The Old Bromfield School

Before 1878 any Harvard student who wanted a high school education had to go to a neighboring town. This was changed through the generosity of Margaret Bromfield Pearson Blanchard, the granddaughter of Col. Henry Bromfield. In her will she bequeathed $20,000 and the six acre site of the former Bromfield mansion for a school that would be open to girls, as well as boys. She appointed a Board of Trustees to carry out the instructions in her will. Building began in July 1877, and the Bromfield School was dedicated in September 1878.
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Henry Bromfield of Boston purchased the former mansion on the site to use as his country estate after spending the summer in Harvard for many years. The house had been built in 1733 for the town’s first minister, John Seccomb. After the house burned in 1855, Margaret Blanchard purchased the property with the intention of founding a secondary school.

The Bromfield School was dedicated in 1878, a fine Romanesque Revival building, built by the Boston firm of Peabody and Stearns. Sited within an expanse of grassy lawn, the grounds were once ornamented by an allee of elm trees, a remnant of the landscaping associated with the Bromfield mansion that formerly stood here. The building is now surrounded by a grassy field, and a drive reaches from the entry on Massachusetts Avenue and terminates at the front of the building . It is now part of the Harvard Public Library building.

The Bromfield School opened in September 1878, under the guidance of the Bromfield Trustees, with forty students in its first year. In 1939, the management of the school was handed over to the town.