This article is shared from the Swampscott Tides.
Attorney Gerry D’Ambrosio, counsel for the Glover Residences project, presented revised plans for the 140-unit development to the Swampscott Planning Board Monday, confirming that the historic Glover House will be preserved.
“The goal with the Glover House is to integrate it within the development,” D’Ambrosio said. “They are not going to spend tens of millions of dollars and have a dilapidated Glover House… It’s a drastic, drastic improvement.”
D’Ambrosio presented a slideshow and fielded questions from the Planning Board Monday. The proposal, submitted by The Glover LLC, calls for a 140-unit multifamily development. KOH Architecture is listed as the architect and Stonefield as the civil engineer.
“We’ve tried to accommodate a lot of the concerns that have come up really in the last five years,” D’Ambrosio said. “That’s why they look so different from the plans from five years ago and why they cost more.”
D’Ambrosio said the Glover House could eventually serve as a museum or function hall, though its future use will be determined by the HistoricalCommission following a public hearing.
The Historical Commission also approved the demolition of the other three buildings on the property: two barns and the A.E. Little House. The commission voted 5-3 on the A.E. Little House in a second vote after initially reaching a tie, with members citing concerns that further delays could jeopardize the larger redevelopment and the opportunity to preserve the Glover House.
“We are more than willing partners in this development group in making sure that the long-term viability of the Glover House is sustained,” D’Ambrosio said.
D’Ambrosio started his presentation addressing the existing conditions of the property, whose municipal boundaries encompass approximately 2.28 acres in Swampscott, 1.56 acres in Marblehead and about a quarter-acre in Salem.
“I think this one of the more dilapidated four-acre areas on the North Shore,” D’Ambrosio said, calling the existing “dwellings” a “public safety concern” and potential “threat to the men and women of the Swampscott Fire Department… and that is just happening as a matter of nature.”
The plans call to incorporate the Glover House into the development, with pathways leading to it from each of the apartment buildings and parking nearby to encourage people to visit, D’Ambrosio said.
There would be 140 units — 44 on Marblehead and 96 Swampscott side — with none of the buildings taller than 50 feet. Of those, 17 would be affordable housing units. There would also be 144 parking spots both above-ground and underground, a utility shed for upkeep, and a courtyard that includes a pool. Trash would be picked up by a truck.
“This is much closer to what the town’s intent was to what this type of zoning might have been,” said Planning Board Chair Joseph Sheridan.
Public commenters asked for full descriptions of pool timing; environmental impacts; the effects on Tedesco Pond Place and the country club; the reason for chimneys; concrete plans to maintain the Glover House; and overall “better descriptions” of the project.
D’Ambrosio noted that the plans “meet all of the requirements that your overlay district demands.” He also touted the affordability, calling out the Commonwealth’s “housing crisis” and suggesting a younger demographic of renters.
“They’re not designed for large families. Most of the units are one and twos,” D’Ambrosio said.
Planning Board members also raised concerns about the project’s traffic analysis, noting that the area’s existing traffic patterns were studied in 2023. A few public commenters echoed worries, adding that the area is already not just a business district but also a residential space.
“This is a complicated intersection,” Sheridan said, looking to Salem and Vinnin Streets. “It’s definitely worthy of being studied contextually so we can see.”
The old plan
National Development brought a pre-application proposal to the Planning Board in March, also indicating that the farmhouse would be preserved.
That proposal called for three residential buildings containing the same total of 140 units. Two of the buildings were planned at four stories plus a roof, while the third was five stories plus a roof. The company proposed 96 units in Swampscott and 44 in Marblehead, along with 220 parking spaces.
National Development had indicated that it would need a special permit to address the proposed building heights.
A piece of Revolutionary War history
Glover was a hero of the American Revolutionary War. In 1775, Glover was elected lieutenant colonel of the 21st Massachusetts Regiment from Marblehead. After Colonel Jeremiah Lee’s death that April, Glover assumed command and led his troops to join the siege of Boston, where General George Washington chartered his schooner to raid British supply ships.
Known as “Glover’s Regiment,” the Marblehead militia later became the 14th Continental Regiment, composed of about 500 local mariners and militiamen. The group famously saved Washington’s army from entrapment after the Battle of Long Island and later delayed British forces at the Battle of Pell’s Point.
Glover is perhaps most famously remembered for leading his regiment in rowing General Washington across the Delaware River on the night of December 25, 1776. The crossing culminated in a surprise attack on Hessian mercenaries in Trenton.
After the war, Glover was offered the opportunity to purchase the farmhouse property that Save the Glover! is now working to preserve. Before the Revolution, it had belonged to Salem Loyalist and judge William Browne, whose land was seized by the Massachusetts government under wartime policies. Browne would become Governor of Bermuda. Glover moved there in 1782, when the property encompassed 180 acres.
Save the Glover! efforts intensified after the town’s building commissioner notified the Historical Commission that the property owners had filed for a demolition permit in July. Although a nine-month demolition delay was previously placed on the development approved in 2022, that delay expired in January 2024.
The Historical Commission hosted a public hearing on the issue, hearing support to preserve the house from Glover’s descendants, Select Board members, an 8-year-old and other residents from the communities the Glover Farmhouse touches. Following, the Historical Commission voted to instate another demolition delay, which was set to expire July 20, coinciding with the nation’s 250th anniversary month.
“Every day there’s a little more deterioration of the Gen. Glover Farmhouse,” said Attorney Kenneth Shutzer. “That’s going to stop.”
In recent months, there have been efforts to raise money to preserve the farmhouse. Local students raised over $1,100.There was also a commemorative Glover boat in the Salem Maritime Festival’s Annual Cardboard Regatta.
