Carters' Folly
by Rick Muehlke
In 1953 Anne Pitts was an assistant professor of economics at Harvard when she met Dr. Franklin Carter, a psychiatrist associated with Massachusetts General Hospital. After their marriage, in 1954 they purchased adjoining parcels of land in Groton with their friends and Cambridge neighbors Ed and Jean Mason who are known to many in the Groton community.
At the time the Carters and Masons purchased their properties the town’s population was just 3,400. It is now 10,500. The Masons built a summer home on their land. The Carters opted to spend their first summer camping on their land with baby Franklin Carter IV in tow.
Over the decades that followed the Carters and Masons developed Groton traditions, including fishing, swimming at the tiny beach and, most importantly gathering every 4th of July. The menu was always the same: poached salmon, cucumbers, freshly shelled peas from a nearby farm stand, homemade mayonnaise, and ice cream. Franklin, Anne, Frankie, Sarah, and grandchildren Carter and Alexandra would join Ed, Jean, Jeff, Julia, Andrea, Chris, and grandson Alex for the annual ritual that lasted over 40 years alongside Woodsmill Pond. Accessing the land was not easy, but during the visits Franklin and Ed would venture onto the Carters’ property via the Masons’ and across Baddacook Brook to clear trees and brush and to walk the land.
The Groton Conservation Trust (GCT) has been interested in permanently protecting the Carters’ 21 acres, ever since Joseph and Jeanne Skinner donated the 51-acre “Skitapet Conservation Land” to the Trust in 1983 and 1989. The Carter parcel constitutes the essential link between Skitapet to the east,
and New England Forestry Foundation’s (NEFF) “Baddacook Woods” to the west. Environmental scientists tell us that adding to existing conserved land is preferable to protecting isolated parcels. This 21-acre Carter parcel is part of what is now 88 acres of uninterrupted east-west conservation land. A gap of only about 75 feet separates the north edge of the Carter parcel from over 2,190 acres of conserved land to the north, owned by seven different conservation organizations.
In early 2021 I sent a letter to Anne Carter and her daughter, Sarah, proposing permanent conservation of their land. Sarah knew about GCT, since she had walked the property with several trustees a number of years earlier. Anne and Sarah agreed to donate the land, and in a few months that gift was concluded.
Anne and Sarah proposed “Carters’ Folly” as the name for the property. “Carters'" because it honors Anne and Franklin Carter. “Folly” because they never did anything with the land, other than enjoy it in its natural state.
The Groton Conservation Trust sincerely thanks Professor Anne Pitts Carter for the gift of this beautiful and important property. All are invited to attend the dedication on October 16 at 2:00 PM. More information will be sent as the date nears.
Pictured: A view from Carters' Folly, courtesy of trustee Holly Estes.