USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Dedham > The record of the town meetings, and abstract of births, marriages, and deaths, in the town of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1887-1896 > Part 34
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But, aside from this legal difficulty, there are important practical considerations in respect of the expense.
An estimate such as the statute requires would hardly be less than the assessed values. These values are as follows :
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Land, (assessed value) ·
$13,000 00
Buildings, "
·
13,900 00
Total,
$26,900 00
Since the Park Commissioners, where they have taken bonds for the other parks, have in no instance gone below the assessed value, and have in many cases at least doubled it, there seems to be reason to fear that a jury might do the same in this case.
An estimate, to present the matter justly, should, further- more, take into view the question of depreciation to the rest of the mill property by the taking of the mill houses. It seldom happens that one part of a manufacturing plant can be taken without damage to the rest. In this case, the mill plant as a whole is in the market. The owners state that the mill will be made unsalable by the proposed taking of the mill houses, and have given notice that they will, in case of the taking, hold the town liable for serious damage to the value of the mill. There seems to be no question that this position is sound in law, and therefore that there is a serious danger that by the proposed tak- ing the town might be involved in a large expense for damage to the mill.
Every one has a legal right to choose for himself a location for his buildings, and the law does not require him to take them away to such location as a jury may think proper, and to credit the town with their supposed value.
The buildings are large and many of them are old, and the removal of them without injury might, in the opinion of the com- mittee, prove to be so difficult and costly as to be utterly out of the question.
Once taken, they will belong to the town; they will be, in the commercial phrase, "old buildings to be sold for removal." Every one knows what such buildings bring, and the former owner stands like any stranger as to them.
It is no answer to the company's claim to say that if the company should decline to take the $2600 and to remove the buildings, this would be a confession that the buildings were of no value.
It is to be remembered that any such expense as may be in- curred for buildings taken, or for damage to the mill, will repre-
£
430
sent no advantage to the town or to any of its inhabitants, either in park space or in labor, but will represent mere destruction of existing values ; while the same amount expended for mere land, at the fair value of the land itself and for improvement of it, would mean so much more or better park facilities, and expenditure of money in the town for labor.
For these reasons it seems to your committee that, even if the Avery Park proposition were legally before the town for action, it would, for practical reasons, be an unwise one.
POWDER ROCK PARK.
In the case of this park, some of the real estate has been bonded ; the rest is proposed to be taken by right of eminent domain. The parcels bonded, their assessed valuation, the prices agreed upon, and the Park Commissioners' estimate upon the parcel not bonded, are as follows :
Owner.
Property
Assessed Valuation.
Contract Price.
P'k Com'rs Estimate,
Henry White
About 7 acres House, barn, About 72 acres About { acre
$1,200
$6,000
Eliza F. Brown
10,630
5,300
240
C. S. Churchill Eliza F. Brown Emma H. Taft F. F. Brown George F. Brown Mrs. Joseph Lathrop
About + acre
370
About 48 acres
800
$2,850
It will thus be seen that, where prices have been fixed by agreement, they largely exceed the assessed valuation.
From this it would seem open to question whether the com- missioners' estimate upon the Lathrop land can be safely relied on. That land is rough and uneven, and would be expensive to grade, but it is high and picturesque ; it is fairly well wooded ; it is one of the very few sites now available for a gentleman's residence within a short distance of the village ; it has a frontage on the river and on Bridge and Fuller streets ; at the latter point it lies opposite a large and valuable estate, which is a guaranty
W
431
for many years to come of the residential character of the neighborhood ; and opposite, across the river, and for a long way up and down stream, are large and well-kept estates of the Water Company and of private owners, all likely to remain for a long time in their present attractive condition. It is believed that the land has cost several times the amount of the com- mittee's estimate, and that much more than such estimate has been offered for it and declined. Your committee have not undertaken to form any opinion of its value, but they suggest that a jury might possibly consider the land worth, for residential purposes, what Mrs. Lathrop asks for it. Whatever may be its real value, the question of its value is one upon which no two men would be likely to agree, especially in view of the fact of a compulsory taking of it from the owner.
Owing to the wide range of possible estimates of the value, it seems to your committee that the town, if it decides, on account of its great natural beauty, to take it, should recognize the possi- bility of a much greater expense than the estimate.
Of the expense of the Brown homestead estate, $7,000 (the proportionate increase in the contract price) represents a good house and stable. The Park Act provides that no building of more than six hundred square feet shall be allowed to remain on the park grounds. These buildings, or all but a fragment of one of them, would, therefore, have to be sold for removal. The cost of removal would depend, of course, in part upon the distance; but your committee, upon inquiry, are of opinion that the town could not hope to realize any substantial amount for them. Of the total expense, then, for the Powder Rock Park, $7,000 would be lost by the destruction of the present value of these buildings. In thickly settled communities, or in the case of great parks, loss of this character is often inevitable ; but your committee think it unfortunate that in a town with so much picturesque, unimproved land as Dedham includes, it should be deemed necessary to devote $7,000 in a single small park to the destruction of buildings and tax value for the sake of securing the land, or any sum approximating to that amount. The sum could be much more judiciously expended, in the judgment of your committee, in buying more land, or in labor in park improvement. At the present moment there is publicly offered
£
432
for sale at just about the price proposed to be paid for the practical destruction of the Brown buildings, a fine tract of seven or eight acres, wooded, with a fine river frontage on Bridge street. Your committee are therefore of opinion that the Powder Rock Park plan, at least in its present form, and without impor- tant change, is not a wise one.
BETTERMENTS.
The Park Commissioners, in their report, do not discuss the question of betterments. The Park Act authorizes the assess- ment of betterments upon abutting estates, and estates on streets bounded by the park.
For reasons stated above, and from the character of the property, no betterments could, in the judgment of your commit- tee, be expected from the Merchants' Woolen Company's estate. The value of the other estates might be increased by the park, and some return from them, in betterments, might be expected ; but as their assessed valuation is not large, such return would probably not very largely reduce the burden to the town.
In the case of the Powder Rock Park a peculiar question arises in respect of betterments. The Park Commissioners under- stand that the estates having a river frontage extend to the middle (or, rather, the "thread") of the river, and that the town would therefore take to the thread of the stream, and would thus be able to protect the river frontage of the park. Your committee understand this position to be sound. It follows from it that the estates opposite, on the south bank, from Ames street to Bridge street, own to the thread of the stream (a title long asserted by the maintenance of boat-houses, and by filling close to shore) ; that those estates and the Powder Rock Park would therefore
eet and abut at the thread of the stream, and that these estates are therefore liable to betterment assessments. The committee are not now speaking of the propriety of assessing betterments upon those estates, but only of their legal liability to betterments. The estates liable to betterment assessments for the Powder Rock Park would embrace the property of F. J. Stimson, J. R. Bullard, Mary Bullard, Mrs. E. G. Burgess, Mrs. George Hewins, Winslow Warren, Dr. H. P. Quincy, J. A. Laforme, the Dedham Water Company, Albert W. Nickerson estate, and the property of all
433
other persons abutting on such park or on streets leading thereto, and in the immediate vicinity thereof, irrespective of whether they actually joined the park itself or not.
It is, of course, of the first importance to the voters to be able to judge how far the expense of the proposed Powder Rock Park would have to be borne by the town, or how far it might be reduced by betterments. Your committee feel that the question is a very difficult one. Some persons might consider the opposite river-front estates greatly benefited by having the north bank kept permanently open and beautified by the town. Others might think it highly technical and artificial to call these estates abutting estates. The same thing is true of the estates on Ames street not immediately opposite the park, and of the whole, or all but a small fraction, of the extensive Albert W. Nickerson estate, -a park in itself. The estimate will rest in the first instance with Park Commissioners to be hereafter elected, and not neces- sarily with a board composed of the present members or all of them. Your committee think that it would be useless for them, even if it should be possible, to give their conjectures upon a question turning so largely upon peculiar and exceptional features, and deem it best to present the principal data for consideration by the voters. They all agree, however, that while large better- ments might possibly enough ultimately be collected, it would be only after expensive litigation upon the law questions involved, and that the town in acting upon this matter, should not depend with any confidence upon a very substantial relief through betterments.
The foregoing suggestions upon the matter of these two proposed parks strongly impress your committee with the feeling that the report as submitted by the Park Commissioners does not embody in sufficient fulness all the considerations that ought to be taken into account in determining what action the town should take in the selection of public parks, and that further time is needed to work out and digest the whole subject before action is taken and a definite selection is made.
OTHER EXPENSE AND INDEBTEDNESS.
With reference to the "other matters of probable expense and indebtedness," referred to this committee, they report as follows :-
434
Sewers.
From a report to be presented at this meeting by the com- mittee upon a system of sewers, it seems probable that a compre- hensive sewer system will soon be established in the town, and that a net indebtedness of not less than $110,000 is likely to be thereby incurred.
Metropolitan Parks.
Great tracts of land have been and are being acquired under the Metropolitan Park Acts, quite near Dedham. A considerable part of this territory will be brought within easy reach of Ded- ham by a boulevard contemplated by the Park Commissioners, coming within about half a mile of the Dedham line.
An expense has thus far been authorized by the Legislature of $3,000,000. About one half of this amount will be borne by the city of Boston ; the remainder is to be assessed from time to time among thirty-six cities and towns, of which Dedham is one. In advance of a decision by the commissioners, it is impossible to determine what Dedham's share will be. The allotment of ex- pense may be made, your committee understand, on the basis of population, or of valuation, or of proximity of a given town to the Metropolitan Parks, or of the probable amount of use of the Met- ropolitan Parks by the inhabitants of a given town, or upon some basis into which two or more of these elements may enter. Your committee have made such inquiry as could be made, but in the present unsettled state of the question, are able only to say that, assuming that Dedham, in the various aspects likely to be con- sidered, stands as an average town among the thirty-six cities and towns in question (exclusive of Boston), Dedham's burden for the next five years is likely to be not less than $1500 per annum. This burden is to continue for forty years with a readjustment once in five years. This means, on the basis of the present valu- ation, an annual charge to the town for the next five years of about twenty-five cents per thousand, and is the equivalent of a present debt of $60,000 at four per cent. The actual interest rate, owing to the fact that the money is borrowed by the state, is much less than four per cent. Allowance for that has been made in the foregoing estimate.
-
£
435
State Highway.
No estimates are now accessible as to probable expense to the town in respect of a state highway; but from the action of other towns and of the County and State authorities, it seems to your committee probable that the town will be obliged within the next three or four years to incur indebtedness in that connection.
The indebtness of the town, including a loan for Stone Park, effected under existing laws, and as it will be in 1895, and for the five following years, and the additional indebtedness and expense likely to be incurred in respect to sewers and Metropolitan Parks, are as follows :-
1895.
Debt.
Maturing Principal.
Amount to be raised by Interest. Taxation.
Almshouse loan
$16,000
$2,000
$940
Avery schoolhouse loan
37,000
1,850
1,480
Sidewalk loan, .
5,000
1,000
200
General expense loan
12,000
1,200
480
Stone Park loan
8,750
875
350
Totals
$78,750
$6,925
$3,150
$10,075
Metropolitan Parks
1,500
Estimated debt for sewers
110,000
2,750
4,500
7,250
Use of Boston sewer .
3,000
$188,750
$21,825
1896.
Total Debt.
Mat. Principal and Interest.
Amt. to be Raised. $21,548
$179,075
$17,048
1897.
$169,400
$16,771
$21,271
1898.
$159,725
$16,494
$20,994
1899.
$150,050
$16,217
$20,717
1900.
$141,375
$14,940
$19,440
436
A little thought will show what increase would thus be made to our annual tax rate, $1 per thousand being added to such rate on basis of present valuation for every $6000 to be raised.
But it would be idle to assume that the foregoing sources of liability exhaust all the possibilities of debt and expenditure to Dedham, in addition to the ordinary annual charges. The exten- sion, from time to time, of concrete sidewalks; the increase of fire-department plant; possible requirements for new school- houses in case of the destruction by fire of one of the present schoolhouses, and of an insufficient reimbursement by insurance ; grade-crossing changes and new legislation or extensions of legis- lation in the lines of existing legislation.
The era of indebtedness began about 1884. The indebted- ness has rapidly increased to the present time without any great change in the amount of taxable property, and, as is stated above, the increase in the years immediately ensuing is likely to be very large.
No one in 1884 or previous thereto would have foreseen a present indebtedness in 1895 or 1896 of nearly $200,000. Your committee do not intend to suggest that this indebtedness is not wise and proper. They simply desire to point out that, with the changes of opinion and conditions that have lately begun to take place and are now moving with great rapidity in the region of which Boston is the centre, an era of large and increasing indebt- edness has evidently set in, and that no one can safely predict that the current has reached its flood.
HEMAN W. CHAPLIN, HENRY G. GUILD, ALFRED HEWINS, THOS. H. WAKEFIEED, JOHN CROWLEY,
Committee.
Voted that it is the sense of this meeting that the town be represented by its attorney in all matters relating to sewerage be- fore the Legislature or otherwise, but that no obligation shall be incurred until the same is submitted to the town for its approval.
On motion the meeting was dissolved.
DON GLEASON HILL, Town Clerk. Attest :
437
TOWN MEETING WARRANT.
[Town Seal.]
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
Norfolk, ss.
To any Constable of the Town of Dedham, in said County, Greeting :
You are hereby required, in the name of the Commonwealth aforesaid, to notify and warn the inhabitants of said town of Ded- ham, qualified to vote in town affairs, to assemble at Memorial Hall, in said town, on Monday, the twenty-first day of January, A. D. 1895, at half-past seven o'clock in the evening, then and there to act on the following articles, namely :
Article One-To choose a Moderator to preside at said meeting.
Article Two-To see if the Town will vote to change the number of Selectmen to be hereafter elected from five, the pres- ent number, to three, so that the Board shall consist of three Selectmen in the future.
Article Three-To see if the Town will vote to elect a separate Board of Highway Surveyors, to consist of three persons.
Article Four-To see if the Town will vote to change the number of persons in any of the town offices.
Hereof fail not, but make return of this warrant, with your doings thereon, unto the Selectmen, on or before said day and time.
Given under our hands, and the seal of said Town, at Ded- ham aforesaid, this ninth day of January, A. D., eighteen hun- dred and ninety-five.
THOMAS P. MURRAY, J. EVERETT SMITH, DAVID NEAL, FERDINAND F. FAVOR, GEO. W. WEATHERBEE, 7
Selectmen of
Dedham.
On said warrant the following return was made :-
Norfolk, ss.
Dedham, January 21, 1895.
By virtue of this warrant, I have notified and warned the legal voters of the Town of Dedham, aforesaid, to meet at the
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438
time and place, and for the purposes specified in said warrant, by posting attested copies thereof in each of the post offices in said town, and in twenty other public places in said town, seven days at least before the day of said meeting, and by causing an attested copy thereof to be published twice before the time of said meeting in the Dedham Transcript, a newspaper published in said town of Dedham.
JOHN DEAN, Constable of Dedham.
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
Norfolk, ss.
At a meeting of the Inhabitants of the Town of Dedham, qualified to vote in town affairs, held pursuant to the foregoing warrant, at Memorial Hall, in said town, on Monday, the twenty- first day of January; 1895.
The meeting was called to order at the time and place named in said warrant by the Town Clerk, who presided at the choice of Moderator.
Article One-John R. Bullard was elected Moderator by written ballot. in receiving which the check list was used.
Article Two-Voted that the town change the number of Selectmen to be hereafter elected from five, the present number, to three, so that the Board shall consist of three Selectmen in the future.
Article Three-A motion was made that the Town elect, by ballot, a separate Board of Highway Surveyors to consist of three persons, fifty-five persons voted in the affirmative and one hun- dred twenty in the negative, and the Moderator declared the motion as lost.
Article Four - Voted that this article be indefinitely postponed.
Voted that this meeting be dissolved.
Attest : DON GLEASON HILL, Town Clerk.
The ballots cast at the last November election have been destroyed according to law.
439
To the Honorable the Selectmen of the Town of Dedham :
The undersigned, legal voters of said Town of Dedham, re- spectfully ask your Honorable Board to call a special town meet- ing, to be held at Memorial Hall, in said Dedham, on Thursday, the thirty-first day of January, 1895, at half past seven o'clock p. m., then and there to act on the following articles, namely :-
Article One-To choose a Moderator to preside at said meeting.
Article Two-+To see if the Town will vote to rescind its action taken at the town meeting held January 21st, 1895, where- by it voted to change the number of Selectmen to be hereafter chosen from five persons to three persons, and to see if the town will determine and fix the number of persons hereafter to be annually chosen as Selectmen at five persons.
A. B. Endicott, Howard Colburn, E. Worthington, R. B. Worthington, J. H. Burdakin, E. L. Burdakin, E. T. Baker, Thos. J. Baker, J. W. Chase, Elijah Howe, Jr., James Y. Noyes, George T. Staples, Edward C. Paul, Henry S. Richardson, Wm. Hurley, H. O. Haynes, L. G. Baker, H. W. Hitchings, Nathaniel Morse, W. H. McLauchlin, W. M. Bass, C. B. Danforth, Charles Hilles, Conrad Hilles, H. L. Wardle, Harry K. Shatswell, Benj. Weatherbee.
TOWN MEETING WARRANT.
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
NORFOLK, ss. To any Constable of the Town of Dedham, in said County, Greeting :
You are hereby required, in the name of the Commonwealth aforesaid, to notify and warn the inhabitants of said Town of Dedham, qualified to vote in town affairs, to assemble at Memo- rial Hall, in said town, on Thursday, the thirty-first of January, 1895, at half-past seven o'clock P. M., then and there to act on the following articles, namely :
Article One-To choose a Moderator to preside at said meeting.
Article Two-To see if the Town will vote to rescind its action taken at the Town Meeting held January twenty-first, 1895, where-
440
by it voted to change the number of Selectmen to be hereafter chosen from five persons to three persons ; and to see if the Town will determine and fix the number of persons hereafter to be an- nually chosen as Selectmen at five persons.
Hereof fail not, but make return of this warrant, with your doings thereon, unto the Selectmen, on or before said day and time.
Given under our hands, and the seal of said Town, at Ded- ham, aforesaid, this twenty-fourth day of January, A. D. 1895.
THOMAS P. MURRAY, DAVID NEAL, J. EVERETT SMITH,
GEORGE W. WEATHERBEE, - 1 Selectmen of
Dedham.
On this warrant the following return was made :-
Norfolk, ss.
Dedham, January 31, 1895.
By virtue of this warrant, I have notified and warned the legal voters of the Town of Dedham, aforesaid, to meet at the time and place, and for the purposes specified in said warrant, by posting attested copies thereof in each of the post offices in said town, more than four days before the day of said meeting, and by causing an attested copy thereof to be published once before the time of said meeting, in the Dedham Transcript, a newspaper published in said town of Dedham.
JOHN DEAN, Constable of Dedham.
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
Norfolk, ss.
At a meeting of the Inhabitants of Dedham, in said County, qualified to vote in town affairs, held in pursuance of the forego- ing warrant, at Memorial Hall, in said town, on Thursday, the thirty-first day of January, A. D. 1895, the meeting was called to order at the time mentioned in said warrant, by the Town Clerk, who presided at the choice of Moderator.
Article One-John R. Bullard was chosen Moderator by written ballot, in receiving which the check list was used.
Article Two-A motion was made that this article be indefi- nitely postponed, and on a verification of the vote it was found
441
that 255 persons voted in the affirmative and 273 in the negative, and the Moderator declared the motion as lost.
Voted that the action taken at the town meeting held January 21st, 1895, whereby it was voted to change the number of Select- men to be hereafter chosen, from five persons to three persons, be rescinded, and that the number of persons hereafter to be chosen annually as Selectmen be five persons; and in taking said last vote the house by vote was divided and two hundred and sixty- one persons voted in the affirmative, and two hundred and forty- four persons in the negative.
Voted that this meeting be dissolved.
Attest :
DON GLEASON HILL, Town Clerk.
442
TOWN WAYS LAID OUT BY THE SELECTMEN, 1887-1894.
At a Town Meeting held April 4, 1887, by adjournment from March 7, ISST, the following Report was accepted under Article 22 of the Warrant.
Description of the laying out and location of a Section of Carroll Avenue and Ash Street, at Islington, Dedham, by the Selectmen, February 26, 1887.
The Selectmen of the Town of Dedham have laid out for the use of said town a highway as follows, viz. :
Commencing on East Street, a monument on the Northerly side thereof, thence running N. 33 deg. OS min. East 219. 6-10 feet, thence N. 44 deg. 38 min. E. 300 feet, thence N. 74 deg. 25 min. E. 350.3 feet by the Southeasterly and Southerly line of a private way laid out and called Carroll Avenue. Said way to be 50 feet wide and to lie on the Northwesterly and Northerly side of said described line. Also commencing at a monument, the termination of the above de- scribed line of location, and running S. 21 deg. 45 E. 516 3-10 feet by the Northeasterly line of a private way laid out and known as Ash Street, to a monument on the Northerly line of said East Street. Said Ash Street to be 50 feet wide and to lie on the Southwesterly side of the above described line. According to a plan thereof, on file, drawn by Nathaniel Smith, dated February 26th, 1887.
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