses may be placed. A school house is more than rooms for children and teachers.
The Church. the School, and the Public Buildings set the standard, and add value to every property.
If the City drops down to the small one-story portable school house, then how can we prohibit the building of shacks for our people to live in.
I think that we ought to take up with the whole people the ques- tion of school accommodations. We need a school in the Southeast section for the influence there upon the life of the people. We ought to abolish the public barge for the transportation of school children from that section to the central buildings.
We need a large eight-room school house on Upham Hill to fit in with the splendid development of that section, and we shall doubtless need a Junior High School Building within a few years in the Center.
Street Lighting
The White Way Lights on Main Street cost about $2,500 a year, giving a tone and brilliancy to our Main Street which is a great ad- vertisement for the City and a pleasure for all who use this busy place.
We ought to extend these lights to the entire business section. Essex Street, Foster Street, Emerson Street, Grove Street and Wyom-
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CITY OF MELROSE
ing Avenue and Franklin Street at the Highlands. We cannot enlarge our business section without lights.
New England cities are far behind in ornamental lighting. In 1886 Melrose was one of the very first places to take on electric lighting, much to the good reputation of the town.
We should go over the entire system and respace the lights. rear- range the circuits, and undoubtedly reduce the number and with streets better illuminated. The ten years' contract with the Malden Electric Company expires next year.
At the present time it costs the City 2 cents per week per person for the whole street lighting system.
With a well lighted business center and excellent stores we should trade at home. Three million dollars to $4,000,000 in trade goes to Boston. Very much more could be done here to the improvement of the City, help our own people, and to avoid the expense and the humilia- tion incident to the unhealthy overcrowding of street cars.
Tax Rate
Taxes are to be high because everything used by our large family costs twice what it did.
But the City does many things at small cost. It costs 3 cents a day for a water supply in your homes.
It costs one cent per person per week for the collection of ashes and rubbish, and one-half cent per person per week for the removal of garbage from your homes.
Two cents per person per week pays for the whole system of sewers that takes the sewage from the homes and empties it out into the ocean.
Taxation is an intricate system in this State. The State collects the Income Taxes, and repays them to the city, and our income taxes in some mysterious way shrunk $12,000 this last year, and real estate taxes had to make up the loss.
Land is assessed very low in Melrose. In 18 years the value of all the land in the City has increased only one per cent.
In that time we have built 700 houses, and spent a million dollars in streets and other improvements, but it has not been added to the land. When we need to increase the value of the land we can do it justly. All taxes will be higher until the waste and cost of War is paid.
The policemen's strike in Boston cost the State $3,000,000 and our share is $15.000.
Every time they put a million in the State Tax it costs us $5.000.
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MAYOR'S ADDRESS
But we want our State and our City to move on with the World. There is real patriotism and sacrifice in paying taxes. We who have the comforts for which others gave so much, will not much complain.
We must keep Melrose at her present high reputation and place. It must not run down in our day.
If we can put aside our personal interests and think only of the City we shall accomplish many of these things.
GOVERNMENT of the City of Melrose, 1920
Mayor CHARLES H. ADAMS
President of the Board of Aldermen ANGIER L. GOODWIN
Clerk W. DeHAVEN JONES
Aldermen-at-Large
Ward
Angier L. Goodwin. 33 Reading Hill Avenue
2
Leslie F. Keene, 146 Wyoming Avenue West 5
Arthur L. Marr. 236 Foster Street, East 6
Albert MI. Tibbetts. 109 Meridian Street
7
William A. Carrie, 22 York Terrace
1
Llewellyn H. MeLain, 76 Wyoming Avenue East
Fred W. Sellers. 226 Main Street
5
Ward Aldermen
Ralph G. Harmon. 19 Belmont Place 1
Henry L. Restall. 19 Ferdinand Street
1
Carl A. Raymond. 48 Batchelder Street 2
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