A fixer-upper with a 721-acre yard

The Lamson House is located in the northwest corner of the park.

By Globe Staff

Imagine living rent-free in a million-dollar home on a 721-acre property on the North Shore. The only catch? You'll have to pour your own money and sweat into the property to rehabilitate it, and you'll only be able to live there 25 years.

That's the offer the state Department of Conservation and Recreation is extending in the town of Topsfield on Boston's North Shore.

As part of its Historic Curatorship program, the agency is seeking proposals for the Lamson House, located in the Bradley Palmer State Park, once the estate of noted attorney Bradley Palmer.

The wood-frame Georgian farmhouse, which hasn’t been lived in for 10 or 15 years, needs a new septic system, as well as upgrades or replacement of the heating, plumbing, and electrical systems, said Kevin Allen, director of the program. "You name it," he said, the building needs it. Still, he said, it’s a beautiful and unique location.

“It’s a site that really couldn’t be purchased right now anywhere,” he said. The Bradley Palmer State Park website describes the park, which the Ipswich River runs through, as a place of pine needle-strewn paths, sunlit meadows, and "spectacular rhododendrons."

The agency recently announced it was also seeking proposals for the coachman's house at Maudslay Park in Newburyport. So far, nine properties have been rehabilitated under the program, the DCR said. Typically, the leases last for 25 years.

The program has already resulted in rehabilitation of another building at Bradley Palmer State Park, Willowdale Estate, the Palmer mansion, which is now used for weddings and other functions.

Responses to the request for proposals are due by 5 p.m. on Nov. 25. For more information, people should write HCP.Requests@state.ma.us or write to the program at Historic Curatorship Program, Department of Conservation and Recreation, 7th floor, 251 Causeway St., Boston, MA, 02114.

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