The Saga Continues: The Story of the Depot Overhang
After 6 years, the conversations around using taxpayer dollars to fix private property is back up for debate.
Written by: Dan Shibilia
The deteriorating overhang at the historic rail depot on Union Street is back in front of the Council after last night's meeting, and with it comes the familiar push to spend public money solving a private property problem. Before that conversation goes any further, residents deserve to know what the public record actually says, because the deeds tell a story that is more complicated than anyone in this debate has acknowledged, and that complexity makes the case for city spending weaker, not stronger.
A Building Worth Knowing
The depot at 55 Union Street is one of Methuen's most recognizable landmarks. Opened in 1908, it was a gift to the city from millionaire Edward F. Searles, designed by Henry Vaughan, the same architect who drew the original plans for the Washington National Cathedral. (Eagle-Tribune letter, Stephen E. Barbin, May 5, 2011; Methuen History Project, methuenhistory.org) It served as a passenger station until the early 1960s and now anchors the southern end of the Methuen Rail Trail.
It is privately owned. And that changes everything about what the city can and cannot do.
Who Owns the Building
According to a 2008 Plan of Land recorded at the Northern Essex Registry of Deeds (Plan No. 1596), the owner of record at 55 Union Street is Laborers International of North America Local 175, a construction and energy industry union that uses the building as its office and local headquarters. The parcel is identified as Map 614-120, Lot 33-B, containing 10,546 square feet, roughly 0.242 acres. The Eagle-Tribune reported in 2019 that Local 175 purchased the building in 2003. (Eagle-Tribune, Breanna Edelstein, July 10, 2019)
What the 1955 Deed Says
When the Boston and Maine Railroad first conveyed this property into private hands, in an indenture dated January 5, 1955, recorded at Book 807, Page 382 of the Northern Essex Registry of Deeds, it included a covenant binding on all future owners forever. The language could not be plainer:
"As part consideration for this conveyance, the grantees hereby covenant and agree for themselves, their heirs and assigns, that they will remove forthwith at their expense the present awning, curb and platform on said parcel. This covenant is to run with the land hereinafter described and to be binding upon the grantees, their heirs and assigns, forever."
(Northern Essex Registry of Deeds, Book 807, Page 382, January 5, 1955)
The buyers of this property in 1955 agreed, as a condition of the sale, to remove the awning at their own expense. That obligation was expressly made binding on all future owners. Local 175, as the current owner, stepped into that obligation when it acquired the property in 2003.
The awning was clearly never removed.
Then It Gets More Complicated
Here is the part of this story that nobody in the current debate appears to have addressed.
In 1983, the then-owners of 55 Union Street, Daniel J. and Mary J. Dodson, entered into a recorded lease agreement with the Arnold Greenwood Post Veterans of Foreign Wars No. 8249, located at 26 River Street, Methuen. That lease, recorded at Book 1764, Page 287 of the Northern Essex Registry of Deeds on January 5, 1984, covers a specific piece of property: "a long wooden canopy" located on VFW land at 26 River Street that extends onto the 55 Union Street parcel.
The lease term is 99 years at $1.00 per year. It runs until 2082.
(Northern Essex Registry of Deeds, Book 1764, Page 287, recorded January 5, 1984)
This is significant for several reasons. First, it establishes that the canopy structure sits, at least in part, on VFW-owned land at 26 River Street, not on the depot parcel itself. Second, it means the then-owners of 55 Union Street were, as of 1983, acknowledging that they did not own the canopy outright and needed a lease to maintain access to it. Third, it raises a question that city officials and the union alike have not answered publicly: when Local 175 bought 55 Union Street in 2003, did it acquire that lease? If so, Local 175 has been a lessee of VFW property for over twenty years. If not, the lease may have lapsed, which creates its own set of questions about who has any legal right to the canopy at all.
What is not in question is that the city of Methuen is not a party to any of this. The canopy sits on or between private parcels, subject to private deed covenants and private lease agreements recorded decades ago. The adjacent land to the south, shown on the 2008 survey plan as "N/F Mass. Bay Trans. Authority," is held by the city through an MBTA lease, but that does not make the canopy itself public property.
The 2019 Debate
None of this was aired publicly in 2019, when the Eagle-Tribune reported that the city estimated $284,000 in repairs were needed at the depot, a deteriorating roof and a structurally deficient awning with temporary posts already in place after cars struck the originals. (Eagle-Tribune, July 10, 2019)
The city's then-Director of Economic and Community Development, Bill Buckley, proposed spending leftover Gateway City Parks Program funds, roughly $900,000 remained of a $1.95 million grant, on depot improvements. The council voted it down 4-4.
Councilor Steve Saba was direct: "They bought that building, they own the building, they should maintain the overhang. If that building is not owned by the city, then why are we using state taxpayer money to renovate it?" (Eagle-Tribune, July 10, 2019)
He was asking the right question. The record shows the answer is even more complicated than he knew.
The Law Has Not Changed
Massachusetts law does not allow municipalities to spend public funds to improve private property. It's amazing how many times I've had to write this statement…
Under MGL c. 40, Section 5, cities and towns may only appropriate money for public purposes. The Massachusetts Division of Local Services is explicit: there is a prohibition against giving money or property to any individual, association, or corporation embarking on a private enterprise, and if the dominant motive is to promote a private purpose, the expenditure is invalid even if some public benefit is incidentally served. (Massachusetts Division of Local Services, "Municipal Expenditures: Proper Public Purposes")
The canopy sits on private land, subject to a deed covenant requiring its removal and a 99-year private lease of uncertain current status. It is not public property. Spending public money on it is STILL not legal, regardless of how aesthetically significant it may be or how many times the question is brought back before the council.
What Actually Needs to Happen
Before the city spends a dollar, it needs answers to basic questions that the public record raises but does not fully resolve. Who currently holds the 1983 VFW lease, and is it still in force? Does Local 175 acknowledge that the 1955 deed covenant binds it as successor owner? What is the VFW's position on the canopy and its condition? Has anyone actually put these questions to legal counsel with all of the relevant deeds in hand?
If the union wants to keep the overhang, and there may be legitimate historic preservation reasons to do so (although we've been unable to confirm or deny that the overhang was part of the original structure), that is a conversation worth having. But it is a conversation between private landowners and their attorneys, not a line item in Methuen's budget. The deeds are public record. The law is settled. The only thing missing is the political will to follow both.
Sources:
Pictures of documents and other supporting information
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aAA-EMrfWUyJ4OU-G1KY23rOF0ABZjB3
Northern Essex Registry of Deeds, Book 807, Page 382 (January 5, 1955 indenture, Boston & Maine Railroad to Forster and Passler);
Northern Essex Registry of Deeds, Book 1764, Page 287 (December 27, 1983 lease, Arnold Greenwood Post VFW No. 8249 to Daniel J. and Mary J. Dodson, recorded January 5, 1984);
Northern Essex Registry of Deeds, Plan No. 1596 (Plan of Land, July 4, 2008, prepared for Laborers International of North America Local 175);
Eagle-Tribune, Breanna Edelstein, "City, union at odds over depot fixes," July 10, 2019;
Eagle-Tribune, Breanna Edelstein, "Depot awning dispute heads toward lawsuit," July 31, 2019;
Methuen History Project, S-W Sites, methuenhistory.org; Stephen E. Barbin letter to the editor, Eagle-Tribune, May 5, 2011;
Massachusetts Division of Local Services, "Municipal Expenditures: Proper Public Purposes"; MGL c. 40, Section 5.*