The hardest part about going to the YMCA on Essex Street is working up the motivation to go there. The second hardest part is getting in and out of the parking lot.
The bend in the road where the entrance/exit lies makes those left-hand turns in and out a challenge. Cars speeding along Essex Street are on you before you know it.
The Y is looking to solve that long-standing safety issue, and it started a couple of weeks ago in a way you might not expect — by knocking down a couple of historic buildings.
The Y demolished the buildings, which it owned, to make way for a new entrance/exit that will be much safer to navigate, says Tim Flaherty, the Greater Beverly YMCA’s executive director.
The Y doesn’t have a specific plan yet or any drawings of what the new configuration would look like. But Flaherty said the basic idea is to construct a new entrance/exit and roadway into the Y on Essex Street opposite Cole Street, just down the street from the current entrance/exit, which sits on a blind curve in the road. A four-way stop could possibly be installed at the new location. There could also be sidewalks in the parking lot itself to make it safer to walk from your car to the front door, or to navigate in a wheelchair or while pushing a baby stroller.
Flaherty said one of the big themes at the Y, which is part of its strategic plan, is eliminating barriers. What could be more of a barrier than blind turns and chaotic parking lots.
“This is all about safety and meeting community needs,” Flaherty told me this week as we walked through the parking lot.
Now about those historic buildings. They were single-family homes that Flaherty said were uninhabitable. They’re now gone, and in their place is an open lot where a new entrance/exit and roadway can be constructed.
Here’s the vacant lot where the houses used to be:
Two years ago I covered a meeting of the Beverly Historic Districts Commission about the Y’s plan to knock down the buildings, and the commission was not happy about it. The buildings were part of a group of a dozen buildings near the intersection of Essex and Cole streets that are eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
A 1993 report by the Beverly Historic Districts Commission recommending the area for the National Register called the buildings in that area “the most important historic group, in terms of architecture and age, along Route 22 outside of downtown Beverly.” That included a historic shoe shed, which we’ll get to later.
As for the two houses that ended up being demolished, the report said 272 Essex was a shingled Federal period house called the Amos Lefavour House, while 278 Essex was a Greek Revival house. Both were built sometime before 1852, according to the report, which you can read in full here.
Historic Beverly submitted a letter to the Historic Districts Commission in 2023 stating its “strong opposition” to knocking down the houses.
“The Massachusetts Historical Commission specifically studied the Essex/Cole Street area, noting its importance in Beverly history for both the architecture and the evidence of early community planning in this neighborhood,” Historic Beverly President Victoria Caldwell wrote.
The Historic Districts Commission imposed a one-year delay on the demolition in the hopes of getting the Y to change their minds. But the Y was free to go ahead with the demo once the year expired.
Flaherty said he understood the concerns about preserving the buildings. He noted that the Y has been in Beverly since 1892, and has renovated a historic property of its own, the Cabot Street Y. But he said the historic preservation concerns were outweighed by the safety issues.
Flaherty said neighbors of the Y have told him they support the idea of a safer entrance and exit.
“We had 1,000 kids at summer camp this summer,” he told me. “We have a preschool with 200 kids. We have 15,000 members, and that doesn’t include people who come for different programs. We want this place to be accessible to all and to know it will be safe.”
And the Y did agree to preserve one historic structure — the former shoe shop, known as a “10-footer.” The 1993 report said shoe shops were once a common sight along Beverly roadsides, but nearly all of them disappeared with the advent of shoemaking factories in the 1850s and 1860s. The one on Essex Street is the only known surviving roadside shoe shop in the city.
Flaherty said the Y will restore the shoe shop, put a plaque out front, and use it for educational purposes. The Y has received $20,000 from the city’s Community Preservation Act to help fund the restoration work, which Flaherty said will begin in about two weeks. In a followup letter to Flaherty, Caldwell said Historic Beverly was “delighted” with the Y’s decision to preserve the shoe shed.
Here’s an undated photo, courtesy of Historic Beverly, showing the shoe shed next to 272 Essex.
There were also questions about why the Y would knock down two homes at a time when housing is so needed. The Y also owns two other homes on Essex Street in front of the Sterling Center where Y staff and their families live.
Again, Flaherty pointed to the safety concerns as the top issue. And he said the Y has done a lot to provide affordable housing over the years, including an expansion of the number of single-occupancy rooms at the Cabot Street Y and the construction of family housing in the Gloucester Crossing neighborhood.
“We’re in the affordable housing business,” Flaherty said. “(Eliminating housing) is the last thing we want to do. But we have to weigh the safety concerns.”
Flaherty said the Y doesn’t have a timeline yet for when the new entrance/exit will be built. In the meantime, it put up a fence in front of the now-empty lot along Essex Street.
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Just drove by the site, which is now about a 100 yard strip of stockade fence abutting the tiny shoe shed. Looks pretty ridiculous. Not sure the Y should be lauded for how much they care about historical preservation, when they destroyed 90% of the history and 100% of the historical context. And got CPA money for the little they are preserving. Reminds me very much of the what went on with Beverly Crossing at the Depot where an organization is able to secure tax money and public relations kudos in the name of historical preservation, but the end result loses most of the history.