Jul 7, 2010

Melrose gallery seeks to join city’s arts sceneBy Jim HaddadinWickedLocal.com

Melrose, MA — After living in Melrose for the last nine years, Richard Cappiello — owner of the new Possessions Gallery on Main Street — believes Melrose is a community on the way up.

With a host of new businesses moving into vacant downtown storefronts, Cappiello said, Melrose’s Main Street area is transitioning from a local hub into a retail and dining destination for urbanites in the greater Boston area.

“I think Melrose is going to be the next Davis Square,” Cappiello said, referring to the long-blighted Somerville neighborhood that was revitalized by community planning and the extension of public transportation into Boston’s suburbs.

Cappiello, a former hair stylist and salon educator, decided last year that he would leave a career in the salon industry to pursue his life-long dream of opening an independent gallery and gift shop. Melrose, he said, was the perfect location.

“In nine years that I’ve been here, Melrose has done a [180 degree] turnaround,” he said. “It’s amazing what was here [before] and what’s here now. You have four great restaurants here: there’s Absolutely Fabulous, there’s [Mexico Lindo], there’s Stearns & Hill’s [Bistro], and [Turner’s Seafood Grill & Market], and they’re all attracting people from the city into Melrose.”

Cappiello opened the doors of his new store, Possessions Gallery, on Tuesday, July 6, hoping to participate in a commercial and cultural boom in Melrose like the one seen in Davis Square. The gallery, located at 416 Main St., offers an array of hand-made visual arts pieces, as well as crafts, gifts, and furniture.

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