Preservation Efforts: the 1970's

View to the north west from the west lawn. Point of Rocks. West Medford.

August, 1889. By Sarah L. Brooks. Courtesy Medford Brooks Estate Land Trust

Gary Davis, current Chairperson of the Medford Historical Commission, told me that the environmental and historic preservation movement first emerged nationally in the 1970's. In Medford the goal of saving the Brooks Estate followed this trend. To my amazement, some 25 years later the Brooks Estate is still in the process of being saved. This is testimony both to the apparent complexity of the issue and the tenacity of the participants.

In 1975 the Medford Historical Commission and Medford City Officials prepared nomination papers to place the Brooks Estate on the National Register of Historical Places. These included maps, records and other documentation. With the approval by the Massachusetts Historical Commission, the entire Brooks Estate was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 (Child, 1995, p.3).

This was a key first step in the recognition of the historic value of the Brooks Estate. The purpose of the National Register of Historical Places is to denote important buildings, sites and structures. The designation recognizes the value of the site and provides some limited protection to the property. Today the Brooks Estate is the last remnant of community-owned open space in Medford (Child, 1995, p4).

The Pace Accelerates in the 1980's

In 1989 The Board of Cemetery Trustees hired LEA Group, Inc., of Boston to study the expansion of the Oak Grove Cemetery into the Brooks Estate. The study basically consisted of a soil report and a schematic treatment of proposed cemetery lawns totaling some 15 acres at the heart of the property. The report suggested that land not suitable for burial purposes be developed for passive recreation, with development of nature trails for walking, bird watching, as well as picnic areas. The recommendations for passive recreation covered the northern section of the site and around Brooks Pond. The northern site consists of an upland area of wooded steep slopes and bedrock outcroppings (LEA Group, 1989). Mr. Marelli, Chairman- Cemetery Board of Trustees, has often stated that the Cemetery Board of Trustees supports the LEA study and that the Medford City Council should support it, too. He has also maintained that the Brooks property has been under the Cemetery Board of Trustees for fifty three years, and therefore should remain there indefinitely.

Of course, since the study was contracted and paid for by the Cemetery Board, it largely portrayed how the Cemetery Board would benefit if its findings were adopted into law. Thus, the only land to be used for passive recreation would be that which was not usable for burial purposes. This study was not approved by City Council.

On February 15, 1991, the Mayor of Medford announced that the Shepherd Brooks Estate had been selected as one of four properties in Massachusetts for participation in the Architectural Conservation Trust (ACT) Feasibility Studies Program. The project's goal was to identify, plan and complete a re-use study of the sixty-odd acres of undeveloped woodland of the Brooks Estate.

The results of this study focused on three options for the land use: 1) community conference and meeting center, 2) retirement housing and 3) congregate housing. Each of the choices would be centered on the Shepherd Brooks Mansion, the Carriage House and the 2.2 acres of land around the buildings. The second and third options effectively would have reduced the woodlands to a great extent.

Interestingly, the study states that though little known and used, the Brooks Estate is one of Medford's greatest assets with a brilliant future if the principles of historic preservation and good urban planning are followed (Re-use study for the Shepherd Brooks Estate, June 1991). The ACT report was placed on file in the City Hall Office of Community Development.

From the bachelors thesis: Case Study of the Brooks Estate, by Linda M. Penta. American Studies Program, Leslie College