OTISFIELD – The foundations of one of the earliest homesteads in Otisfield will be spared when a logging road is built across the land in the next few weeks.
The three foundations of the Gerrish homestead, a farmhouse and barns, are owned by Robert and Patrice Blake of Naples. A right of way through the land, which is off Powhattan Road, narrowly misses the foundations. That right of way will be used as a logging road by R and L Logging LLC. If approved by the Planning Board, it will then become the access road for a 14-lot subdivision.
“The developers are being very thoughtful about us,” Patrice Blake said. They have proposed moving the right of way 30 feet to avoid having to cut any of the trees around the foundations and to preserve the stone walls farther along the right of way. They also plan to make a gift of almost two acres of wetland to the Blakes from the land to be subdivided, to preserve the privacy of their fields and home.
“Of course,” Blake said, “any time a developer goes into what has historically been farmland, it changes the way of life for a lot of folks.” The land has been used in the past by hunters, hikers and snowmobilers.
Craig Higgins, design engineer for the project, said at a site walk Tuesday that a snowmobile trail that runs across the land may be shifted and made a permanent right of way for use by snowmobilers.
The 70 acres of the proposed subdivision are heavily wooded with mature eastern white pine. R and L plans to harvest the pine, along with some hemlock and other trees. “It’s going to look dramatically different,” Higgins told Planning Board members and abutting land owners at the site walk.
The Blakes are relieved, though, that the foundations will remain undisturbed, and their history will be preserved. In 1846, 8-year-old James Whittham fell into a well and drowned on the property. Patrice Blake said she’d like to imagine that his spirit is guiding the development of the land.
Higgins plans to present a preliminary application for the subdivision at the Planning Board’s next meeting. The plan must be approved by both the Planning Board and the state Department of Environmental Protection.
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