Mayor Thomas M. Menino is well acquainted with the shortcomings of the current storage facility, the Hemenway School, which has been closed since 1985. Located just blocks from his Hyde Park home, the school is Menino's polling place. It was deemed an inadequate facility by a team of private archivists seven years ago, a finding reported in the Globe.

The issue of the city's archives - which contain some of the country's oldest municipal records - has been something of an albatross for Boston mayors. In 1989, former Mayor Raymond L. Flynn ordered the archives moved to the Hemenway School after documents were found, crumbling and water-stained, in school basements and city agency closets. Plans for a permanent site have surfaced from time to time but never gained traction.

1. John J. McColgan is the deputy archivist for the Office of the City Clerk Archives and Records Management Division in Hyde Park. / GLOBE STAFF PHOTO / DOMINIC CHAVEZ 2. Kristen Swett seeks records in the stacks of the Office of the City Clerk Archives in Hyde Park. / GLOBE STAFF PHOTO / DOMINIC CHAVEZ