Houses of Melrose Come to Life

By: Ethan McCoy and Kyle Snyder-Drummond

During a morning brief, Bridget told Mary and us that we were supposed to take photos of the nearby historic houses we had been researching over the preceding weeks for our project. “Seriously!” Kyle boldly stated in disapproval as Bridget sent us off to handle our duties in the heat. It was at least 85 degrees out even in the shade and we were sweltering in the relentless outdoors. But, we walked along our designated route as Mary  directed our group in the right direction. As we came to the first house, we were impressed by its uniqueness. As we passed along, we recognized the houses that were designated as historic by their outstanding style and magnificent facades. We took pictures of all the houses from various angles while dodging traffic, the occasional bicyclist, and reckless pedestrians. We photographed most of the listed historic houses and others not on the list that looked historic but were still impressive.

As we walked along further we arrived upon a large house in the Cedar neighborhood, which struck us as one of the most impressive and groomed houses we had come upon so far. Its raised foundation flowed into a majestic garden bursting with a rainbow of purple and vibrant pink flowers. The house’s style made us gape in awe because of its prominence and its sense of importance. The house itself is not actually important in fact, but it gave off the air of a building with large significance. After staggering around Melrose for a couple of hours in the overwhelming heat, we returned to City Hall and relaxed in the enjoyable air conditioning before heading home for the day.

The next day we headed out yet again, but in the comfort of an air-conditioned Dodge Durango piloted by none other than Sean Lenehan. Sean, with the help of navigator Mark McKinnon in the back seat, was able to shuttle us to the historic houses of Melrose that were not reachable by foot. We had a fun time while documenting some more historic houses for our website. We discovered streets of which we were unaware and houses that we did not believe could exist in what we perceived as a boring town. We even met some interesting people and creatures, including a pet iguana bathing himself in the sun on one of the historic houses’ vast porches. As our deadline, two o’clock, approached, we headed back to City Hall , and rolled into the parking lot. Now, we are almost done with the photographs and we are excited to finalize our website with its photos and facts in the upcoming weeks so others can enjoy what we have learned to enjoy this summer.