PEMBROKE /Adams Avenue
Life on Adams Avenue centers on pond

By SYDNEY SCHWARTZ
For The Patriot Ledger Area: 23.47 square miles

POPULATION
2000: 16,927
2006: 18,179

Density: 832 res./square mile
Median age: 38
Median household income: $75,153

FINANCES
Tax rate: $10.41
Town budget: $49.9 million
Avg. water bill: $450/year

HOUSING
Median home price
2006: $344,000
2007: $309,875 (through Dec.)
Median condo price
2006: $312,641
2007: $292,000 (through Dec.)

SCHOOLS
Number of students: 3,353
Number of teachers: 203
H.S. grads to 4-yr. college: 67%
H.S. grads to 2-yr. college: 17%
Median SAT score (2006): 1513

While staying with a relative in Pembroke, newlyweds Robert and Julia Commesso fell in love with Adams Avenue.

During walks with their puppy, the couple got to know the owners of their dream house. Soon after, they bought the home fronting on Oldham Pond.

"We just fell in love with the lake, the simplicity," said Julia Commesso, who grew up in Hull. "For us, it was like a dream."

Eight years later, the parents of two couldn't be happier.

"Everyone's very friendly. It's not uptight," Julia Commesso said. "Everybody's working and just getting by, just helping out each other."

That, residents say, has been the story of the street for years. The narrow lakeside street is filled with renovated cottages, nestled together on small plots of land. The street has two entrances off Wampatuck Street, little traffic and a private beach.

Residents are mostly younger working families and retirees. Life revolves around the pond, swimming in the summer and ice skating and ice hockey in the winter.

Children attend Bryantville Elementary School.

"Here, we're all friends," said 16-year-old Sean King who moved with his family from Raymond Avenue nine years ago.

Most Adams Avenue homes were built as summer cottages. But in recent years, full-time residents have moved in and renovated, adding second floors, extensions and colorful paint-jobs, such that no two houses look alike.

"I added a second floor to mine, so I have a full basement, first floor and second floor," said Barbara Conley, who moved from Hyde Park 17 years ago.

"It's deceiving from the outside," Commesso said. "From the outside they look smaller."

Prices vary. In July, a single-family home sold for $286,000. In August, another sold for $195,000. Joan Ulich of Jack Conway Realty in Pembroke said two houses are on the market, a new three-bedroom for $329,500 and a two-bedroom for $234,900.

"This is an affordable part of Pembroke," said Jennifer Waterman, a mother of two who moved from South Weymouth eight years ago. "The neighborhood is a family neighborhood ... Everyone has dogs and kids and bikes."

Longtime resident Sandra Munro said she was one of a few year-round residents when she bought her home nearly 46 years ago. Then, she said, most of the homeowners were retirees who came for the summer.

Over the years, the neighborhood transformed. She is now witnessing the third generation of families move in, she said.

"It was a wonderful place to raise children, there was no crime, no streetlights," she said. "We minded each other's kids. It was just like one big extended family with the village bringing up the kids."

Newer moms like Commesso and Waterman say that hasn't really changed. They have keys to one another's homes and take care of one another's dogs. Their children run across the street to play in each other's homes.

"Last winter, actually, we had really good ice so the whole neighborhood was out on the ice. Everyone was ice skating. There were bonfires on the ice," Waterman said. "During the summer there was canoeing and kayaking. Everyone knows each other."