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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Robert Hartwell’s renovation of a historic Massachusetts home is both the subject of the six-episode series Breaking New Ground and, in Hartwell’s own telling, a way to honor his ancestors and claim a sense of belonging. The home has been described in coverage as “plantation-style,” but that label does not establish that it was a plantation or identify its builders.
What Breaking New Ground follows
The series follows Hartwell as he takes on the renovation of an old Massachusetts house. A June 2024 People feature described it as six episodes and reported that it was set to premiere on Max on June 27, 2024. That was the announced premiere date; it does not establish where the series is currently available.
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The project had also been framed as a search into the house’s history and Hartwell’s family lineage. In 2020, CBS News reported that he planned to document the renovation while investigating both.
Why Hartwell connects the house to belonging
Hartwell has described the renovation as personal as well as architectural. In a trailer excerpt quoted by People, he said: “When I bought this house, it struck a nerve because here was a gay Black man owning a plantation-style home, saying that we can include ourselves where they have worked so hard to exclude us.” He also called the series “a renovation story 200 years in the making.” Those phrases express Hartwell’s interpretation of the project; they are not independent findings about the property’s original ownership or history.
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The “plantation-style” description should be read with that distinction in mind. The cited coverage does not establish that the house was itself a plantation, identify its original builders, or document a specific history of enslavement or labor there. It is more accurate to describe the known subject as a historic Massachusetts home and attribute the style label and its meaning to the reporting and Hartwell.
What is known about the home’s age—and what differs in the accounts
The published construction dates do not match. People reported 1820, while a 2025 Elle Decor home tour described a Colonial-style house built in 1822 by local doctor David Leavenworth. Neither date should be treated here as definitively verified by property records.
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The renovation timeline and cost also appear in later coverage: Elle Decor reported that the work took three and a half years and cost $1.5 million. Those are that publication’s figures. They should not be conflated with the repair estimates shown in the earlier series coverage, which were estimates discussed during the program rather than a confirmed final budget.
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Water and structural repairs
The People feature describes water running through the house and a rotten exterior column. The program discussed estimates for repairs, underscoring that the work involved serious building issues as well as cosmetic updates. The coverage does not establish a final project cost from those estimates.
Historical forms with a personal interior
Hartwell’s approach was not simply to reproduce an early-nineteenth-century interior. Quoted by Homes & Gardens, he said: “We wanted to honor the shapes of what would have been present in this home in 1820, but we also wanted to turn it on its head by choosing fabrics that felt sumptuous and patterns that you typically wouldn’t put together.”
Elle Decor identifies Courtney McLeod of Right Meets Left Interior Design as the designer. Its tour highlights “Paulette’s Parlor,” named for Hartwell’s aunt, with Schumacher’s Toussaint Toile wallpaper, developed in collaboration with Victor Glemaud. The room links the project’s decorative choices to family memory without suggesting that historic preservation requires a period-perfect look.
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