Local group buys Penn farm

Ending months of controversy, a Penn-owned farm in rural Bucks County will be saved from commercial development as the result of an agreement last week between the University and a coalition of concerned neighbors and elected officials. Penn put the 211-acre Gutman farm in Upper Makefield Township up for sale last month, asking $5.5 million for the property. The University received the farm in the mid-1970s from the estate of financier Monroe Gutman for use as an arts center. The University's decision to sell the farm sparked controversy, as neighbors feared that a developer would buy the land and build condominiums, changing the character of the wealthy, rural area. Two developers had submitted offers for the property. Over the past few months, a local conservation group worked with federal and state legislators to raise the money to buy the land. The University agreed to sell the Gutman farm to the group and another individual, according to Jeff Marshall, a spokesperson for the non-profit Heritage Conservancy, which spearheaded the campaign. The terms of the sale and the identity of the additional buyer will be announced today at a 3 p.m. press conference at the farm, Marshall said. Officials from the group and the University, as well as U.S. Rep. James Greenwood, R-Pa. -- who has been closely involved with the effort to purchase the property -- will be present, Marshall added. For 10 years, the farm was used by students of the Graduate School of Fine Arts, who converted barns into studio space. Budgetary constraints forced GFSA to cut the program in the mid-1980s, however. In explaining Penn's decision to sell the farm, University officials said it no longer suited the needs of Fine Arts graduate students. The only alternative was to sell the property, officials said. But following the University's decision to sell the farm, Robert Engman, the man who convinced Gutman to donate the land, accused University officials of not being faithful to their initial agreement with Gutman, under which they promised to utilize the land as a place where sculptors and other artists could work peacefully. "It makes me furious or concerned that being the person responsible for that gift coming to Penn, I was not even consulted as to its disposition," Engman said in November. Engman was co-chairperson of the Fine Arts Department from 1970 to 1983. At the press conference, officials are expected to reveal details about the sale, including the purchase price and the buyers' plans for the farm.