WEYMOUTH /Summer St.
Once rural Summer St. now suburban
By JACK ENCARNACAO
For The Patriot Ledger
Area: 21.6 sq. mi.
POPULATION
2000: 53,988
2007: 52,632
Density: 3,096 res./square mile
Median age: 40
Median household income: 59,172
FINANCES
Tax rate: $9.07, residential; $17.91, commercial
Town budget: $126.4 million
Avg. water/sewer bill: $638 year
HOUSING
Median home price
2007: $330,000 (396 sales)
2008: $300,000 (13 sales in Jan.)
Median condo price
2007: $210,000 (218 sales)
2008: $260,500 (6 sales in Jan.)
SCHOOLS
Number of students: 6,933
Number of teachers: 505
H.S. grads to 4-yr. college: 47%
H.S. grads to 2-yr. college: 16%
Median SAT score (2006): 1487When Marie Rioux moved onto Summer Street 43 years ago, her neighbor was a dairy farm.
"This was the last farm-zoned area in town, I think," said Rioux, who raised four children on the street in Weymouth. "It's all changed. Everything has grown up since."
Today, places she remembers as farms are subdivisions. Sidewalks are where there weren't before and vehicle traffic has picked up, though the town banned commercial truck traffic from the street years ago to stem the tide.
Despite all the changes, many of the amenities of living in the neighborhood remain. Homes on the street are comfortably close to woodsy Pond Meadow Park, and the neighborhood still attracts families with young children, who can walk to nearby Murphy Primary School, formerly the Homestead School.
The neighborhood's proximity to major routes has become a selling point for newcomers looking to commute. Summer Street is centrally located to major highways like routes 3, 18 and 53 and the shopping and public transportation along them.
A variety of homes were recently for sale on Summer Street and neighboring Front Street, from an 11-room colonial to a three-bedroom Cape Cod. Asking prices range from $260,000 to $400,000.
"We've got kind of a diversity here," said Tom Melanson, manager of Jack Conway Realty in Weymouth, which had four listings in the area last month.
The area and its proximity to highways is great for new and growing families, first-time buyers and those upgrading from a condominium, Melanson said.
"Our listings right now are either for first-time home buyers or somebody looking to just step up from a condo to the next size," Melanson said.
Summer and Front streets might be a ways apart, Melanson said, but they carry the same appeal in the Weymouth real estate market.
"The two most prevalent common elements is that they're all in the Murphy school district and all in walking distance to Pond Meadow Park," he said.
The streets' proximity to Federal Street and Weymouth Landing put it close to MBTA bus routes. Trains are now also an option after the new MBTA Weymouth Landing commuter rail station opened in September on Commercial Street.
Summer and Front streets are near the landing and South Weymouth, but it is tough to tie them to a specific Weymouth neighborhood.
Murphy School is situated in South Weymouth, but Rioux said those who live on her section of Summer Street do not consider themselves South Weymouth residents. The dividing line is typically drawn at the Route 3 overpass bridge.
Regardless of what they call their neighborhood, Rioux said parents have long been in their element living and raising children on Summer Street.
"There were tons of kids around," she said of the era when she was raising her children. "My neighbor next door, they had seven children. Originally, the house right beside me was just a vacant lot but (the owner) had four children. People out back had four children. In four homes, you had 20 kids. They didn't have to go far to find friends."
