Historical Commission Discusses Old Burying Ground, Historic District
The Falmouth Historical Commission discussed a variety of initiatives at its meeting on Tuesday, February 1, including the relocation of vintage water troughs and restoration efforts at the Old Burying Ground.
Chairman Edward Haddad updated the commission on the efforts to restore historic gravestones at the cemetery off of Mill Road. Town Manager Julian M. Suso has tasked the department of public works with the project, with director Peter McConarty leading the work.
“To that end, Peter has reached out to me based on his instructions from Julian that the historical commission will be included in the process and what they do,” Mr. Haddad said.
The DPW will work with Fannin-Lehner Preservation Consultants to create a preservation plan and begin the restoration work. Fannin-Lehner is the same consultant group that previously inventoried the Old Burying Ground to plan for preservation nearly two decades ago.
On behalf of the commission, Mr. Haddad appointed board member Tamsen George as an alternate representative to the project, as she is often off-Cape and not able to quickly get to Falmouth for a last-minute meeting if needed. Ms. George has already begun attending meetings for the project and is familiar with its history, making her a qualified alternate representative, Mr. Haddad said.
Because historic gravestone restoration is likely not Mr. McConarty’s expertise, Mr. Haddad said, the commission will serve as a type of watchdog in the historical capacity for the project.
“What I expect our involvement to be is really just to be observers, watch the process, just listen to the scope of work and instructions,” Mr. Haddad said.
The first step in the process is beginning the assessment, but first the collaborating organizations are getting acquainted with the area and gathering the necessary paperwork from the previous inventory that was done in the early 2000s. Ms. George said that to her knowledge, no further report has come out of the groups’ meetings and it is unclear when they will meet next.
What is also uncertain is the status of the commission’s $75,000 application for community preservation committee funding for the restoration efforts.
“We put in an application as a placeholder so that we could secure funds this year,” Mr. Haddad said. “I had put in a request that a committee be formed to manage this whole process, to start with the assessment report and then manage the restoration on an ongoing basis over the years.”
Mr. Haddad said that the application is still pending. The CPC has voted on it and there is a warrant article written for April Town Meeting, but the CPC needs to figure out how to handle the application and subsequent allocation of funds.
“It doesn’t just get transferred over [to the DPW], that’s not how it works,” Mr. Haddad said. “And I don’t think it should.”
Mr. Haddad said that as he understands it, Mr. McConarty will make a presentation to the CPC regarding the project and the DPW’s intentions with it, then the CPC will decide what to do with the application Mr. Haddad submitted.
“My concern, just to be open, is that our intention was that the cemetery be restored properly,” Mr. Haddad said. “That’s what the intention of the committee was, not just put some spray, wash down the gravestone, and then walk away. I’m going to ask [Annie Dean, the commission’s CPC representative] to make sure that the CPC understands that. The town did a report 15 or 16 years ago [and] they did nothing, they never did a restoration. I want to make sure it happens this time because we intended it to, and just because there’s different people in charge doesn’t change that objective.”
The commission also discussed the status of various other initiatives that are in the works, the first being the potential establishment of Crown Circle as a historic district. It is something the commission has discussed before, and Mr. Haddad said he is prepared to send a letter to property owners in the area, inviting them to a meeting to discuss the idea and get feedback. His concern, however, is that many of the residents in that area are seasonal, so he recommended that the commission begin with a virtual Zoom session later in the spring that would allow residents, both year-round and seasonal, to attend.
“I don’t want people to feel excluded because we did a meeting in the winter when they weren’t here,” he said. “I don’t think that would be fair and that’s not what our intention is, anyway.”
The public meeting would likely take place in late spring or early summer and would be aimed largely at collecting resident feedback on the commission’s idea of establishing the neighborhood as a historic district.
In other business, Mr. Haddad told the commission that he had been contacted by Neil M. Good, an East Falmouth resident, about a vintage clock at the corner of Worcester Court and Teaticket Highway next to TD Bank.
“I’d never noticed it because most of it is shrouded by very large shrubberies there,” Mr. Haddad said. “It probably goes back to the fifties or early sixties maybe, but it’s made by a famous company who’s noted for making these very iconic city clocks.”
The clock no longer runs, but Mr. Good called Mr. Haddad to see if the commission could look into the preservation and restoration of the clock. It’s unclear whether the clock is on TD Bank’s property or town property; Assistant Town Planner Jed Cornock said that TD Bank has contacted the town and is working with the facilities director to determine whose property it is on. If the clock is owned by the town, then it could be eligible for CPC funds for restoration.
The board also discussed the idea of potentially moving it to a more significant place, such as outside town hall, the library, or Falmouth Station. Mr. Cornock said that he will contact the facilities department for an update and be sure that the DPW knows that the historical commission is interested in the clock.
In the same vein, there are ongoing efforts to relocate the restored vintage water fountains from their current location at the water department to their original locations in Woods Hole and on the village green. Arden Edwards, a Woods Hole resident, has spearheaded the effort for the past year and was given approval from the Steamship Authority to relocate the fountain to Woods Hole’s Cahoon Park, which is currently being redesigned by the Steamship Authority.
Mr. Haddad said the historical commission now wants to focus on getting the other fountain back to its original location on the village green. He said he had a Form C—an inventory document for an object with historical significance through the Massachusetts Historical Commission—created for the fountains.
“They really are very cool artifacts,” Mr. Haddad said.