A vote on Article 2 at Saturday’s Special Town Meeting will decide the future—indeed, the very existence—of Bromfield House, the wide-porched white house that holds the school district’s administration offices. Its fate has been uncertain since the School Committee voted in 2013 to give it up as soon as another suitable location for the offices could be found. That time has come. When the new elementary school opens next spring, the district offices will move there.
Bromfield House is currently owned by the town but is under the jurisdiction of the School Committee. If approved, Article 2 would set up a two-step process for the town to divest itself of the house. First, the article allows the School Committee to transfer control of the property to the Select Board. Second, the article empowers the Select Board “to sell, convey or otherwise dispose of” the land, the building, or both.
The school administration will be vacating Bromfield House. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
In a meeting Tuesday morning, however, Town Administrator Tim Bragan told the Press that disposing of the building or the land may require more than these two steps. And Bromfield trustee Pete Jackson said in a phone conversation, “The Bromfield trustees will be involved all the way through.” The terms of Margaret Bromfield Blanchard’s 1871 will, Jackson said, mean that any new use of the property must be deemed educational by the probate court. (See “History and founder’s intent weigh on future of Bromfield House” in last week’s Press.)
Sell the house, keep the land
After a 10-minute discussion at the Select Board’s July 9 strategic planning meeting, the board voted unanimously that Bromfield House should be sold and removed, with the land kept for municipal purposes. If no buyer could be found who was willing to move the 1916 building to another location, the board members said, any usable fixtures and materials in it should be sold for salvage, and then the house would be burned.
“We’ll retain the property, we’ll sell the structure. And then, if it doesn’t get sold, then we burn it down,” Town Administrator Tim Bragan summarized the plan.
As to what might be done with the land after the house was gone, the main idea under consideration at the July 9 meeting was to create a 30-car parking lot for a park-and-ride van to shuttle residents to and from the Littleton MBTA station. Bragan credited Assistant Town Administrator Marie Sobalvarro with the idea, which he called “elegant.”
Board members were enthusiastic about both the shuttle plan and disposing of Bromfield House. “Hey, that was the best thing we did,” Kara Minar said after the motion passed.
Earlier in the meeting, the board had discussed problems with the maintenance and repair of other aging civic buildings, especially the old library, and those issues seemed to be on everyone’s mind. “It gets us out of the landlord business,” Rich Maiore said of the vote to dispose of Bromfield House.
“Let’s learn our lesson …” Stu Sklar agreed. “It’s got no value. Burn it down quick.”
Select Board Chair Alice von Loesecke recalled that the market value for the eight-room Bromfield House had once been estimated at $650,000 and suggested, “There are people who buy houses like that, and they would pay about $200,000 to buy it and remove it.”
Von Loesecke noted that the School Committee would be interested in having extra parking on the site, too. She also suggested that the town should keep in place Bromfield House’s utilities—
water, sewer, electric, and gas—in case they are needed on the site in the future.
In support of the shuttle plan, Minar said in a later phone interview that Harvard pays the MBTA $42,000 a year because there is a station in neighboring Littleton. “We could claw back some of that amount to have a shuttle,” she said. To provide that service, she said, parking is essential.
Other ideas emerge
Select Board member Lucy Wallace said in a phone call that other ideas for the Bromfield property have emerged since the July 9 meeting. One suggestion, she said, has been to leave it as open space, either as a play area for the elementary school or as a sports field if the land is big enough. Those ideas might possibly meet the requirement of an educational purpose for the property.
Wallace also expressed some later reservations about burning the building because of the environmental effects. As much material from the house as possible should be recycled, she said.
Planning Board member Stacia Donahue said Bromfield House was mentioned in passing as a possibility for senior housing, but no formal proposal had been put forward. And Bragan later told the Press the same accessibility issues that have made Bromfield House problematic for the school administration would also make it unsuitable as senior housing without extensive modifications.
According to previous probate decisions on Margaret Bromfield Blanchard’s will, any proceeds from the sale of Bromfield House must be returned to the Bromfield Trust for the scholarships the trust awards to Bromfield students.
