Historical commission asks select board to remove inaccurate Brister’s Hill oval marker

The Concord Historical Commission on March 13 voted to ask the town Select Board to remove an oval historic-streets marker above Brister’s Hill Road after commission members and staff concluded the plaque’s text is incorrect.

Nancy Frisella Lee, presenting historical-commission research on the town’s historic-streets program, told commissioners the oval marker above the green street sign reads "Scipio Brister's slave freed here," and that the wording is inaccurate for the location. "Scipio Brister was a person who lived in Lincoln, but he was not related to Freeman Brister as far as I know," Frisella Lee said, and the commission recommended the marker be taken down.

Frisella Lee noted several other oval markers placed in the 1990s and later have weathered, been damaged or contain outdated language; one marker that referenced an Indigenous leader was removed previously after neighborhood concerns. Commission members also raised safety and legibility concerns: the town’s public-safety reviewers had earlier objected to some markers because the additional oval plaques made street names harder to read.

Town staff told the commission the marker sits in a public right-of-way and that removal or modification requires a Select Board vote rather than a direct Public Works action. The commission therefore voted to forward a recommendation to the Select Board asking that the Scipio Brister marker be removed; the Select Board will consider the commission’s recommendation and any follow-on signage changes, including correcting the apostrophe in the street-name sign where appropriate.

The commission also discussed wider programmatic issues: many of the historic-oval markers were installed decades ago and some have fallen or faded, Frisella Lee said, and commissioners suggested the town consider a coordinated review of all such signs and a policy for interpretive signage that avoids driver distraction.

The commission’s recommendation will be submitted for Select Board consideration; the commission noted that if the Select Board orders removal or replacement of the marker, the town engineering or public-works staff will carry out the change.

Public record and archival research compiled by staff and the town archivist was cited during the discussion; commissioners asked staff to prepare a concise letter for the Select Board outlining the factual errors and the commission’s recommendation.