News Archives - Neighborhood View

Malden Warming Center opens its seventh season with volunteers ready to serve

January 7, 2025 NeighborhoodView 1

By Lindsay Perdue Community members gathered at the Malden Warming Center to ring in the Yuletide spirit, with Maplewood Baptist Church and First Baptist Church of Malden attendees dropping off presents for each guest. Clients at the Center received stockings with personalized notes and goodies. “For Christmas Day, in addition to the 15 regular volunteer spots we need every day for morning, evening, and overnight service, we had another 9 volunteers come in to keep the Center open all day,” said volunteer coordinator Caroline Gaudet. Now in its seventh season, the Malden Warming Center opened on Dec. 1 with volunteers ready to serve, just in time for the first blast of cold weather in December. Located on busy Eastern Avenue inside Malden’s First Church of the Nazarene, the center is dedicated to providing shelter and warmth overnight to those who need it during the winter months. “I just feel like giving back to our community and I can’t think of a better way,” said Dave Allen who is starting his third season as a volunteer. […]

From Malden to Maldon: City Councilor celebrates the historic connection

January 3, 2025 NeighborhoodView 0

By Lindsay Perdue Malden City Council President Steve Winslow traveled 3,000 miles from home, only to find himself back in Maldon: that’s Malden with an “o,” the city of Malden, Massachusetts’ namesake in England. During a European vacation last July, the longtime Malden resident and Bike to the Sea co-founder, explored the two cities’ deep historical connection. He took a six-hour ferry from the Netherlands to Harwich, England, followed by a train journey through rural, agricultural land before arriving in Maldon, England, a quaint town 35 miles northeast of London. Malden, Massachusetts was named after Maldon, England. It is located near the coast on the banks of the River Blackwater in Essex County and is surrounded by farmland. According to the City of Malden’s website, Malden was incorporated as a separate town on May 2, 1649. The name ‘Malden’ was chosen by Joseph Hill, an early settler and landholder who emigrated to the United States from Maldon, England. “It’s very similar to Ipswich, Massachusetts because it’s on the coast and surrounded by agricultural areas,” Winslow said. […]

Historic Ferry Street building in danger of being demolished has ties to one of the first Malden daycare facilities

December 18, 2024 NeighborhoodView 0

By Maria Membreno For the past 100 years, it has been used as offices for lawyers, for the Tri-City Mental Health and Retardation Association, and for the Industrial Aid Society which, as far back as 1894, ran a day nursery for working factory women. Now, the historic M. Ida Converse building stands vacant on 15 Ferry Street and is in danger of being demolished. The developer who owns the building, and the vacant lot next to it, wants the building removed so he can build a 7-story commercial/residential structure on the two lots, but some city officials and residents are still hopeful the building can be saved, perhaps by moving it to another nearby location. “We want to make sure that we preserve this site and this building wherever it is in order to be able to teach the next generation not only about Malden history but about the importance of philanthropy in our community, as a way to move forward that people give back to their community,” Malden Public Library Director Dora St. Martin […]

Paula Terenzi’s Dance Complex: Four decades of dance, discipline, and dedication

December 12, 2024 Jack Drees 0

By Jack Drees Paula Terenzi has been dancing since she was two. As an adult, she runs the Paula Terenzi’s Dance Complex in Malden where she has spent years instructing the dancers of tomorrow. Terenzi opened her dance studio 41 years ago inside of Byrne’s Karate Studio on Pleasant St., the martial arts school run by her late husband Richard Byrne. Initially, she began teaching on his off days. As more students arrived, she moved into her current studio at 101 Pleasant St. where she has been teaching dance for the last three and a half decades. Paula Terenzi’s Dance Complex offers students the opportunity to learn a variety of dance disciplines across all ages, ranging from two and a half to sixty. Terenzi is the face of this place, responsible for building professionals who carry their talent from Malden to professional sports teams like the Boston Celtics or New England Patriots. Some will even bring their knowledge to global stages in Las Vegas, New York City, and even as far as Japan. Some stay behind in […]

A pocket-sized forest in Malden brightens a neighborhood

December 6, 2024 NeighborhoodView 1

By Christian Carapucci Amid the hustle and bustle of everyday Malden citizens getting to work, school, or going out on the town, and the naturally ingrained on-the-go mindset of city living, it’s nice to stop, breathe, and commune with nature. And where better to do that than in the newly created “pocket forest” on Goodwin Avenue? A pocket forest is a small densely planted area of native trees and shrubs. Malden’s first pocket forest was created with the planting of 21 trees on a vacant lot on Goodwin Avenue in the Forestdale section of the city in October. This is the first one in the state paid for by a new Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) grant from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. The idea originated on January 5, 2024, when Malden resident Ashley Kolodziej reached out to newly appointed City Council member of three days, Ari Taylor, saying she would like to see a community garden on a small piece of city-owned land that abuts her property. However, some […]

From Malden to Hudson Valley: Two strangers discover shared family legacy and hidden history of enslavement in New York

December 3, 2024 Kami Nguyen 1

By Kami Nguyen Eleanor Mire, a lifelong Malden resident, wanted to learn about her family’s past after she watched the Ken Burns documentary series, The Civil War. “I always point to that because there was so much he put into that that I absolutely didn’t know, and I thought I knew about the Civil War,” Mire said. “That pushed me to start looking into my family and how they related to the Civil War, and that opened the floodgates.” Mire’s ancestors are part of a myriad of individual family histories that have shaped the past, present, and future of the United States. Some stories are waiting to be told, truths yet to be discovered. In her new book, A Hudson Valley Reckoning, Debra Bruno reckons with her family history of slaveholding and the realities of slavery in northern states. At the center of this story are Mire’s ancestors, who were enslaved in the 1800s by Bruno’s ancestors in upstate New York. Mire’s great-grandparents on another side of her family moved to Malden in 1906 from Boston. […]

Malden Public Schools employees living outside district can now enroll their children in Early Learning Center

November 22, 2024 NeighborhoodView 0

By Annie Sarlin The Malden School Committee passed a new policy that allows teachers and other school department personnel living outside the district to enroll their children in the Early Learning Center preschool program. At their meeting on Oct. 18, the committee voted unanimously to create the policy, officially titled “JFE4 Preschool Early Learning Center Admission of Children of School Department Personnel.” The motion took effect immediately. According to committee member Keith Bernard, the new policy will help make scheduling easier for school employees. “We’ve got teachers that are coming from another district… allow[ing] them to go and enroll their kids in our Early Learning Center so that, at the end of the day… [they] don’t have to jump out of school to go running back to their home and…pick up their kid,” said Bernard. The Early Learning Center, a preschool program in Malden for students ages 3-5, offers full and half-day programs. Parents and caregivers can also select if they wish to send their children in two, three, or five days a week. When […]

Malden’s first Haunted Woods event was a spooky success

November 20, 2024 NeighborhoodView 1

By Emily Champagne There were more tricks than treats at Malden’s first Haunted Woods event. Organized by Ward 5’s City Councillor Ari Taylor, the event attracted Malden families and residents alike who wanted to revel in the spirit of the spooky season. The October 26 event was inspired by “Spooky World,” a haunted amusement park Taylor remembers visiting when she was younger. She wanted to bring a similar captivating experience to Malden. While the event was hosted for people of all ages, Taylor wanted this to be the first of many Halloween events catering especially to teenagers and adults. “The event was geared towards an older audience because it was something that Malden hadn’t really seen,” Taylor said. The event occurred at Pine Banks Park, a 20-minute walk from Malden Center, which was decked out with cobwebs, “beware” signs, and an inflatable ghost at the entrance. Ghoulish “tour guides” led small groups of 10 through the twists and turns of a small forest where participants met zombies, vampires, and witches. All supernatural creatures, including the […]

Malden City Council Members host new “Pumpkin SMASH” event

November 15, 2024 NeighborhoodView 1

By Annie Sarlin Going to school on a Saturday might be a nightmare to many students, but the opportunity to smash their Halloween pumpkins motivated many to return to the Linden STEAM Academy on Saturday, Nov. 2. The air smelled faintly of overripe produce as families and Malden residents gathered in the school parking lot to throw their jack-o’-lanterns into a compost truck for the city’s first “Pumpkin SMASH.” Malden City Council members Jadeane Sica and Craig Spadafora, in coalition with the city of Malden, hosted the event to encourage people to compost their pumpkins instead of throwing them away. “Councilor Sica and I, we do these events throughout the year, we do a clothing drive, we do Community Safety Day, so we try to do new and fun things,” said Spadafora. “Not only is it [the “Pumpkin SMASH”] a fun event, but it also helps us take pumpkins out of the waste and… recycle in a proper way.” The truck came from Black Earth Compost, a company that collects waste from homes, schools, and […]

Future of Malden Center for Arts and Culture uncertain two years after Courthouse acquisition

November 12, 2024 Maria Yulikova 2

By Maria Yulikova After the city acquired the Malden District Courthouse in 2022, excitement brewed among government officials and residents alike about a potential conversion of the historic building at 89 Summer St. into the Malden Center for Arts and Culture. The Mayor’s office formed an Advisory Committee to develop a detailed proposal laying out finances, renovations and how spaces should be used. In July 2022, Malden authorities published the comprehensive Concept Plan. A Feasibility Study for the proposed Malden Center for Arts & Culture was published in September 2023. However, things have been at a standstill ever since. “We had a very tough budget year,” said Amanda Linehan, Malden Ward 3 City Councillor. “But we stay optimistic about this project. We don’t want to see it frozen anymore and our residents offer their expertise on fundraising.” Linehan says that State Representative Paul Donato has put money into the state budget for the rehab but what is needed is actually much higher. Linehan said that she was “surprised” to learn how extensive the project would […]