Neighbors vs. newcomers in battle over beach rights

HINGHAM -- For generations, families in the Crow Point section overlooking Hingham Harbor have swum at the narrow, rocky strip of sand at the end of Melville Walk.

Then the Stimsons arrived.

Robert Stimson, a financial analyst, and his wife, Cynthia, bought a plot of land on Melville Walk, tore down a 1920s cottage, and built a $1.3 million, 5,700-square-foot house.

Even before they moved in, a battle started to brew.

The Stimsons, who own Melville Walk with two other families, wanted to restrict access, allowing only abutters and a handful of locals to walk down it to the beach. They also wanted to ban alcohol, bonfires, and parking on Melville Walk. And they wanted legal protection if anyone were to drown or get hurt.

Neighbors, who feared that some of them might be shut out, said that because they had used the beach for more than two decades, they were guaranteed access under state law. And they chafed at the proposed rules.

The two sides could not come to an agreement. Neighbors threatened to sue.

In June 2004, with their house just completed, the Stimsons put up a fence -- a waist-high, wooden barrier with a ``No Trespassing" sign -- that blocks Melville Walk, a grassy pathway to the strand that locals call Little Beach.

A month later, when the Stimsons moved in, 17 neighbors were waiting for them on the beach, holding a silent vigil. Robert Stimson called police, and when the cruisers arrived and officers dispersed the crowd, neighbors yelled: ``Go back to California, Bob! We don't want you here."

Two months later, James Kane, 66, a retired teacher, and his wife, Irene, 67, a receptionist, who had enjoyed boating off the beach for 33 years, sued the Stimsons in Land Court, asserting that the neighbors' long history of beach use entitles them to access.

The battle has engulfed this quiet section of Hingham, dividing neighbors and exposing deep tensions that touch on money, power, and exclusivity.

``This is how wars start," Cynthia Stimson, 43, said yesterday, fighting tears outside Land Court, where a hearing was held. ``And this is a neighborhood war that has gone out of control.

She said that in some respects, the battle is less about beach rights and more about who belongs in Crow Point.

``If you haven't been here for 50 years, they hate you," she said. ``They hate new people. They hate young people. They hate people whose house is bigger than theirs."

Amyra O'Connell, 50, who grew up playing on Little Beach, said neighbors just want to keep what has always been part of their lives.

``The spirit of a neighborhood is being broken here," O'Connell said yesterday. ``It was a family beach. And no one ever questioned that it wasn't."

When the Stimsons bought land on Melville Walk in 2001, they were looking forward to moving from California, where they had lived for years, to Hingham, where Robert Stimson grew up.

``I thought Crow Point was a friendly family neighborhood," Cynthia Stimson said.

In proposing the beach rules, the Stimsons said, they wanted to protect themselves from liability and make the area safe for their 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son. Their lawyer met with neighbors, who resisted the proposals.

``We would have had to give up rights," James Kane said outside Land Court yesterday.

The Stimsons say the beach vigil on the night they moved in was a turning point in the battle.

Robert Stimson said it frightened his children. ``I call it the `move-in massacre,' " he said.

Kane said, ``We just wanted to make a statement that we want to use the beach."

Memories of Little Beach run deep in Crow Point. O'Connell recalls swimming at night there as a teenager. In the 1930s, neighbors organized a Crow Point Community Club, whose members built a wharf in the 1960s, where children dove. Next to the wharf was the beach, where residents soaked in sun.

``It's a nice place to put down a lawn chair and sit for a while or just take your kids exploring," said Mark Patrolia, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1988.

Neighbors said a lawsuit was their only way to ensure access for years to come.

The Stimsons have spent $100,000 on the lawsuit, which has involved research into 19th-century land deeds and paying expert witnesses, one of whom reviewed the technical meaning of the word beach yesterday in court.

``This has been a total nightmare," Cynthia Stimson said.

A ruling in the case by Judge Alexander Sands is expected sometine in the next several months.

In the meantime, the Kanes said they are not using the beach, and the Stimsons said they hope to put the fight behind them.

``We love Hingham; we always wanted to move to Hingham," Cynthia Stimson said. ``Believe me, we totally regret it.

``Don't ever move to Crow Point, man. Don't ever move to Crow Point."

John Ellement of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.