I suggest that Smith College seeks to close the Fort Hill childhood center because it plans to sell the land. The preschool occupies part of the main house of the Lyman Estate (aka “Fort Hill”), acquired by Smith in the early 1900s. Besides the main house, the Estate had a gardener’s house. Not as grand as the main house, but still a fine building in the Georgian style.
I know because I lived in it for 16 years while I grew up; Smith rented the house to faculty and my father taught there. Behind the house grew row after row of well-tended shrubs, awaiting transfer to campus. Beside the house loomed piles of mulch and soil that kept the plants healthy. Things have changed. The nursery and groundskeeping have been all but abandoned; the land is fallow. The gardener’s house became so dilapidated that it had to be razed. Smith now uses the Estate grounds apparently only as a dump. Campus leaders envision no productive use for the land; they will inevitably choose a sale.
The Estate is about the size of Child’s Park and well located; they are likely to earn a packet. Maybe this is the best they can do for campus? But if so, they should state their plans honestly. Perhaps Northampton should seize the main house by eminent domain for the common good?
Tobias Baskin
Amherst