The first question in settling the fate of Bromfield House, the current school administration building, will likely be whether to make it part of the Harvard Common Historic District. Expanding the district to include both Bromfield House and Hildreth House may well come to a vote at Annual Town Meeting next spring.
Joe Theriault, chairman of the Harvard Historical Commission, presented the case for including Bromfield House in the district to the School Committee on Sept. 28. Earlier in the month, he made a similar recommendation for Hildreth House to the Council on Aging board of directors.
Bromfield House is historically significant, Theriault said, “because it delivers a message that education has been important to Harvard for a long time. Not every town has a school principal’s house.” He described the building, which is already on the National Register of Historic Places, as sitting “at our front door”as a town.
The worst-case scenario, Theriault said, would be to leave the building outside the district and sell it. Harvard “would lose all chance to manage and preserve it,” he said, and a new owner might demolish it and replace it with something the town might not like. But if Bromfield House becomes part of the historic district, he said, the commission would have control over its appearance, even if it is sold.
The School Committee responded by asking what Community Preservation funding might become available for renovations at Bromfield House once it is in the historic district. Theriault answered that a building should be protected before any Community Preservation money is spent on it.
Omission a mystery
Theriault said it was unclear why the building was left out when the historic district was originally formed in 1973. But he made clear that the Historical Commission wants to remedy that omission soon. He said the commission would like to go “arm in arm” with the School Committee and the Council on Aging board in support of adding both Bromfield House and Hildreth House to the protected district at next town meeting.
After hearing from Theriault, the School Committee discussed how joining the historic district might affect the possibility of putting a one-story addition at the back of Bromfield House. Such an addition, Chairwoman SusanMary Redinger suggested, would put the school administration offices all on one floor, making an elevator or lift unnecessary. But the committee set aside that discussion until the Board of Selectmen resolves the future use of the old library, which is the only remaining town space to which the school offices might relocate.
