Regarding the Gershom Hyde home at 29 Greenwood Street, we are watching Newton’s History rot while the City, a developer and the Court try to decide what Newton’s history is worth.
Families lived in the Gershom Hyde home, for 267 years. The last family, the Edward Friedmans, lived there until 2011 and raised three children. Jared Friedman notes, “the floors creaked, the ceilings were low, the rooms were small, the basement was terrifying; it was not a fancy Newton house. But what it lacked in modern conveniences, it made up for in history, both the capital-H History that is most relevant to the city and the community at large, and the smaller, quieter domestic history that made it a unique place to grow up, and somehow united (each generation) with everyone who had lived there before.”
The developer Ty Gupta does not care about history, not Newton’s nor the Gershom Hyde home’s. He bought it in 2021, promised the Newton Historical Commission (NHC) that he would “restore” it, and within weeks tore down 70% of it, sending the materials to landfills.
On August 2, NHC formally denied him any right to proceed. Again.
On September 1, Gupta submitted a COMPLAINT to Middlesex Superior Court challenging the NHC’s “arbitrary and capricious refusal to allow (Gupta) to perform permitted and approved rehabilitation work.”
On October 25, the City, on behalf of the Newton Historical Commission, submitted an ANSWER to the Complaint saying, “The Complaint, in whole and in part, fails to state a claim against the Defendants for which relief may be granted.” The City does not even state a claim for the assessment of unpaid fines totaling at least $175,000!
Sadly, with each passing day, Newton’s history rots before our eyes.
Stephen C. Farrell
