History

“There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made.”
- Willa Sibert Cather

On June 16, 1973, five Harvard residents, Albert Anderson, Frank Coolidge, Larry Finnegan, Erhart Muller, and Edward Squibb, came together to form the Harvard Conservation Trust.

At one of their earlier meetings, Cloyce Reed, one of HCT’s first trustees, arrived with an acorn in hand. She drew a memorable analogy: “From this little nut grows a big tree. So too will the Trust grow from something small to something great.” And with that our Oak Tree logo was born.

Since that auspicious day, the Trust has helped acquire or protect more than 700 acres for conservation – including the land surrounding the Town Beach, Watt Farm, Barba’s Point, and Dean’s Hill.

Gifts of land to the Harvard Conservation Trust include:

1970s	Erhart and Ruth Muller gave 31 acres of apple orchards, fields, and woodlands on Littleton County Road.
1979	The Hill family gave 2.67 acres on Bolton Road
1989	Hans and Natalie Ohlin gave 25.5 acres off Poor Farm Road.
1995	Elizabeth May gave 14 acres on West Bare Hill Road and the Porter family gave six adjacent acres.
1997	The Pieters, McClellan, and Reed family gave 4.4 acres off Stow Road.
1998	Pat and Don Ward gave five acres on Old Littleton Road and the Davis family gave 4.5 acres off Stow Road.
1999	The Goodwin/Woods family gave 1.27 acres on Slough Road.
2000	Peter Creighton of Land Resources Associates gave 13.7 acres off Harris Lane and Still River Road as part of a limited development. The donation included an adjacent 16 acres to the Bolton Conservation Trust.
2001	Tony and Delores Galeota gave 10 acres on Littleton Road and the Ring family gave 1.7 acres on Warren Avenue.
Conservation Restrictions and Easements held by the Harvard Conservation Trust:
1992	Frank and Emily Coolidge preserved over 10 acres of pastureland at the corner of Brown Road and East Bare Hill Road as open space.
1996	Preservation restriction on 1.5 acres from Judith and Andrew Warner, protecting the remains of an old stone barn built by the Shakers in 1835 off South Shaker Road.
1998	7 acres owned by Patricia Noxon on Pinnacle Road; now owned by Carlson Orchards.
2000	14 acres off Harris Lane as part of a limited development.
2001	21 acres on the Cahill Land at Old Littleton Road.
	44 Town owned acres at Brown Road; commonly referred to as the Tripp land.
2002	100 acres in Boxborough as a co-signer with the Boxborough Conservation Trust.
2003	Nearly 12 acres off Poor Farm Road and adjacent to Bowers Brook, owned by Loring and Katinka Coleman.
	24.3 acres owned by the New England Forestry Foundation off Shaker Road.
2004	80 acres of Ernst land off Murray Lane.
2005	Over 20 acres from William T. Maxant on Willard Lane in Still River.
2006	2 acres from Pam Smith on Oak Hill Road.
2009	5 acres from Alice Thayer on South Shaker Road.
2010	32 acres of Town owned conservation land on Dean’s Hill between Prospect Hill, Still River and Depot Roads. The parcel abuts the Town of Harvard’s Prospect Hill conservation land.
Land purchased and held by the Trust:
1997	Purchased 27 acres (off Littleton Road) from the Coke estate, which abuts existing Town conservation land; one house lot was split off and sold.
	Bought 3 acres from the Newsham family; land is adjacent to the Coke land near Town center.
1999	Purchased the 16 acre Brehm property on Stow Road that abuts Great Elms and sold one house lot to finance the purchase. Trails link to Great Elms conservation land.
2002	Purchased 3.2 acres bordering Bowers Brook and adjacent to the Town conservation land off Woodside Road from Dick Case.
2004	Purchased the Dolan Mason Land (over 20 acres on Woodchuck Hill and Slough Road), integral to the Town Center’s trail system.
Land purchased by the Trust and later sold to the Town:
1974	Purchased 3.59 acres on Pond Road; later sold to the Town to protect the Town Beach.
1979	Purchased the Kaufman land, a critical link between Holy Hill (a sacred place of worship for the Shakers) and the Town Forest; sold 20 acres to the Town for conservation at a low price made possible by selling two house lots.
1981	Purchase 10.2 acres on Depot Road, which is part of Pin Hill, a roughly 20 acre conservation area of historic and unique geological interest; later sold to the Town.
1996	Purchased the Terry-Oyler property consisting of 16 acres and a house in the center of Town. In 1997, the Trust sold the house with about 2 acres, and retained a possible future Town well site, which HCT Development, a subsidiary of HCT, still owns.
1998	Purchased the Barba land (18 acres); sold 16 acres of combined Barba/Terry/Oyler land fronting on Bare Hill Pond to the Town – leaving a sizeable portion in HCT protection.
2000	Bought the Tripp land (44 acres off Brown Road) and sold it to the Town – HCT still holds a conservation restriction.
2001	Bought the Stone (5.6 acres on Old Mill Road) and Luongo (26.5 acres on Willard Lane) lands and later sold them to the Town.
2003	Purchased Dean’s Hill (32 acres between Prospect Hill, Still River and Depot Roads) for resale to the Town. HCT retained a conservation restriction on the property.
	Bought Hosking’s Point (1.7 acres on Bare Hill Pond) and sold it to the Town.