ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Swampscott DPW Director Gino Cresta looks at flowers that were left at the base of the monument dedicated to those who died in the Swampscott train wreck 60 years ago.
BY GAYLA CAWLEY
SWAMPSCOTT — Another mystery has been solved.
The Swampscott train wreck monument, which was missing since last winter, was found on Friday, just in time for the 60th anniversary of the wreck.
On Feb. 28, 1956, there was a crash involving two trains in Swampscott at about 8:18 a.m., that resulted in the deaths of 13 people and injuries to about 100 others.
The monument lists the names of the victims of that wreck, and was dedicated on Nov. 20, 2005 and placed at the MBTA Station in 2006, according to Town Historian Lou Gallo. Gallo said the monument was dedicated for the 50th anniversary of the wreck.
However, Gallo said the monument was discovered missing in April 2015, and evidently disappeared during one of the big snowstorms that year. He said the monument wasn’t discovered missing until April because the snow had to melt long enough to see the slab was empty.
DPW Director Gino Cresta said one of his guys found the monument. He said he had received a call that G&J Towing had apparently dropped off the monument at the rear of the cemetery, without the knowledge of anyone in his department.
Cresta said the monument was scooped up during snow removal sometime last winter. He believes it was scooped up in February 2015, when snowfall was heaviest. He said the MBTA Station is not owned by the town so his department does not handle the snow removal there.
Instead of dropping the monument off at the DPW Yard, G&J instead dropped it off in the rear of the cemetery, where Cresta said the DPW has a little staging area, where stone and asphalt is stockpiled.
“G&J thought they were dropping it off in the right place,” Cresta said.
Cresta said he started to receive phone calls inquiring about where the monument could be because of the 60th anniversary of the train wreck. He said he started to make inquiries to his guys in the yard.
“One of the guys said he saw a piece of granite at the cemetery,” Cresta said.
Cresta said finding the monument all precipitated from a call from the MBTA that G&J had dropped off the monument in the cemetery. Once he got that call, he asked his guys and they “thought they knew where it was.”
Once the monument was located, Cresta said he placed it back at the MBTA Station Friday morning.
“[We] found it and reset it right away, only because I knew the anniversary was upcoming,” Cresta said.
Town Administrator Thomas Younger said the monument traveled at least a mile from the MBTA Station to the cemetery.
“We’re pleased it’s back,” Younger said.
Gallo said the monument is slightly damaged from the plow that scooped it up. At the bottom of the stone, he said there is a scratch or gouge, but he hopes it isn’t repaired.
“I think it should stay because it has a history [as] a disappearing monument,” Gallo said.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.
