Turley Publications photo by Taryn Plumb

 

The Brookfield town common, in a picture taken last winter, before three large trees were removed.

 

Brookfield common to undergo historical landscaping

 

By Taryn Plumb

Turley Publications Correspondent

 

BROOKFIELD – For 275 years, the rectangle of land has witnessed the steady procession of time – and progress.

Sold to the town in 1735 for militia training, it was once rich with trees.

Later, various pieces were parceled and pinched off as Brookfield grew and traffic bustled.

Today, lush with summer green, sifted with white, or littered with autumn leaves, it serves as a gathering spot; hosting concerts, fairs, weddings, tree lightings and various other community activities.

But some say, the identity of the Brookfield Town Common has shifted a little too much over the centuries.

So now, the hope is to restore it – at least in part.

Consultants will soon begin work on a historic landscape and preservation plan, funded partly by a grant through the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

“We really would like to recapture the historical sense of place for the Brookfield common and mall area,” said Kathleen Wild, Chair of the Brookfield Banister Common and Mall Committee.

The $1,450 grant, from the NTHP's Johanna Favrot Fund for Historic Preservation, will enable the town to contract with historical landscape architect Martha H. Lyon of Northampton. The grant was enhanced by matching funds awarded at the June 18 annual town meeting, as well as another $4,050 for incidental expenses and preliminary implementation of the plan.

Three members of the Banister Committee will meet with Lyon in early July to do a walk-around and discuss historical aspects, Wild explained.

And those are rich: The common is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the area around it is a historic district also listed on the Register.

Lyon, an adjunct professor of landscape architecture at UMass Amherst, may have a plan ready as soon as late summer, Wild said.

One concern of the nine-member Banister committee, which meets monthly, is that the road doesn't further impede on the already eroded space, and that any plantings are appropriate and well tended to. Lyons' plan may include various options for plantings and walkways, Wild said.

However, she stressed, restoring the common's historicity “Doesn't mean we want to return it to exactly the way it was before.”

Rather, she noted, Lyons' job is to find a way to “Give it historical character, but also meet the needs of the town today.”

Therefore, any changes won't impede the Apple Country Fair, Concerts on the Common, or any other community or private group use, she noted.

Ultimately, just having a management plan will be an improvement – because, as Wild pointed out, up until now, there hasn't been anything.

“Nothing's really been done other than mowing for years and years and years,” she said.

As a result, trees have been lost because they haven't been cared for.

Just this spring, for instance, three trees interfering with electric wires – and which, upon closer inspection, were also found to be rotting internally – were taken down. Meanwhile, other planted trees weren't ultimately “appropriate” in terms of their historical sense, Wild said.

“We want to have a plan, some sense of oversight,” Wild explained. “We want to make sure that what happens on the common and mall is going to both maintain its historical character and take care of it.”

Ultimately, the goal is to “Bring that whole area back to some sense of historical beauty and presence,” Wild said, “make it something residents can be proud of.”