Weymouth, Massachusetts

7 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 10 offers green space, views of Boston Harbor, and walking trails. A grant has also been secured to fix up the building’s interior into a home for town artifacts. “The community has a big attachment to that building, so it’s going to be a big achievement if we can save it,” Hedlund says. The town has gone to extremes in the past to save its cherished historical sites. In 2016, Weymouth utilized a demolition delay bylaw to save a historic home from demolition – a first in the town’s history. “A developer bought it with the intention of tearing it down,” Hedlund explains. “It was known as the Bradford Hawes House. He was a noted abolitionist and it’s believed the house was part of the Underground Railroad and housed escaped slaves. So it was a significant property that was saved under that bylaw.” The town’s history as a shoe manufacturing center from the early 18th century until the 1970s has left them with several old mill buildings that have been restored for new use. One developer, Heritage Companies, is in the process of turning a former mill into 86 residential apartments. “It’s going to be a beautiful restoration of a shoe building,” says Weymouth’s Director of Planning and Community Development, Robert Luongo. “We did that by creating a historic mill district overlay, which gave incentive to the developer to make the numbers work for restoration of this project.” Member FDIC. Member DIF. www.ibankcanton.com / forbusiness BANK WHERE YOUR BUSINESS MEANS SOMETHING.