LYNNFIELD — An iconic barn on Summer Street, which is believed to be more than 150-years-old, has been saved from demolition.
The barn, located at 211 Summer St., adjacent to the Reedy Meadow Golf Course, was moved last Friday to what will hopefully be a permanent location facing Summer Street.
Historical Commission Chair Kirk Mansfield said that saving the barn was the result of the commission’s and Planning Board’s negotiations with Developer Michael Palmer, who agreed to move it to make way for him to demolish the existing home on the property and build two new homes, which will face Taylor Terrace.
“The barn was supposedly a chicken coop at one time and was located behind the house he was seeking permission to raze,” Mansfield said. “While there’s not too much we as a town can do, one of the conditions we asked for was to save the barn. It was located in between the lots for the new homes, so the solution was to move it to the front of the property facing Summer, as Summer Street falls under the Scenic Road bylaw.”
In November 2021, the commission approved the demolition of the home which was built in 1865, according to town assessing records.
Until a few years ago, the home was occupied by longtime Reedy Meadow Golf Course Manager Bob Baker, his wife Toni, and their three children. Baker logged 68 years working at the 9-hole course, beginning in 1950 when the course was known as Lynnfield Centre Golf Course. He died at the age of 80 on June 1, 2018.
While Baker was working from dawn to dusk on the course, his kids had the run of the place. In an interview with North Shore Golf Magazine shortly before he died, Baker said that while the old barn was used to house his kids’ collection of goats, chickens, rabbits, and even horses, it wasn’t unusual for the animals to escape and end up on the golf course.
“People used to say, ‘This isn’t a golf course, it’s a zoo.’ When the goats escaped from their pen, they would jump all over the golf carts, sometimes even the people,” Baker said. “Chickens used to roost on the roof of the pro shop, waiting for doughnut crumbs. Once a goat got loose and started eating an old-timer’s cigar, the goat whacked him, then came after me. The old guy asked whose dog that was, (he thought the goat was a dog), and I just said the guy that lives next door. He didn’t know I lived next door.”
Historical Commission member Abby Kilgore grew up with Baker’s daughter Pam. She remembers spending plenty of time in the barn as a kid. While she was thrilled to see the barn be spared demolition, she is saddened at the loss of the home.
“We lost a beautiful and historic home so we wanted to save something,” she said. “Our rights in these matters are limited and we wish we could have bought the home to save it, but getting the grants to do that simply takes time, which we didn’t really have.”
Kilgore said the home was on the demolition delay bylaw list and demolition could have been delayed for up to two years.
“That certainly worked in our favor and we could have stalled the process,” Kilgore said. “The fact that the developer wanted to take advantage of the hot real estate market and he didn’t want to risk a downward change in the market also was a huge factor. At that point (fellow commission member) Steve Todisco stepped up and started talking about trying to work out a way to save the barn, so he was the one who pushed it initially.”
Kilgore said she thought the barn was older than the house based on the architecture.
“Normally with a house from the 1800s you would see a carriage house, not a full working-farm barn,” she said.
Mansfield said he drove by the property on Thursday and saw the equipment and new cement foundation were already in place. “By 11 a.m. Friday it was done; it took less than a day to move it,” said Mansfield. “It was actually very cool,” adding that to the best of his knowledge, Palmer intends to restore the barn, which is what Kilgore is hoping for.
“I’ve been in that barn and house so many times and for me they will also be special. The Bakers were a wonderful Lynnfield family and the home was a wonderful Lynnfield property. I’m hoping he (Palmer) will restore the barn with flowers just as it probably looked in the 1800s.”
Anne Marie Tobin can be reached at [email protected].
