save this historic home

Quick Update 2-25.  The Board of Appeals issued a special permit, so the house will be relocated on the lot, renovated and have a historically-sensitive addition.  Thanks to all who wrote in to save the home.  
53 Summer Street, a two-family home, is scheduled for demolition to make room for two (2) single family houses. The owner is willing to pay to move and renovate it—but can only do that if the Zoning Board approves.

Attend the Board of Appeals Meeting 
on Thursday February 25 at 7:00 p.m.
in the Town Hall Hearing Room
 
This will be a Public Hearing where you can express your support for saving this 210 year old building.
 
Write a letter to the Board of Appeals
Email c/o crooney@stoneham-ma.gov
 Or mail to: Town Hall
35 Central Street
Stoneham, MA 02180
Ask the Board to issue a special permit that will save this 210 year old build

What's going on?

Local resident Tom Anderson, owner of 53 Summer Street, is asking for a special permit to move this 2 family building toward Summer Street. He will add an architecturally sympathetic garage and rehabilitate the existing structure.

The ZBA has already approved dividing the existing lot into two single family lots, One will face Summer Street and one will face Pershing Place. Because the existing building—built in 1810—is a two family, it needs an additional permit. Without a permit to move the building onto the new smaller lot instead of building a new single family—this historic home will have to be destroyed
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The Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a Public Hearing on this project in February, because the lot is 40% of what is required for a 2 family dwelling in Residence A (although the buildings will only cover 17% of that lot).​

What can I do?

Attend the Board of Appeals Meeting
on Thursday February 25 at 7:00 p.m.
in the Town Hall Hearing Room
 
This will be a Public Hearing where you can express your   support for saving this 210 year old building.
 
 
Write a letter to the Board of Appeals
Email c/o crooney@stoneham-ma.gov
 Or mail to: Town Hall
35 Central Street
Stoneham, MA 02180
Ask the Board to issue a special permit that will save this 210 year old building.

what's so important?

This c.1810 house has been a part of your neighborhood for 210 years and contributes to the identity, character and historic fabric of Stoneham.  It was originally the home of the Bucknam family, who arrived here in 1717 -- before Stoneham was even incorporated as a town.

In the State’s inventory of ‘cultural resources’, this house is in Stoneham’s top 6%. There are only 12 older properties and 2 in the same c.1810 period still standing in  town. 

We should oppose the destruction of buildings that define the character of a neighborhood and are in sound structural condition. 

​It doesn’t make good preservation or environmental sense to raze 53 Summer Street and consign the
debris to landfills.

Who were the bucknams?

53 Summer Street was the home of at least two generations of the Bucknam family. Edward, born in 1789, and his son Dexter, born in 1817 are fourth and fifth generation of this family of landowners in Stoneham. 
Dexter Burnham was a shoemaker, a census taker, a justice for the trial of civil and criminal cases in Stoneham, an incorporator and trustee of the Stoneham Five Cents Savings Bank (now Salem Five) and a member in fraternal organizations such as the Odd Fellows.

Early Bucknam men were farmers and shoemakers, served in the local militia and held important postings in the church (deacons) and town (selectmen and town clerk). Deacon Edward Bucknam bought land in 1716 when this was still ‘Charlestown End’. In 1725, when the population reached 65 male inhabitants, Edward joined those who petitioned the State to separate from Charlestown. His grandson Ebenezer Bucknam marched to Lexington with the Stoneham militia to chase the retreating British back to Boston on that “glorious morning” in 1775.
 
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