What is it like to live in Brimfield?

Like a 19th-century curiosity on display at one of its famous outdoor antiques fairs, Brimfield has the quiet quirkiness and charm of a bygone era.

Crowds gather for the Brimfield Antique Show. jonathan wiggs/globe staff

February 14, 2017

2 minutes to read

Like a 19th-century curiosity on display at one of its famous outdoor antiques fairs, Brimfield, a woodsy town of about 3,600 in Western Massachusetts, has the quiet quirkiness and charm of a bygone era.

“It’s a little hard to describe, but there’s a really strong personality here. Pretty much everybody knows most or many of the people in town,’’ resident Sharon Palmer said. “There’s a strong sense of protecting the town, too. . . . we were able to fight off industrial wind development.’’

“There’s a lot of individuality,’’ Palmer said, “but when there’s an emergency like the tornadoes that we had in 2011, it’s amazing how everyone just bands together.’’

Palmer is a yoga instructor and an assistant director at Hitchcock Free Academy, a nonprofit community center that hosts dozens of continuing-education classes and other events each year, from Scout meetings to farmers’ markets.

“It’s kind of the hub of the community,’’ Palmer said.

But it wasn’t just the town’s active community center that drew Palmer and her husband, Richard Costa, to Brimfield back in 1989. “I was working in Holyoke and Richard was working in Westborough, so it was kind of right in the middle of where we were going.’’

“One of the nice things about the town is the rural character,’’ added Costa, chairman of the town’s Board of Health.

Indeed, when asked about their favorite places to shop in town, the couple laughed heartily. “Well, there’s a Cumby’s,’’ Palmer said. But beyond the local Cumberland Farms, there’s little else. “We don’t even have a supermarket,’’ Costa said.

And that’s just fine with them.

“We didn’t want to live in a town with a Walmart and all that commercial development,’’ Palmer said, “so it was the perfect place for us.’’

Resident Sharon Palmer (right) and her husband, Richard Costa, move to Brimfield back in 1989.

BY THE NUMBERS

1959

The year Gordon Reid first hosted dozens of antiques dealers on his Brimfield lawn for an outdoor flea market, inspired by the ones in Paris

Amount of borrowed money Samuel A. Hitchcock left town with in 1812 to seek his fortune. Hitchcock, who had been unable to afford school, found wealth in textiles and banking. In 1855, he founded a free academy so those in need wouldn’t be denied an education.

1,156

The number of scholarships Hitchcock Free Academy has awarded to local college-bound students since 1956

1955

Year when Hurricane Diane dropped 20 inches of rain in two days, leading to disastrous, deadly floods in the region. By 1960, the mill village of East Brimfield was gone, submerged at the bottom of a new reservoir as part of a larger flood-control project.

PROS & CONS

Pro

World-famous antiques fairs

“Overall, I think the town likes the market,’’ Richard Costa said of the outdoor antiques fairs that bring thousands of visitors three times a year. “It put us on the map.’’

Con

Too many brake lights

“The traffic can be bad [because of the fair], but the locals know how to use the back roads to get around it.’’

Pro & Con

Rural charm

Brimfield has managed to resist excessive development, but living in a small agricultural community means very few retail and dining options. Most shopping trips and other errands require a visit to a neighboring community.