City Looks at Possibilities for Memorial Hall
By Ellen Putnam
Melrose residents, business owners, and other users (or potential users) of the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building (better known as Memorial Hall) are encouraged to fill out a survey about their use of Memorial Hall between now and the end of the year.
“We want anyone and everyone to engage with the survey to the extent that you have anything to say,” explained Tom Dalton, the city’s Communications Manager. He noted that residents, whether or not they regularly attend events at Memorial Hall, as well as business owners and people from surrounding communities, are encouraged to complete the survey. “We want to make sure that we hear from everyone about what you value about Memorial Hall and what we could do better.”
The survey is part of a technical assistance grant from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), which Melrose is a member of. The grant, which is valued at $95,000 and is included as part of Melrose’s membership in the MAPC, is intended to create a strategic plan for Memorial Hall.
Memorial Hall became a flashpoint in this year’s budget hearings when two city councilors proposed reducing the building’s budget from the amount that Mayor Jen Grigoraitis had proposed. The City Council ultimately voted to maintain the budget line as proposed, but the debate generated conversation about Memorial Hall, both within the City Council and among the general public.
Memorial Hall hosted 259 events last year, with approximately 48,000 guests in attendance, and brought in approximately $110,000 in revenue for the city. The city budgeted $228,197 to run the building this fiscal year. With increased rental fees this year, the building can be expected to run a net loss of somewhere around $100,000, or possibly less, this year. (The city’s total budget this year, including supplemental funds from the override, is $126.5 million.)
Memorial Hall has been owned by the city since it was built in 1912. It hosts the Melrose Symphony Orchestra (the country’s oldest continuously performing volunteer orchestra), the Melrose Youth Ballet’s Nutcracker performances, the annual Melrose Arts Festival, the Melrose Rotary Club’s weekly meetings, and a variety of other events, from school concerts to fundraisers to boxing matches.
The city pays for Memorial Hall’s staff and maintenance costs, such as utilities and basic upkeep, while the Friends of Melrose Memorial Hall raises funds for more extensive repairs and capital projects. Two years ago, the Friends hosted a fundraising gala, and they have launched a legacy donation program to fund restoration of the Grand Army of the Republic Room on the upper level of the building, where repairs are most urgently needed.
This year's Arts Festival
The MAPC technical assistance grant is intended to help Melrose develop a strategic plan for Memorial Hall which, Dalton explained, is something the city hasn’t had the resources or specific expertise to develop before now. “We’re really excited,” he said, “because this grant means that we’ll be able to take a 360 degree look at Memorial Hall - at its operations, usage rates, and everything that goes into making it work as a department of the city and as a local resource. It will allow us to use a really wide lens to figure out what we think the future of Memorial Hall should look like.”
One possible outcome of this study is that the management of Memorial Hall could be shifted to an outside company. This could be a similar model to the Mount Hood Golf Course, which is still city-owned but has been managed by Sagamore Golf, Inc, since 2023.
Medford’s Chevalier Theatre is also run on this model. It is owned by the City of Medford and has been operated by Bill Blumenreich Presents Inc., which also operates the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, since 2017. The Chevalier Theatre draws prominent acts and audiences from across the region.
But while some Melrose residents and city officials have looked at the Chevalier as an example of what could be done with Memorial Hall, Memorial Hall is less than half the size of the Chevalier: it accommodates 800 people in auditorium seating, compared to the Chevalier’s 1900 seats.
And the Chevalier Theatre has seen significant upgrades in recent years, including a $600,000 project in 2019 that involved a state grant and funds from the Community Preservation Act, which Medford passed in 2015. (While Mayor Jen Grigoraitis discussed passing the Community Preservation Act in Melrose as one of her campaign goals, there has been no serious discussion since then of asking voters to approve another property tax increase, on top of the most recent property tax override.)
The MAPC study is expected to conclude some time next spring, before next year’s budget is brought before the City Council. Any proposed changes that would have budgetary impacts would need to be approved by the City Council before going forward.
“Memorial Hall is a unique resource for this community,” Dalton reflected. “Most of our neighbors don’t have spaces like this.”
