WATERTOWN – Finding a rental property is difficult. Spots may feel old or outdated, but what if you wanted them that way? What if you wanted that old-world charm? There are 30 historic homes in New England where you can rent the house as long as you help preserve it. A location in Watertown just had a tenant sign up to move into such a home.
“This is the 1698 portion of the house. It’s one of the oldest houses in Watertown,” said Wendy Hubbard, New England Lincoln’s historic sites manager.
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It’s called the Browne House, and although it’s actually brown, it’s named after the original tenant. He was a surveyor named Abraham Browne. In the early 20th century, Historic New England began preserving the property.
“There were no more Browne Family artifacts in the house. All objects in the Browne House were donated by various collectors over time,” Hubbard explains. “They used [the parlor here] as a bedroom, as a storage room, as a cooking space. They used it as a dining room.”
Around 1730 an extension was added to the house. Many aspects of the property are original, but others are reproductions using period materials.
“Abraham Browne was a surveyor in Watertown and he built some of the streets you probably travel on today,” Hubbard explains.
24/7 job taking care of real estate
Taking care of this property is a 24/7 job, and they cannot do it alone. That’s why they rent out part of the house to someone who can live here and help with its maintenance. The area in which they live has been modernized.
“Our tenants have a unique set of responsibilities. We train the tenants differently than our own staff because they live in these spaces,” said Marissa Mayo, Property Care Operations Manager for Historic New England.
30 historic homes have tenants
They have 30 historic homes in New England with tenants who live and work to maintain the properties. Many of the tenants have long-term contracts and vacancies are not common. You can consult their website for possible vacancies. They have leases from 5 to 35 years. When we first set up this story with Historic New England, they were looking for a new tenant, but someone jumped at the opportunity before we even finished telling the story.
“It’s one of those things where news travels quickly. We get a lot of interested parties,” Mayo said. “They are individuals who usually have some connection to history or a passion for it.”
We asked about the rental costs, but Mayo and her team remained reluctant.
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“That varies depending on the location and what we do,” Mayo explains. “We want to make sure the rent is affordable and below market, but this way we can still protect this property.”
This tenant will now be their first line of defense against things like intruders or water damage.
“We share our conservation philosophy with them so they understand why spaces look a certain way. We want to teach them how to use the spaces safely and identify when there are problems,” Mayo said. “We give some tenants [higher level preservation] training, but it just depends on their level of comfort and investing that training in them.
We asked to speak to the tenant who moved into the Browne House, but they wouldn’t talk to us for the story.
