Living in Melrose, MA

About Melrose

Melrose was part of Charlestown and then Malden before it was incorporated as a town in 1850. When the Boston and Maine Railroad built three stops through it in 1845, houses followed the tracks, and in 1853 the town annexed the highlands from Stoneham. It became a city at the turn of the century, and its first mayor, Levi S. Gould, took office on January 1, 1900. Its downtown, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, runs along Main Street, and Ell Pond, the city's largest body of water, sits near the center with a gazebo and a new fountain.

The housing tells the city's history in layers. A 2022 housing plan found that most homes built before World War II cluster near downtown and the rail corridor, often in Victorian styles, while the eastern side filled in after the war with ranches and Capes. Larger buildings are concentrated downtown and along Main Street. At the edges are big green spaces: the eastern reaches of the Middlesex Fells, the Olmsted-designed Pine Banks Park on the Malden line, and Mount Hood, a city park and golf course with views toward Boston.

Melrose meets the state's MBTA Communities law, as a commuter rail community, through zoning it already had: the Rail Corridor Overlay District, the Smart Growth Overlay District, the Urban Residential-D district and the Medical Business district, with a few minor amendments. The state lists it as compliant, as of October 21, 2026. Since 2004 the city's Affordable Housing Incentive Program ordinance has required certain residential and mixed-use projects to set aside 15 percent of their units as affordable to households earning up to 80 percent of the Boston-area median income. The city's affordable housing office lists affordable rentals created this way in projects including the Windsor Radio Factory at 99 Washington Street (19 affordable units, offered by lottery in 2022), The Washingtons at 2 and 37/47 Washington Street (17, lotteries in 2015 and 2016) and Jack Flats at 1000 Stone Place (19, lotteries in 2013 and 2014).

Homes in Melrose

Melrose's 2022 Housing Production Plan reports that 55% of homes are detached single-family and 11% are two-family, with 16% in buildings of 20 or more units. Over half were built before World War II, often in Victorian styles near downtown and the rail corridor; the eastern parts of the city saw more mid-century ranch and Cape houses after the war.