diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index c42ac83..c177c6e 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -127,6 +127,9 @@
 
     MAPREDUCE-2459. Cache HAR filesystem metadata. (Mac Yang via mahadev)
 
+    HADOOP-7259. Contrib modules should include the build.properties from
+    the enclosing hadoop directory. (omalley)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
     
     MAPREDUCE-2026. Make JobTracker.getJobCounters() and
diff --git a/src/contrib/build-contrib.xml b/src/contrib/build-contrib.xml
index 5802b5b..315ee4c 100644
--- a/src/contrib/build-contrib.xml
+++ b/src/contrib/build-contrib.xml
@@ -25,13 +25,14 @@
 
   <property name="name" value="${ant.project.name}"/>
   <property name="root" value="${basedir}"/>
+  <property name="hadoop.root" location="${root}/../../../"/>
 
   <!-- Load all the default properties, and any the user wants    -->
   <!-- to contribute (without having to type -D or edit this file -->
   <property file="${user.home}/${name}.build.properties" />
   <property file="${root}/build.properties" />
+  <property file="${hadoop.root}/build.properties" />
 
-  <property name="hadoop.root" location="${root}/../../../"/>
   <property name="src.dir"  location="${root}/src/java"/>
   <property name="src.test" location="${root}/src/test"/>
   <property name="src.test.data" location="${root}/src/test/data"/>