The future of Bromfield House—the century-old white house with wide porches that stands where Route 111 curves toward town center—is once again coming up for a vote at Town Meeting this Saturday. And two weeks after that, voters will have yet another chance to express their views on the fate of the building in a nonbinding referendum at Town Election Tuesday, Nov. 2.
Just a year ago, at the 2020 Fall Town Meeting, voters said the Select Board could “sell, convey, transfer, or otherwise dispose of” Bromfield House, but only if a future Town Meeting approved the board’s plan for the building. Then, at last May’s Town Meeting, voters rejected the Select Board’s proposed plan to sell the house for removal and keep the land where it stands for town use.
Now Article 19 on the warrant for Saturday’s Town Meeting asks voters to take the future of Bromfield House into their own hands by directing the Select Board to sell the house and land together as a private residence. A second section of the article directs the Historical Commission to include the house in a historic district. (The house is not within the existing Harvard Common Historic District.) The article would require a two-thirds vote for passage.
Article 19 was put on the warrant by a citizen petition. Among the organizers was Bev Rodrigues, whose grandfather James A. Dunlap Sr. lived in the 1914 house while serving as headmaster for the Bromfield School. The citizen petition for the article garnered 20 signatures, well above the number required for a warrant article.
The Select Board has taken no position on the article, but in the past the board has emphasized the importance of keeping the land where Bromfield House stands as town property. However, the board has made clear it does not want the expense of maintaining the house or bringing it up to current standards for a public building.
The School Committee also supports the idea of keeping the land but not the house. In a letter this week to the Select Board, the committee expressed support for a plan proposed by the Parks and Recreation Committee “to develop the lot into a multi-purpose park” with outdoor learning spaces and physical recreation facilities.
Courts could have a say
Besides the organizers of the citizen petition, Article 19 is supported by the Bromfield School trustees, who act on behalf of the trust created by the 1871 will of Margaret Bromfield Blanchard. Money from her trust established both the Bromfield School and Bromfield House. Last spring the trustees unanimously supported selling the house and land together for a private residence.
“The Bromfield School trustees consider the alternative choice of keeping the house at its current location and selling it with appropriate restrictions as being more in line with the spirit of Margaret’s wishes,” Bromfield trustee Pete Jackson wrote on behalf of the trustees in a “Consider This” column for the Press last May.
Moreover, past decisions about Bromfield House have been made under the jurisdiction of the probate court so that any changes are in accord with the terms of Margaret Bromfield Blanchard’s will. The court might be unwilling to approve an action that did not have the approval of both the town, as represented by the Select Board, and the Bromfield trustees. “In the past, the town and the trust, with the oversight of the courts, have come to mutually agreeable arrangements. We should be able to do this again,” Jackson wrote.
Even if voters approve Article 19, Town Administrator Tim Bragan told the Press last week the measure would have no legal force; both the Select Board and the Historical Commission could ignore Town Meeting’s vote if they wished. Bragan said in an email to the Press that Town Meeting can only authorize the boards to take an action, not require them to take it.
In an earlier conversation, Bragan suggested the Select Board would probably consider the results of the Nov. 2 referendum a truer reflection of the town’s will, because the number of people who vote in a town election is almost always larger than the number who attend a town meeting. For example, attendance at last May’s Town Meeting was 307, while 1,030 voters turned out for the election three days later. Still, even the coming election-day referendum on Bromfield House is nonbinding.
Despite Bragan’s caveat, Rodrigues told the Press, “I think it is extremely important that this [article] pass at Town Meeting.” Rodrigues noted that Bromfield House, which is now being used as temporary office space for companies doing site work at the elementary school, will soon be vacant. After that, she said, if the building is not sold soon, the town will need to spend money on its upkeep, which is something the Select Board has said it wishes to avoid.
Bromfield House (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
