At its June 16 meeting the Needham Historical Commission voted 5-0 to declare 430 Grove St. “historically significant.” The vote delayed Domenic Colasacco’s plan to raze the summer home of William Emerson Baker, the eccentric millionaire who owned a vast tract of what was then known as West Needham.
Baker amassed two million dollars, a fortune, mostly from the manufacture of sewing machines. He retired at age 39 in 1867 and pursued his many passions.
Baker hired Irish laborers to dig out lakes and constructed a 226-room hotel on his 755 acres. A private rail spur brought visitors to the property, which he dubbed the Ridge Hill Farms. A walking tour of the elaborate grounds brought one past oddities and amusements, many purchased from the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.
Gloria Greis, who chairs the Historical Commission and is the Director of the Needham History Center & Museum, said Baker’s home at 430 Grove St. represents an important piece of Needham history. Of all the attractions at Ridge Hill Farms, only the Crystal Tower and the Boston Fire Monument still exist, and they are on private property.
“It would be a shame to lose it. It’s our one connection to Baker,” said Jeff Heller, another Commission member at the meeting.
The Commission’s vote triggers a notification to all neighbors within 300 feet of the property and another hearing to determine if the town will enforce a six-month waiting period before demolition can take place.
“The point of the delay is to try to find an alternative,” Greis said. She pointed out that the six-month delay has, on occasion, resulted in an outcome that preserved the historic structure. Both houses that make up the Historical Society were saved during six-month delays, as were two facades of historic homes on Maple Street.
Colasacco, who is 430 Grove’s only abutter — his property wraps around Baker’s old house — argues that the house cannot be saved. “The problems in the house go from the basement all the way up to the roof,” he said.
His demolition request to the town lists 12 areas that would need rebuilding, including the foundation, the roof, the HVAC system, repair or replacement of all four chimneys, new wiring and new plumbing. A walk through the house revealed water stains and the smell of mold in most rooms.
“It needs to be stripped to the studs,” Colasacco said. “You could get down to the frame and it could be rot.” He is appealing to the Historic Commission to waive the six-month waiting period.
“The spirit of the waiting period was fulfilled by the five-plus months it was on the market,” Colasacco said. “Not only was I the high bidder, I was the only bidder.”
He attributes most of the house’s decline to the prior owner, Jane O’Brien. The house was vacant from 2013-2017 when O’Brien was serving a prison sentence for securities fraud.
When O’Brien died in 2023, the bank foreclosed on the property and it was put on the auction block. Colasacco bid each month, and in December 2024 his bid was accepted.
Colasacco says he hopes to raze the structure and turn the property into a wildflower meadow. Colasacco said it’s sad to lose the house, but he has watched its decline for more than two decades. Baker’s house is in plain view from Colasacco’s living room windows. “It literally sits in my front yard,” he said.
There is a long history of property owners of 430 Grove St. locking horns with the town, including Baker himself.
Former president of the Needham Historical Society Leslie Crumbaker, who died in 2016, wrote a book about the Ridge Hill Farms. He wrote, “Baker is an enigma and somewhat of an embarrassment to the conservative citizens of Needham. Baker feels that although Needham is happy to receive his tax payments, it otherwise prefers to ignore him.”
Baker held huge parties at the estate, including one with 25,000 guests in honor of the death of his bear, Billy Bruin, and he claimed that the Civil War ended on his estate when Union and Confederate veterans assembled for a week of festivities.
There was a serious side to Baker as well. He was an advocate for the pure-food movement that attempted to bring more sanitary methods to food production and preparation. He had a cooking school on the farm that encouraged hygienic methods and a “sanitary piggery.”
He appealed to the state Legislature to become an independent town called Hygeria, the Greek goddess of health and hygiene. According to Greis, the town did everything it could to tie up the request in committee. Wellesley had just seceded and taken 60% of the tax base with it. The Ridge Hill Farms represented 6% of what remained.
Baker died of heart failure at age 59 in 1888. He was $300,000 in debt.
The pleasure gardens and exhibits quickly deteriorated and the land was sold off.
“You’d have to have the same manic imagination as Baker did to keep the operation going,” Greis said. “And an unlimited supply of money.”
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