Board of Appeals OKs Concord Museum request for third sign at Cambridge Turnpike corner

The Concord Board of Appeals voted to grant the Concord Museum a variance to install a third permanent sign near the intersection of Cambridge Turnpike, Lexington Turnpike and Lexington Road. The board approved the request after hearing from museum representatives that the sign is intended primarily as wayfinding for visitors during the town’s upcoming semiquincentennial events.

The museum’s representative, Lisa Kraussner, told the board she and Allison Schilling were participating remotely and said the institution already maintains two signs at the site and a third sign would help direct visitors to the museum’s entrance. "We currently do have 2 signs, 1 on Concord, 1 on Cambridge Turnpike right in front of the museum...people drive by or walk by and don't necessarily recognize that we are a museum," Kraussner said. She added the museum received a certificate of appropriateness from the Historic Districts Commission and a grant from the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism for the sign.

Board members and staff discussed placement and right-of-way issues. Planning staff explained that the Historic Districts Commission preferred positioning the sign forward of the stone wall adjacent to the property, which would place it within the town right-of-way and therefore require a public-works approval. A town staff member from Engineering said its division did not object to the preferred location but noted underground utilities would need to be located and the sign may need minor lateral adjustments: "Engineering division would have to work with the applicant on locating...the sign may have to move left or right or forward or back."

Board members emphasized the request is a sign variance rather than a hardship variance and that findings should reflect the sign’s wayfinding purpose and the property’s residential character. The board also recorded materials and size: the applicant said the sign face would be approximately 6 feet wide by 27 inches high, one-sided, made of a durable material intended to resemble wood and produced by a local signmaker. Kraussner noted the sign would be discreet: "the writing, the font size is visible as you drive up, but it's not, you know, visible from a long stretch away."

A motion to grant the variance, conditioned on flexibility about the precise location and with any forward-of-wall installation subject to public works approval, carried unanimously. The board instructed staff to include a condition requiring coordination with the public-works process if the sign is to be installed forward of the stone wall.

The museum said it expects increased visitor activity around Concord’s upcoming 250th anniversary celebrations and cited a state tourism grant and the HDC certificate of appropriateness in support of the request. The museum plans to coordinate exact placement with engineering staff and the public-works commission before installing the sign.