BELCHERTOWN — Brad Green could stick his finger through the rotted beams of Lampson Brook Farmstead’s historic horse barn.
Formerly used to house horses on the Belchertown State School Farm, years of water damage decayed the roof of the old building at 275 Jackson St. In danger of caving in any day, its condition prompted New England Small Farm Institute board member Patricia Barry to call Green at Colonial Restorations LLC in Fiskdale.
As soon as Green saw its condition, he came back to secure the roof with jacks just to prevent a full collapse. A month later, he returned with a team to restore roof beams, damaged wall posts and an old horse stall.
“Our goal is to not make it straight or level, but to get it in the right position so it never moves again,” Green said.
The New England Small Farm Institute (NESFI) is a land-based nonprofit organization tasked with overseeing the 430-acre property of the former Belchertown State School Farm. The Division of Capital Asset Management renewed the organization’s lease of the land in May 2025 until 2030.
In efforts to save the farm, NESFI received a $161,849 community preservation grant this year to repair the degrading building, which will cover Colonial Restoration’s estimate of $80,200. However, Barry said the grant will dry up once remediation on the asbestos roof tiles and installation of the new roof begins in spring.
To raise an additional $40,000, NESFI launched a fundraiser modeled after the buy-a-brick campaigns. Donors can buy a horseshoe with the name of a loved one, which will hang in the barn in a “winner’s circle.” Watercolors of the barn painted by Gretchen Krause Holesovsky are also available for purchase. All proceeds will go to fixing the roof and transforming the inside of the barn into a farm museum and education space.
“It’s just such a shame that it’s come to such disrepair, but we’re up for the challenge,” Barry said. “It is worth the effort we’re putting into it.”
History in the Horse Barn
Lampson Brook’s historic horse barn was not originally in Belchertown. Barry learned the structure was originally built in the late 1800s as part of the Hillside School of Greenwich, a dissolved town that once stood in the middle of the Quabbin Reservoir. When the state decided to flood the area for a new reservoir in the 1930s, the Hillside School moved to Marlborough.
In the summer of 1928, the horse barn was broken down from Greenwich and rebuilt at the newly established Belchertown State School. Barry said besides the unique cobblestone floors, the structure looks exactly the same.
“It blows my mind that they could dismantle this barn and rebuild it in 1928 to almost the exact way it looked,” she said.
The Belchertown State School Farm would supply eggs, dairy and other farm products to the state schools in western Massachusetts. Susie McCrea, daughter of former head of Belchertown State School Farm Joe McCrea, remembers growing up on the farm property when horses occupied the barn. She would add grain to their troughs, check the water link to the stalls and watch her father plow the fields of cow corn.
“It’s near and dear to my heart because it’s a piece of our family history and family memories,” McCrea said.
Many State School residents worked on the farm without compensation. They would wake up at the crack of dawn to attend to the cows, plow the fields and steer the hay and sleigh rides. When the state heard about the use of institutionalized residents as free labor, the farm’s doors were promptly closed.
“These men were so committed and focused on running that farm,” McCrea said. “My dad welcomed them, with open arms, working with them, taught them things and gave them a lot of independence and freedom to do the work.”
Some Belchertown residents may remember the hay rides and sleigh rides pulled by horses Dick and Dock around the Belchertown property, McCrea said. Joe McCrea also started a therapeutic riding program for residents of the State School, which continued long after the farm itself shut down in 1972. The residents would “come to life” on the backs of the horses, McCrea remembers.
As more details about the inhumane conditions inside the walls of the Belchertown State School came to light, the institution closed its doors in 1992. Residents of the Belchertown State School and their families have since written books detailing the neglect and squalor they faced.
“People in Belchertown recall so many good memories from the State School,” Barry said. “All we hear about is the bad stuff, but there’s some good stuff.”
Drive to keep history alive
After the State School Farm’s closure, Women in Agriculture, Food Policy and Land Use Reform, who formed NESFI in 1978, would use the barn to store crops. It’s become “part of the viewscape” of the property, Barry said. It is a piece she refuses to lose to time.
“The fundraising will be ongoing because we’d like to restore the inside to its original use,” she continued. “There’s someone in the past who put walls in there to make these little rooms and the classroom. Because of the water damage, all that has to be taken out.”
By removing the smaller rooms, NESFI can turn the barn into a part educational space, part event space. Barry and McCrea discussed displaying the old farm equipment, currently stored in the old stables, and making a mini farm museum. By opening up the space, agricultural speakers can educate the next generation of farmers, newlyweds can celebrate their union and farmers can sell their vegetables.
“I never thought I’d see this happen,” Barry said. “It’s going to be a good thing for the farm and it’s going to be a good thing for the people in town.”
Their lofty plans have inspired the NESFI board to keep the horseshoe fundraiser ongoing. But before people can raise the roof in the barn, NESFI needs to literally raise the roof.
“It doesn’t matter who owns the barn, it’s just about the barn,” Barry said. “We are losing so many historic barns that this one is worth saving.”
