That house is too tall… said someone in 1751

Arguments that new buildings are too tall, too large, etc. are quite familiar. They're also nothing new; a Smithsonian exhibit shows a case of NIMBYism even 266 years ago.

On a recent trip to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, I visited the ongoing exhibition “Within These Walls…”, which tells the story of 200 years of habitation at 16 Elm Street in Ipswich, Massachusetts. The home was commissioned by Abraham Choate, moderately prosperous gentleman, in the mid-1760s.

Ipswitch had already been settled by colonists for over 100 years at that point, so the Choates had plenty of neighbors. To give visitors a sense of what new home construction was like in the place and period, the curators provided a quote from the diary of the Reverend Ebenezer Parkman, who built a house in Westborough, MA (roughly 50 miles inland from Ipswitch) in 1751.

It was a really tough year for Reverend Parkman, according to his diary: his wife was “exceeding ill” for half of the year prior to the birth of his twelfth surviving child, his sons constantly struggled with maintaining fencing and mowing various grains at their agricultural property, he was in an extended doctrinal struggle with a neighbor about original sin, and he was “plung'd deeply into Debt” for land, material, and labor to build a home for his growing family. As a minister, he frequently attended the deathbeds of members of the community, and his diary is mostly a record of various fevers, drownings, and other untimely deaths.

Perhaps because of his Godly status, Parkman's neighbors had something to say about his construction plans. On June 18th, the reverend was supervising work at the home site when “Lieutenant Tainter was very Sharp upon me about the pride of Ministers, when he saw the Window Frames.”

Reverend Parkman heard it again from Joseph Woods on November 1st, after he had moved into the house. Brown “Exclaims against my New House and thinks that it is too big, and that it is too high…etc., etc.”

In these remarks, we get a sense of the class and social conflicts that frequently underlie neighborhood controversies about new development​​​​​​. In Reverend Parkman's case, his neighbors, many of whom were expected to directly contribute to his salary as their minister, had their own opinions about the economics of his position in the community and what it meant for them.

However, even today we can all learn a lesson from how Reverend Parkman handled the controversy. In response to Lieutenant Tainter, the reverend “reprov'd him, for the unseasonableness of it, being before such a Number of Strangers, yet I endeavour'd to let him know that I was myself griev'd that the windows were so large and I have often said it that I wish'd they were less.”

In other words, the reverend urged direct outreach rather than public comment, but was willing to listen and open to compromise. His diary entry from that day concludes, “may God grant patience!”

To which I can only add, amen.