Around town, Harold Watt Jr. is known as Yellowman because he painted his Route 53 house yellow, and displays yellow banners and other items around the property. Now town officials have taken him to Housing Court, and it's not clear if he'll stay there.

HANOVER – It’s not the yellow that Hanover officials object to. It’s the junk. And they’ve taken Yellowman to court to clean it up.

Yellowman is what people around town call Harold Watt Jr. Bearded and fond of wearing yellow, he painted the shingled house on Route 53 bright yellow a long time ago.



One of the three old pickup trucks parked in his cramped front yard is yellow. There’s a yellow smiley-face banner on a flagpole at the side of the house, and a yellow religious cross next to it. A plaster Jesus figure with no hands and a yellow robe stands next to the dirt driveway, near a motorcycle with a “for sale” placard.



In 2014 he told The Patriot Ledger that he likes yellow because it’s the color of “happiness and sunshine.” He’s known for dancing in local bars and picking up bottles and cans along Route 53 – and accumulating them in the yard along with other odds and ends he sometimes sold.



That’s what prompted Town Manager Troy Clarkson and the town building commissioner to take the 72-year-old Watt to Brockton Housing Court last week.



“We’ve been concerned for some time about the clutter and potential safety issues from that,” Clarkson said Thursday.

This isn’t the first time the town has at least started legal action against Watt, who said he’s lived in the 730-square-foot house since he helped his father build it in the 1960s.



But this time the town persuaded a Housing Court judge to appoint a receiver for the property, to oversee a clean-up outside the house and inside.



“We want to make sure it’s safe and habitable,” Building Commissioner Anthony Marino said.



Watt’s attorney, Brian Cook of Hingham, said Watt has already removed most of the items that moved Clarkson and Marino to action. “Our goal is to work with the town,” Cook said.



Watt couldn’t be reached for immediate comment about the court order.. Cook said “he’s a nice man who has a different view of the world” – and he’s not sure if Watt will stay in the house.



Route 53 was a small-town road when the house was built. These days it’s the only residence along that stretch of the highway. Even with the yellow paint, it’s easy to miss next to McGee Toyota.



Cook said two buyers are already interested in the one-fifth acre property, which town online assessor records value at $220,800. A site visit by Marino, the court receiver and Cook next week may help determine whether Watt sells.



“He may or may not stay there,” Cook said. “I’m not sure if this is the end of Yellowman as we know it.”



