This land is my land

HOLBROOK -- In 1908, a downtown Brockton store owner offered his customers a deal: buy a men's suit and he would throw in a tiny plot of land out in the country.

Daniel W. Baker of Besse, Baker, and Co. clothiers had purchased 40 acres of open land known as Edgewood Park in then-rural Holbrook. He divided the property into lots of about 85-by-20 feet or smaller and gave away hundreds. He kept the ones left over when the promotion ended.

This unorthodox marketing ploy has today left a tangle of claims and conflict that could take another century to unravel.

Many of the approximately 500 unbuildable lots are orphans; the town does not know who owns them, and isn't collecting some $750,000 in taxes owed on the parcels.

Moreover, a local sewer contractor who does own a few of the lots is claiming squatter's rights to the entire 40-acre parcel, setting off a confrontation with Daniel Baker's surviving heirs, and some nearby residents who say he's barred them from woods that had been accessible for decades.

"As far as I'm concerned, I own it," said Wayne D. Crosby, who has operated Tri-Town sewerage and other business operations on a portion of the property since 1976.

But Baker's surviving heirs, brothers Peter and John Blatchford, own about 136 lots, according to town records, which they would like to donate to the town. But they have been deadlocked with local officials over a $130,000 bill for back taxes.

In the meantime, the Blatchfords and Crosby have locked horns over access to the property. Crosby has installed a locked gate across one entrance to the property, fences on part of the perimeter, and posted no trespassing signs on some of the disputed land. He has also threatened to call police if anyone comes onto the property, and more pointedly barred Peter Blatchford after he tried to go on the land.

"There's a squatter on the land, and he's locked everyone out," said Peter Blatchford. "I don't want to pay taxes on land I have no access to."

The intensity of the battle has some Holbrook officials leery.

"It almost reminds me of the Hatfields and the McCoys," said Selectman Richard McGaughey.

There's a lot at stake. Land values in this small community have shot up as home buyers have reached deeper into the suburbs to find available and more affordable housing stock. A typical house lot in town might sell for around $250,000, said Kimberly Allard-Moccia , former president of the Plymouth and South Shore Association of Realtors. So 40 acres of mostly undeveloped land is probably worth millions to whomever ends up controlling it.

Squatter's rights, or in legal terms "adverse possession," stem from English common law and allow an individual under certain circumstances to obtain ownership of property without a title after occupying it for a specified number of years. In Massachusetts, the requirement to claim squatter's rights is 20 years.

Crosby filed a claim to the entire property in 2004 on the grounds that his business operations have been located on the land for more than the required 20 years, and that before then much of the land was in his wife's family for more than 50 years.

Holbrook, meanwhile, has intervened in Crosby's court claim, arguing that the businessman is laying rights to some parcels that are owned by the town itself, said Town Administrator Michael Yunits.

"Our attorney is still looking into it," he said. "What the town wants to see is to have it straightened out so we get some tax revenue on the property."

Crosby said he too has been frustrated by the lack of progress in negotiations with town officials.

"They could end this overnight," he said, and added he has an easy solution to the town's issue of unpaid taxes: "Send me the bill and I'll pay it."

While the drama seems almost of another time and place, it has modern resonance. In the past two decades, real estate has become considerably more valuable in Holbrook, a town of 11,000 between Braintree and Brockton, 18 miles south of Boston. One catalyst was the arrival of the Old Colony Railroad commuter trains in 1997, which made the Boston commute much easier.

Next to the disputed property is a new development called Bel-Air Estates, where 28 large homes have been built in the past couple of years, selling in the $500,000 to $800,000 range.

"Somebody is going to make a mint off this property," said another Holbrook selectman, Katherine Connolly, who wants the town government to be more aggressive in fighting Crosby's claim to the property.

Some residents of Revere Street who live near Englewood Park agree with Connolly and want Town Hall to force Crosby to take down the gate, fence, and no trespassing signs.

"We think he is pulling a fast one on the town," said Scott Witunsky, whose home is next door to the woods. "There is obviously millions of dollars of land up there."

Witunsky said the locked gate at the entrance to Dean Street creates a safety problem. A fire in the woods could threaten nearby homes, and firefighters would have to cut the lock off to gain access, he said.

John Davis, who grew up in the neighborhood and owns a home there now, does not like being barred from the property and said that several years ago he dared Crosby to have him arrested. Although Davis did cross onto the property, he wasn't arrested.

"We used to hike in these woods. We used to camp," said Davis. "We spent our summers there."

In addition to constructing the gate across Dean Street, Crosby has added a couple of amenities to the edge of the property on South Franklin Street. He installed a park bench and a trash barrel and also landscaped the area next to the road.

Blatchford, meanwhile, said he feels like he's fighting Town Hall as well as Crosby.

"I'd like to resolve it, but they should be doing something instead of protecting the squatter," he said.

Of Blatchford's complaints, Crosby said, "I'll see him in court."

Robert Preer can be reached at preer@globe.com.