Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Historic Building Sold (Again)


 40 Dickinson Street, Amherst 

Amherst College, the number one landowner in town, just purchased the former Paige's Chevy, aka Classic Chevy, building at 40 Dickinson Street for $474,000.  A tad more than the former owner of Classic Chevy business paid for it back in August ($325,000) but still well below its assessed value of $548,200.

Thus if it goes off the tax rolls, like the vast majority of Amherst College owned property, it will no longer pay the town treasury just over $10,000 in annual property taxes.

The two-story brick building to the rear of the more recent office addition dates back to 1880,  so if Amherst College is going to raze the building to "put up a parking lot" they will need the permission of the Amherst Historical Commission.  Currently the Commission has the power to implement a one year demolition delay to protect historic structures.

The property also touches the overgrown remains of "Kelley Square", another historic, albeit forgotten, piece of history intertwined with the most historic figure in town history.

Or as faithful servant One-Armed Tom used to call her, "Miss Emily."


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Times change. It's not historic. It's a dump.

Anonymous said...

I like that there's one Kelley left locally (well, maybe more) to keep the flame of Kelley Square alive. I wonder if there are other lost squares in town being kept alive in family memories and maps.

- Squareless Anon.

Anonymous said...

The ARA had a chance to redevelop its few years ago.
We could have named the new/old hangout by the train station "Kelley Square" - and if we could keep passenger rail service, and maybe expand it to Boston, it could have been a huge success....

But the ARA went into a bend (remember "Gateway"?) at a breakneck speed and derailed....

Asleep in the engine...?

Larry Kelley said...

Yeah, Larry Shaffer and Professor Kusner had a grand scheme of taking Classic Chevy by eminent domain for a multimodel transportation hub.

But the ARA never even remotely considered it.