Hariette Otteson
Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation expresses its profound gratitude to Harriette P. Otteson for her bequest of land with a house at 86 Menemsha Crossroad in Chilmark.
In 2007, Harriette Otteson decided that she would leave to Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation her home at 86 Menemsha Crossroad, and she also gave to Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation an endowment to provide for the maintenance of the house. She and Sheriff’s Meadow reached an agreement that would govern the use of the house, if Sheriff’s Meadow wished to use it for employee housing or for an office. And if Sheriff’s Meadow were to decide that it was impracticable to use the house for these purposes and that the house should be sold, the agreement outlined the conservation of the land, an architectural restriction for the house, and the use of the sale proceeds.
Mrs. Otteson died on October 20, 2018 at the age of 83. As planned, she bequeathed her Chilmark property to Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation. After much deliberation, the Board decided it was impracticable to continue to own the house, and marketed the property in the fall of 2021. The house was sold on December 28, 2021 to Jay Gardner and Jeannie Koenig for $1.225 million. Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation retained a deed of conservation restrictions, including an architectural restriction limiting the expansion of the house and changes to the house, and a dormant trail easement.
Per the agreement with Mrs. Otteson, Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation used the sale proceeds to create the Harriette P. Otteson Memorial Conservation Fund. The income from this fund is to be used for the purpose of supporting the charitable purposes of Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation and to further its mission of preserving open space and the ecological values of the island of Martha’s Vineyard.
Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation offers its sincere thanks to Matt Poole of Chilmark, nephew of and executor for Harriette Otteson, for his assistance with his aunt’s estate