Descendant is seeking to save Colonial home
Richard Livermore doesn't know what Joseph Livermore, a direct ancestor, looked like. He doesn't have a likeness of him, or diary, or account ledger, or any mementos that would tell him something about the man who built the family's Weston homestead more than 250 years ago. The only surviving tangible tie is the house and farm Joseph built in the 18th century.
The house, though, is caught in the middle of a dispute over a proposed subdivision on the site, with developers threatening to tear it down if the town doesn't agree to their plans.
When Livermore visited the property for the first time in 1995, he said he was amazed that the house and its accompanying shed and barns had survived. The picturesque farmhouse with pale yellow clapboards sits on a 2.2-acre parcel at 823 Boston Post Road that includes woods at the back and a small pasture on the side. It still looks like the country homestead it had originally been, nothing like the suburbanized stretches in other towns along Route 20.
''When you drive through, and you see store after store, you see
Livermore, who lives in Munster, Ind., said that from his research he determined that his branch of the family left Weston in the mid-1830s. But though it has been more than 170 years since a relative owned the house, Livermore feels compelled to help protect the family homestead.
He heard about the latest proposed development from a neighbor. It called for preserving the house, demolishing the outbuildings, and building seven new houses.
Earlier this month, Livermore wrote a letter to the Board of Selectmen and the Weston Town Crier, calling the development plans ''a huge mistake" and asking that the homestead be preserved in its entirety. Two relatives -- Maxine Livermore, also of Indiana, and Robert Livermore III of Belmont -- have since sent letters supporting preservation of the property.
Weston's Board of Selectmen on June 15 rejected the developers' plans, citing concerns that it could lead to other such projects on Boston Post Road, which is part of a district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The developers, Bill Foley and Stephen Burtt, had sought selectmen's approval through the Local Initiative Program, also called ''friendly 40B." The state's Chapter 40B law enables developers to sidestep local zoning if they include units at below-market rates. The law applies in communities where less than 10 percent of housing is considered affordable; in Weston, only 3 percent is so classified. Under a ''friendly 40B," the town gets more input and the developer speedier approval.
After the selectmen's action, Foley and Burtt said they would go the straight Chapter 40B route, demolishing the house and its outbuildings to make way for a more profitable project of as many as 16 houses.
The current owner of the property is Robert M. Berry, president of Lane, Berry & Co. investment bankers. He was unavailable for comment on Tuesday.
Local historian Pamela Fox said only about two dozen Colonial-era houses still stand in Weston, the oldest dating to the 1600s.
But there's still a chance that the Livermore house will remain among them.
The Massachusetts Historical Commission sent a letter to Burtt last Thursday stating that the plans to demolish the outbuildings would constitute an ''adverse effect" on the historic district. The developer is now required to work with the commission to find ways to avoid or at least minimize any damage to the site that would lessen its historic value.
In the letter, Brona Simon, the deputy state historic preservation officer, says the commission believes it's possible to include the house, barns, and shed in the housing development without sacrificing the site's historic character. The commission has requested more detailed plans of the site.
But the commission is not an enforcement body; it does not have the power to prevent the demolition of the house. If the owner of the property decides to go against the commission's recommendations, the most the body can require is a professional narrative and photographic documentation of the house's history, interior, and exterior features.
Burtt said on Monday that the state's findings would not change the developers' plans, including the option of razing the house. But he said that he would be willing to talk to the selectmen if they decided to reconsider the original proposal. He said the developers are also willing to work with anyone who might want to move the barn to another site.
Livermore has spent more than 12 years researching his genealogy, digging all the way back to a Daniel Livermore, born in 1579 in Wethersfield, England. Daniel's grandson, John Jr., was Joseph Livermore's father. According to cemeteries and parks superintendent William O'Neil, about 20 Livermores were buried in Weston before 1822. Joseph and his wife, father, and at least two sons were buried down the road from the house, at Farmers Burial Ground on the corner of Boston Post Road and Colpitts Road. The tombstones of Joseph and sons Josiah and James still stand there.
The house first appears on surviving property tax rolls in 1757, but it could have been built as early as 1707, when property records show that Joseph bought the land from his father. Joseph, along with his wife, Elizabeth, and five children, were among Weston's first Colonists. According to ''The Livermores of North America," a family history published in 1902, Joseph served as a representative to the town's general court three times between 1738 and 1749.
When Joseph died without a will in 1771, at the then-unheard-of age of 95, a court inventory estimated the total parcel at about 60 acres.
A 1978 preservation study found that the house began as a basic two-room structure. Expansion and renovation reflect architectural details from at least four periods: Georgian framework, a Federal mantelpiece, a Victorian stairway, and as part of its most recent renovation, a bathroom floor of French limestone with radiant heat and a temperature-controlled wine cellar. The two barns and shed were built within the last 150 years.
The last of Joseph Livermore's descendants left in the early 19th century for New York and Michigan. Weston was getting too crowded for them, according to Richard Livermore.
Fox, who has written a book about Weston's transition from farm settlement to Boston suburb, said that the 1830 Census recorded 1,091 people. The town was likely thriving, she said, thanks to its position along Boston Post Road, a major thoroughfare.
''If several people in the same family wanted to continue to farm, they couldn't continue splitting their land into smaller pieces. So they wanted to find more land, and they were moving farther from town and sometimes out west," Fox said.
Livermore says he is mobilizing every Livermore he can reach -- including a dozen connected by an e-mail list -- to save the homestead, asking them to write to local legislators, Secretary of State William Galvin, and the Massachusetts Historical Commission.
''It's one of the only physical ties we have to the Livermores," said Livermore. ''It's kind of like going home to me."
Stephanie V. Siek can be reached at ssiek@globe.com. 
