Westborough’s Beeman House is given temporary reprieve from wrecking ball

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Westborough’s Beeman House is given temporary reprieve from wrecking ball
Curtis and Abigail Beeman House
Photo/Bonnie Adams

By Andrew Strecker, Contributing Reporter

Westborough – The Westborough Historical Commission voted unanimously at its Feb. 27  meeting to enforce a nine-month demolition delay for a historic property at 50 Flanders Rd.

Known as the Beeman House, the property is, according to commission member Christian Hedrick, “architecturally, culturally for Westborough, an important and significant house.”

A tour of the home by commission members in February found characteristics such as gunstock corner posts that dated the home to as early as 1720. A ridge beam was dated to 1760-1780, marking “a pretty important period in American architectural property,” according to Hedrick, a professional architectural consultant. No part of the home was dated to before 1700, he said.

Commission Chair Hazel Nourse called the home’s beehive oven “a real architectural find in this day and age.”

According to the property owner, Josiah Rich, who wants to subdivide the near-eight acres the home exists on for residential development, the home has been on the market for over 200 days and has not sold. He estimated the cost to rehabilitate the house at $820,000.

“It is a beautiful house, and I want to work with you guys,” said Rich at the meeting, but, he added, “I would want to live in a nontoxic, energy efficient structure.”

“Personally, I don’t think you’ve made enough effort to save this house,” said Nourse. She moved that the commission enforce a 270-day demolition delay based on the home’s historical and architectural uniqueness. It was approved unanimously. If, after 270 days, there is no buyer for the house, it can be demolished.

“If you told us tomorrow we could tear it down, we wouldn’t be doing that,” said John Rich, Josiah’s father, at the meeting.

The commission recommended that Rich request a variance from the town Zoning Board of Appeals to help in selling the house and offered to help connect him with specialized realtors.

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