Location: Between Washington Road and Rosedale Avenue, accessed via right-of-way on Rosedale Avenue at Sherwood Lane
Tax Assessor’s Plat #14 Lots #8 and 11
Document: Book #223, Pages # 651-654, and Book #247, pages #204-207 – Barrington Town Hall
Acquisition: Land donated by Joseph Francis, 1/93 and 12/93
Purpose of donation: To be kept in its natural state, “that (the Trust”) will not make any further subdivision nor erect or maintain any structures”
Property description: Red maple swamp. About 45 acres.
Management: Checking along the margins for yard debris, etc.; Neighborhood letters will probably be helpful in educating neighbors to avoid such activity. Bittersweet vine needs pulling down often on Rosedale Ave. border.
History: The BLCT was given two large parcels to add on to the town property on the north side from donor Joseph Francis.
- The first tax records in 1923 show that Tall Cedars was once owned by Frederick S. Peck.
- 1635 Peck Family ownership dates back to original Barrington founder family of the Mass Bay colony and Barrington.
- The Pecks owned a large part of the northern part of Barrington, including water gardens that is now conservation land owned by the town.
- Sometime between 1939 and 1945, the land was given to the Palestine Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine(a masonic group).
- In 1964 it was sold to Vero Properties, Inc.
- In 1968 the town acquired it. There was a building on the property that was used on several occasions in the early 1960’s by the Barrington Junior Women’s Club for fund raising carnivals, including a ferris wheel and other circus rides. The town took down the building, and now the whole area is zoned conservation.