New Shed Will House Burlington's Historical Artifacts

The Burlington Historical Commission is looking to construct an 800-square-foot storage shed to store some historical artifacts on the property of the town's historical West School.

The shed will be 40 feet by 20 feet—larger than the West School Building—and will be designed to be historically accurate. At the February 6 Planning Board meeting, Peter Coppola from the Historical Commission presented the proposal in hopes of obtaining approval from the Board for a special permit.

The plan to build a shed to house some of the town's historical artifacts was presented to Town Meeting in May of 2022, and Town Meeting agreed to allocate $33,000 for the project. Since then, the price of goods has increased and, after meeting with the Planning Board, the Commission will have some more asks for Town Meeting when they go back to request more funding, hopefully this May.

Assuming the funding is approved, the shed will have climate control to protect the artifacts and cedar shingles to better reflect what it would have looked like in the 1700s. The shingles, say Planning Board Chair Bill Gaffney, will enhance the look of the building, especially in light of the fact that the shed will sit below grade with not much more than the roof visible from the street.

The Board also required the Historical Commission to ensure a vegetative buffer between the new shed and abutting properties and urged the planting of native species to replace the invasive young Norway maples that will be removed for construction.

The project will adhere to the proper setbacks and, as determined by the Planning Board with its approval of the special permit, is not more detrimental than the existing structure to the surrounding neighborhood. And, students at local vocational school, Shawsheen Valley Technical High School, will participate in its construction.

The Historical Commission will be relocating some artifacts from different places in town, including moving them out of the temporary container that sits behind the museum at the corner of Bedford and Cambridge Streets and taking artifacts off the museum floor. Coppola made it clear that the shed won't be open to the public - only town employees and volunteers will have access, and the town's third graders will be able to look inside when they come for field trips each year.

The shed would be located on the property of the West School, which was built in the late 1700s and relocated from the Town Center (where Simonds Park now sits) when the Center School (which is now the Town Museum) was built in 1839. The West School was rehabbed in the 1960s and, while its location changed, it's the only of Burlington's five directional school buildings (North, South, East, West, and Center) still standing.

Expect to see this come up as a capital article for May Town Meeting.