Letter to the Editor
Daily News Tribune
March 18, 2018

To plan for a new state-of-the-art senior high school, city leaders knew they would need land sufficiently large and centrally located in Waltham. On May 15, 1967, then Waltham Mayor Richard F. Dacey Jr. and the Waltham City Council, approved the taking of three separate yet contiguous parcels of land near Lexington Street by eminent domain for educational purposes: 3.79 acre parcel from Coleman and Stanton families, 6.44 acre parcel from the Cambridge Council Boy Scouts Inc., and 20.46 acre parcel from Theodore Lyman Storer (representing the Paine Estate) for a total of 30.69 acres.

The damages paid included the following: $9,475 to the Coleman and Stanton families, $16,000 to the Cambridge Council Boy Scouts, and $51,150 to Theodore L. Storer for a total cost of $76,625 for 30.69 acres, which amounted to $2,497 per acre.

The Coleman and Stanton land was used for the access roadway from Lexington Street, now called Jack's Way. The Cambridge Council Boy Scouts land was where Harding Field is now located. The bulk of the acreage was taken from Theodore Storer (the Paine Estate) where the current high school and parking lot is now situated.

Ironically back in 1955, Theodore Storer had previously donated many acres to the Boy Scouts, on which he sat as a board of director. Six acres of their parcel were now being taken back by the City of Waltham. In 1979 the Boy Scouts sold their remaining land (named "Camp Ted" after Theodore Storer) as their woodlot had already been cut off from the remainder of the Paine Estate by the construction of the new Waltham High School. Their parcel would later become the Pigeon Hill subdivision.

The architect of the new high school was Fenton G. Keyes Associates Inc. of Waltham. Initial cost of the high school on Lexington Street was $7,200,000. The school was quickly constructed and just over two years opened on Monday, September 8, 1969 to its 2,100 Waltham students in grades 10, 11 and 12. One can hope that the planning and construction of a new high school in Waltham in 2018 will happen as quickly as it did back in 1967.

Sincerely,
George A. Darcy III
City Councilor Ward 3
Hobbs Road