USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Weymouth > Town annual report of Weymouth 1927 > Part 10
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SCOPE OF THE PLANS
After the question of site, the next thing calling for deter- mination was what Town activities should be housed in the build- ing. Here, again, the committee gave very careful consideration to the problem and are unanimously of the opinion that the build- ing should house only the Town offices, and that the police 'and fire departments and the operative activities of the street depart- ment should not be included therein. From the outset, the com- mittee has been in favor of including in the building a memorial to the men who in the more than three hundred years of Weymouth's history have served their country on the field of battle. Practic- ally all up-to-date towns and many that are not up-to-date have such a memorial and we feel that Weymouth should delay the mat- ter no longer and should have something in keeping with its his- tory and that the memorial should be given as much prominence as possible in connection with the new Town building. After care- ful consideration however, the committee came to the conclusion that although the Town Office Building should have in it historic pictures and relics, the memorial proper should not be in the building itself, but should rather be a separate feature forming a part of the landscaping of the grounds. Having come to this decision, it may be thought that as this committee was chosen to consider only the question of an office building, it is beyond its function to go any further, and the committee has taken this view of the situation and refrained from going into the question of a War Memorial, except as it is involved in the proper landscaping of the grounds, both the grounds
and the building should be considered together just as this committee has acted in close liaison with the school committee so that the new addition to the high school and the Town office building would go hand in hand and each aid the better development of the other, as herein before stated. The committee does not wish to go beyond its functions in attempting to make definite recommendations to the Town in reference to a war memorial and what we say on this subject should be understood as merely pointing out the possibil- ities which the high school site offers for such a memorial as a part of the group and as one of the advantages of adopting the high school site.
The question of including a large auditorium in the building has been submitted to the committee, but the committee is unani- mously opposed thereto. Weymouth will never go back to the general town meeting, but will either keep on with its present form of limited town meeting, adopt the town manager form of government, or become a city. In any case, the town has no use for a large auditorium for town meetings. Such an auditorium would cost about $150,000 and Weymouth is already better pro- vided with public auditoriums than any other town in the State, as every section of the Town except North Weymouth has an auditorium seating approximately 1,000 people and North Wey- mouth now has one which is adequate for its local needs. There are also several smaller auditoriums available in different parts of the Town. Unless, therefore, an auditorium could be made larger than any of the existing ones, there would be no need of constructing it, and the committee does not feel that the use to which such an auditorium would be put would be sufficient to jus- tify what it would cost. Furthermore, as will hereafter be pointed
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out, the grounds offer an unusual opportunity to construct at nom- inal expense an open-air auditorium which would serve most of the uses to which a large hall would be put. There will naturally be a hearing room in the office building which will accommodate 150 to 200 people and this we feel will be adequate for municipal purposes, especially with the High School Hall so near at hand.
If the Town acquires the Knowles land, it will own the entire. block between the present high school. Academy Avenue and Mid- dle Street. At the northeast corner of this lot where Mrs. Knowles" house now stands, is the ideal place for the Town office building. It will there be in sight from Legion Memorial Field and will have an excellent outlook as well as show off to good advantage. On the southeast corner is a hill standing up fifteen feet above the street corresponding to the hill on which the Town office building is placed, which will offer an ideal site for a war memorial. These- two structures would then flank the two new wings of the high school and balance each other.
By widening the present high school drivewav, seventy-five- cars can be parked on each side at an angle of forty-five degrees and still leave room for the passage of two lanes of traffic behind them. The present parking space in front of the old high school could easily be arranged to accommodate one hundred cars. There are also spaces west of the Town office building and southwest of the the high school which offer additional space, so that at least four hundred cars could be parked on the grounds without conges- tion and without interfering with the free movement of the traffic.
The land in the center of this hollow square is at present the filter bed of the high school shower baths and is ornamented only with a few scrub cedars. It is unsuited for its purpose, and the School Committee plan to move the filter bed. This land with its even rise from the street affords a natural site for an open-air auditorium. For any Town building, the grounds would have to be landscaped so as not to detract from the architectural merits of the building and to landscape this portion of the grunds in the form of an open-air auditorium seating 2500 to 3000 people would cost little more than to landscape them in other forms. The school committee welcome this feature of the plans because the present high school hall is inadequate even to accommodate the school and hopelessly so for graduation and other public exercises of the school. As stated above, the committee is opposed to the con- struction of a large hall in connection with the Town office building because our present form of Town government does not require such an auditorium and it would not be used sufficiently to justify the expense of constructing. The open-air auditorium, however, can be constructed at an expense of probably not over three thous- and dollars above what it would cost to landscape the grounds. in any other form. It would be available for the high school graduation and other public functions of the school, for Memorial Day exercises, and any other public celebrations, beside being- available for organizations in the Town who might wish to use it.
Back of what would correspond to the stage, it would be nec- essary to construct some sort of brick wall as a sounding board and the side of this wall toward the street would offer an unusual opportunity for tables or inscriptions. It has been suggested that
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it might well be used to record on tablets the names of all the men who have gone from Weymouth in the various wars during the three centuries of her history. This, of course, would be in addi- tion to any specific war memorial which might be erected on the southeasterly hill.
In short, the possibilities of the development of the site are limited only by the elaborateness of which the Town cares to go into the matter and the amount of money it wishes to spend.
EXPENSE
The expense of acquiring the land under Mrs. Knowles' offer will be $5000. which under the circumstances, the committee con- siders a fair price for the property and as above indicated, this is at least $20,000 less than what it would cost to acquire either of the other sites which the committee favorably considered. The ex- pense of the building can only be estimated. The architects with whom we have been in touch estimate the expense of the building at from $75,000 to $125,000. The committee believes that $100,000 would be a conservative figure at the present time as the approx- imate sost of the building.
LANDSCAPING FEATURES
The expense of a war memorial as a part of the group would depend of course entirely upon what form the memorial took and on this subject the committee does not feel it is within its province to make definite recommendations at this time. The expense of the open-air theater will depend in part on what work the school committee intends to do on the ground and of course will be part and parcel of the general landscaping work on the premises. Part of this is covered by other appropriations and it is doubtful if the extra expense carried by special constructin of the open-air theater would exceed $3000. This, of course, would not include any tablets or other ornamentation that it might be desired to put on the wall back of the stage.
The committee accordingly recommends (1) That the Town acquire by purchase or right of eminent domain the land bounded northerly by Academy Road, easterly by Middle Street, and south- erly and westerly by the present high school lot belonging to Mrs. S. Etta Knowles, and that the Town office building be erected on that lot extending over onto the present high school lot; (2) that the sum of Ten Thousand dollars be raised and appropriated for acquisition of this land and for plans and preliminary work on the site and that this committee be empowered to go ahead with said plans and to let a contract for the building, subject to the appro- priation of the required amount of money at the annual Town Meeting in March; (3) that in connection with the landscaping of the grounds the committee be instructed to consider and submit to the Town plans for a war memorial or memorials.
CONCURRENCES
Nearly all the Town officials who will have offices in the pro- posed building have informally expressed themselves in favor of the proposed plan. Furthermore, the Planning Board, whose duty
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it is to plan for the Town's development, has endorsed the scheme as appears by the annexed vote.
Respectfully submitted,
FREDERIC GILBERT BAUER, Chairman.
HOWARD M. DOWD, Secretary
ISABELLE EASTON
STANLEY HEALD
EDWARD W. HUNT
CLAYTON B. MERCHANT
ARTHUR I. NEGUS
FRANK A. PRAY
FRED E. WAITE
RUSSELL H. WHITING
ENDORSEMENT OF PLANNING BOARD
At a meeting of the Town Planning Board, duly called and' holden on the 24th da of August. A. D. 1927, it was unanimously
VOTED: That it is the sense of this Board that we go on record as favoring the plan submitted by the Committee on a New Town Office to erect a Town Office Building which shall be a re- plica of the Old State House in Boston on the Knowles Estate at the corner of Academy Avenue and Middle Street, adjacent to the location of the proposed new wing of the High School.
And inasmuch as the placing of the Town Office Building n this site offers a wonderful opportunity to install an open-air forum or theater capable of seating at least twenty-five hundred or three thousand people, beside parking space for a large number of automobiles where their occupants can have an unobstructed view of the stage, all at a very slight expense, we are in favor of the same committee being instructed to present plans and estimated' cost of the same, as it is an improvement much needed for school graduation exercises and other public functions which the Town. may hold. If these plans are carried out, it will create a civic center in our Town which will be a credit to it and a landmark which will not only be in keeping with its history but also one. which will be unequalled in any town in the Commonwealth.
Furthermore, there being at present no memorial of any kind to Weymouth's veterans of any war. except an inadequate Civil War monument, and the plans above outlined making it possible to erect as a part of the civic center a memorial which will be worthy of so ancient a town and a source of pride to it, we rec- ommend that the same Committee be instructed to prepare and submit to the Town plans for a suitable memorial to our veterans of all wars, to be erected on the knoll at the southeasterly corner of the present High School lot on the same center line parallel with Middle Street as the Town Office Building, and that the var- ious buildings be so co-related to each other that the High School, the Town Office Building, the War Memorial and the Open Air- Theater shall form harmonious parts of a symmetrical group.
A true copy frm the Records.
Attest:
RALPH H. HASKINS,
Clerk of the Board.
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Voted: That the report of the Committee be accepted.
Art. 2. Voted unanimously: That the Board of Selectmen be authorized to petition the County Commissioners to discontinue, on such terms as they shall think for the best interests of the Town and other parties in interest, so much of that portion of Front Street lying south of West Street as in the opinion of the Selectmen public convenience and necessity no longer requires to be maintained as a highway.
Art. 3. Voted: That the Board of Selectmen be authorized to acquire by purchase or take by right of eminent domain for a filter bed and yard for the Weymouth High School, the whole or so much as they deem necessary of the folowing parcel of. land situated on the northeasterly side of Middle Street belong- ing or purporting to belong to Alice P. Jewell, and bounded and described as follows, to wit:
Southeasterly by Middle Street; southerly by land now or formerly of William E. Dizer, George Strong et al., Josephine Morton, Martha A. Lincoln, and by Maple Street; northeasterly by Chard Street; northwesterly by land now or formerly of Thomas Lonergan; northeasterly by land of said Lonergan; north- easterly by land now or formerly of Nancie M. Ames; easterly by land of said Ames and land now or formerly of Arthur Cuning- ham; northwesterly by land now or formerly of Joseph A. Trask et al for a short distance;' northeasterly by land of said Trask; southeasterly by land of said Trask; northeasterly by Chard Street; northwesterly by land now or formerly of Francis W. Cowing; northeasterly by land of said Cowing; northeasterly but more northerly by land now or formerly of Lizzie E. Granger, Francis W. Cowing and Kathleen J. Flavin; northwesterly by land now or formerly of B. K. Harding et al., Bernard E. Deegan, Martin H. Sullivan and Abbie A. Lyons et al., and containing in the whole of said parcel approximately 284,412 square feet.
The moderator appointed Charles W. Burgess, J. Edward Mul- ligan and Walter L. Bates as tellers, they were sworn to the faithful performance of that duty.
The tellers reported 120 voting in the affirmative and 1 in the negative.
Art. 4. Voted: To take up articles 5-6 and 7 in conjunction with article 4. i
Voted unanimously: To acept the offer of Mrs. S. Etta Know- les to sell to the Town for the sum of $5,000 a certain parcel of land situated at the southwesterly corner of Middle Street and Academy Road and bounded northerly by Academy Road, easterly by Middle Street, and southerly and westerly by land belonging to the Town of Weymouth forming a portion of the present High School Lot.
Voted unanimously: To raise and appropriate the sum of $5,040 for the acquistion of the aforesaid land of Mrs. S. Etta Knowles, as an addition to the High School Lot.
Voted unanimously: To adopt the recommendation of the Committee on New Municipal Offices that a new Town Office Build-
-
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ing be erected on the High School Lot as enlarged by the property of Mrs. S. Etta Knowles this day voted to be acquired. Voted: To raise and appropriate the sum of $500 for plans and landscape and other work for the New Town Office Building.
Voted unanimously: That the Board of Selectmen be author- ized to take by right of eminent domain for the site of a Muni- cipal Building the parcel of land at the southwesterly corner of Academy Road and Middle Street owned by Mrs. S. Etta Knowles, and bounded northerly by Academy Road, easterly by Middle Street, and southerly and westerly by land of the Town of Wey- mouth, forming a portion of the present High School Lot, and that the sum of five thousand forty dollars (5,040) be raised and appropriated for the acquisition of said land, said sum also to be available in case the land is acquired by purchase rather than taking. in accordance with the vote passed under article 5 of the warrant.
The tellers reported 119 voting in the affirmative and none in the negative.
Voted unanimously: That te Town approve a general plan for a new Town Office Building submitted by the Committee on New Municipal Offices, and that said committee is hereby author- zed to secure bids for such a building and to award a contract or contracts for the same, subject to the Town appropriating the necessary money at the annual Town Meeting in March 1928.
Art. 8. Voted: That the Committee on New Municipal Offices be instructed to consider and report to the Town at a future meet- ing a plan for a memorial to the soldiers who have served from the Town in the various wars since the settlement of the Town.
Art. 9. Voted: To raise and appropriate the sum of $2,750 for dredging in Weymouth Fore River same to be expended under the direction of the Selectmen.
Art. 10. Voted: To raise and appropriate the sum of $1,300 for the repair of highways, townways, bridges street oiling, and for the removal of snow, this amount to be in addition to the amount heretofore appropriated for this purpose.
Art. 11. Moved: To raise and appropriate the following sums, for the respective departments.
Selectmen's Department $ 500
Board of Health 4,500
Charities 9,000
Fire Department 2,025
Police Department
1,000
$17,025
these amounts to be in addition to the amounts heretofore ap- propriated for these departments.
Chief of Fire Department, John B. Hunt moved as an amend- ment: That the sum $2,160 be raised and appropriated (in addition to that recommended by the Appropriation Committee) to pay for the services of six additional permanent men for the Fire Department.
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The tellers reported 65 voted in the affirmative and 56 in the negative, the amendment prevailed, the motion as amended was then so voted, the total amount being $19,185.
Art. 12. Voted: That no action be taken under this article.
Art. 13. Voted That no action be taken under this article.
Art. 14. Moved: That the Board of Selectmen be instructed and directed to acquire by purchase or take by right of eminent domain for school purposes as authorized by vote of the Town under article 24 of the warrant for the annual Town Meeting in March, 1927, a certain lot of land situated on the westerly side of Pond Street and known as the "Burbank lot" and more particu- larly described in the vote of the Town under said article 24 at the said annual Town Meeting: The moderator declared it a vote, more than seven members doubting the vote the tellers reported 56 voting in the affirmative and 69 voted in the negative, the moderator declared the motion lost.
Art. 15. Voted: That the Board of Selectmen be authorized to acquire by purchase or take by right of eminent domain for school purposes a certain lot of land situated on the westerly side of Pond Street, belonging or purporting to belong to Carrie H. Dunn, and being the easterly portion of the premises conveyed to said Dunn by deed dated October 10 1907, and recorded with Norfolk Deeds,, Book 1071, Page 161, and bounded and described as follows:
Beginning at the northwesterly corner of the said parcel to be acquired at the southeasterly corner of land belonging to the Town of Weymouth; thence running in a southerly direction by a line in continuation to the easterly boundary of said land of the Town of Weymouth to land of Nathaniel A. Shaw and another; thence running easterly by said land of Shaw to Pond Street; thence running northerly by said Pond Street to land now or late of Frank W. Ham; thence running westerly by said land of Ham to the westerly boundary thereof; thence running northerly by the westerly boundary of said land of Ham and land now or late Mary A. Santry to land of James L. Nesbitt; thence running westerly by said land of Nesbitt to the point of beginning; and that there be appropriated for the acquisition of said land the sum of five thousand six hundred dollars ($5,600) the same to be taken and transferred from the unexpended appropriation made under article 24 of the warrant at the annual Town Meeting in March, 1927, for the acquisition of a school site in the Pond Plain District, said appropriation not having been expended and the site herein authorized to be acquired being in place of the site for which said appropriation was originally made.
The tellers reported 89 voting in the affirmative and 3 in the negative.
Art. 16. Voted unanimously: That the Board of Selectmen be authorized to appoint a Town Accountant under and in ac- cordance with the provisions of Section 55 of Chapter 41 of the General Laws, this vote to become effective on the expiration of the term of office of the present Town Accountant in March, 1928.
Art. 17. Voted unanimously: That the Town abolish the office of Town Auditor. this vote to take effect at the close of the cur- rent Municipal Year.
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Art. 18. Voted unanimously: That hereafter the term of office of the Town Clerk be three years commencing with the ex- piration of the term of office of the present Town Clerk in March, 1928.
Art. 19. Motion offered: That after the close of the current Municipal year, the term of office of the Selectmen be three years, and that at the annual Town Election in March, 1928, two Selectmen be elected for the term of three years, two for the term of two years, and onefor the term of one year, in ac- cordance with the statute governing elections of Selectmen. This motion was lost, by vote of the members.
Art. 20. Motion made as follows: That the by-laws as adopt- ed at the adjourned annual Town Meeting held March 10, 1927, and approved by the Attorney General August 20, 1927, be amend- ed as follows: -
Insert after the words "Board of Survey" in Section 305 the following sentence: "They shall make such rules and regulations for the government and disipline of the Police Department as they from time to time deem necessary. Subject to the vote of the Town and the Statntes of the Commonwealth on the subject they shall fix the several grades of members of the Department and make appointments thereto."
Voted: That the above motion be indefinitely postponed.
Motion made as folows: To insert the following: Section 403.
"The Treasurer shall deposit the moneys of the Town only in such banking institutions as may be approved by the Town Meet- ing or by vote of the Selectmen, and shall keep the securities of the Town in some safe deposit vault which has been approved as aforesaid. When the Selectmen approve a depository or re- scind an approval previously given the fact shall be entered in their records."
Voted: That the above amendment to the by-laws be adopted.
Voted: To adjourn at 11 p. m. 159 Town Meeting Members present.
Clayton B. Merchant, Town Clerk.
VITAL STATISTICS
BIRTHS RECORDED IN THE TOWN OF WEYMOUTH FOR THE YEAR 1927 Nome Place of Birth Paren's Weymouth Low Albert and Mary Jo plane (Fitzpatrick ( Reardon " "
Jan. 1 Elconore Claire Reardon
2
Female
Clarane Lydm an De Jongh Giles
3 Arline Nason Giles
" Herold cyWester and Ru Alist of (Dep 1) Dolan
5 Alice Bailey
Melrose
Georjo and Mai (11) by
5 Mary Peinadette Good
Weymouth
Weymouth Www and Mary Muryazet (opim) Cramer
8 Kenneth Marshall Lavery
Richard and Marydella (Muff-og) Way
9 Elizabeth Bauman Paul M. and Riegel A. ( Wyman, atall
9 Betty Lee Benjamin
" Rundll irving and Lomforme L. (hjobfisk) Benjamin
11 Donald Louis DeCoste
Trai and Lina ( Boucher) Deronly
97
13 Male
Brockton
14 Horton George Norwood, Jr.
Weymouth "
Horton O. sil Que (Port r) Norwood Verwo radar: 00 0.11 h. () andry) Leslie
15 Robert Linwood Leslie
"
John ... abd PRO 8. (its) Reidy
17 Constante Grace Nash
"
L.C. (Pattomay Nach
18 Robert James McIntosh, Jr.
Robert play an Tt Me (McComer) M. Intosh
19 Thomas Pickett
Thomas z, woll Tellme (healey) Pickett Joseim ant Helemm (fruivan) Poiici
22 Arlene Fthiel Ferbert
Weymouth "
John gi Boil ( Lodd) Perbort
23 John IEdlland Murray
"
24 Female
24 Richard Lincoln Souther
"
Everett Austin Und Evelyn Sammery (Prout) Souther Summer Løpt ahd & Me ( Kobiedg) Hopkins
24 Sumner Lloyd Hopkins, Jr.
Quincy
Weymouth
w Mio Andrew wit Margaret (Spam ) Scott thor II. ant Iske ize Care) Lovell
24 Anna Sectt 25 Arthur Dona Lovell
25 Anthony Edward Daniele
Michael and Florence A. (Waite) Daniele
21 Marie Torero Poirier
Somerville
John Hem anl Mary Logie ( White) Murray
Date
3 John Harold Dolan
8 William Alfred Creamer
15 Jean Theicaa Reidy
26 Barbara Stiles
"
28 Richard Paul Connolly
29 Eleanor Rose Pecoraro
30 Elaine Flathers
,
Feb. 1 Harold Crawford Drew
"
2 Harvey Porter Farish
2 Chester Leo Boyle
2 Benjamin Almond Durgin, Jr.
2 Charles Henry Downes
4 Female
"
7 Lillian Claire Blackburn
11 James Lawrence McCullagh, Jr.
"
12 Marguerite Theresa McIlvaine
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