[MassHistPres] S.993: An Act Accelerating Housing Production

[Kyla Mackay-Smith]

On Thu, 3 Jul 2025, Dennis De Witt via MassHistPres wrote:

> In Plymouth it appears that 1900 may be the assessor’s default listing 
> date for buildings whose construction date has not been otherwise 
> recorded by the town — even, in at least one case, for an obviously 
> historic 1809 building that is listed on Macris.  Perhaps a similar 
> default may exist in other municipalities.

Yes, definitely--Wakefield's assessors seemed to use 1880 as a catch-all 
for "we think it's older than 1900, but it's not That Super Old House." I 
started to be suspicious when I saw that date on the records of multiple 
houses besides ours, and then even more so when the 1880s and 1897 maps 
definitely did not have our house on them.

What made me laugh was realizing that Wakefield's zip code is 01880. 
Coincidence? A bad copy-paste that someone just let go? Who knows.

--Kyla Mackay-Smith, Wakefield

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