TRUST. OF SMITH COLLEGE v. Bd. of Assessors of Whately

The board of assessors of Whately (assessors) has appealed from a decision of the Appellate Tax Board (board) holding that certain unimproved property owned by the Trustees of Smith College was exempt from real estate taxation for the fiscal year 1979, pursuant to G. L. c. 59, § 5, Third.

The facts underlying this appeal are as follows. Some time in the 1970’s Smith College, located in Northampton, constructed an astronomical observatory in Whately, where it owns approximately 200 acres of land. The two parcels in question, totalling about eighty-six acres, are vacant land kept in that state,…