12 Hallock (circled) will be demolished for parking and house in front razed for a new multi-level commercial building
The Amherst Historical Commission will hold a demolition delay hearing on Tuesday night regarding two adjacent structures in the north end of downtown owned by two prominent local developers, Curt Shumway and Barry Roberts.
Besides dripping in local history the other main factor working against the immediate demolition is both buildings are in excellent condition with a lot of visual curb appeal.
12 Hallock Street
236 North Pleasant Street
Perhaps a downside of the two local developers being responsible owners over the years and actually taking good care of the structures.
The Historical Commission can only impose a maximum of a one-year delay and they appear to be not overly influenced by the status of an owner.
For instance back in July of 2014 they voted to impose the one year delay on Cinda Jones -- dubbed by neighbors as the "Donald Trump of Amherst" -- for a historic barn on Montague Road in The Mill District.
Cowls barn 134 Montague Road in The Mill District, North Amherst
Although that demolition delay has now expired the barn is still a stately presence looming over the North Amherst Village center.
Vestry now at 12 Hallock Street was originally just behind what is now College/Memorial Hall, owned by Amherst College
Editor's note: In the interest of transparency Curt Shumway is an advertiser and I was one of the 10,000 babies delivered by Dr. Merzbach
25 comments:
This post is so freaking confusing. Which buildings are being razed? Total word salad on this one, LK.
The ones with the pretty pictures. 12 Hallock Street which is immediately behind 236 North Pleasant Street. And I even circled one for ya.
I'd rather see the tacky one story strip mall type structures in town be replaced for these purposes (as in the one housing Stackers and Amherst Copy) than these stately structures. Not that I get to choose...
Both are historically significant, particularly 12 Hallock because of the Disestablishmentarian Movement.
Notwithstanding the US Constitution being written (largely by John Adams) in 1787 and ratified in 1789, with the 1st Amd in 1791 -- the "separation of church & state"), Massachusetts remained a Puritan Theocracy -- as were CT & ME, both initially when part of MA ant into the 19th Century.
Even if his father-in-law hadn't been a minister (Abbie was a Smith), I doubt that John Adams would have tolerated a Federal Govt that interfered with Massachusetts' ability to have a property-tax funded municipal church -- the "Congress shall not..." was an agreement that no state would impose its religion on the other states.
The Puritan Church did not evaporate -- it *is* the Congregationalist Church.
The Baptists split off because they didn't think the Congos were being strict enough, and got a property tax exemption in 1820. The Methodists were John Wesley, but they are also splitting off with a separation of Church & State in 1855. Concurrent with this is the arrival of the Irish Catholics and a lot of other stuff.
Larry, my super-short version of 20th Century MA history is that first the Protestants treated the Catholics badly, and then the Catholics treated the Protestants badly -- and neither were being particularly Christian in doing so.
Much as we need to look at Salem neutrally, we need to understand all of this mess, lest we repeat it -- and that's why this building is significant.
Ed,
A. You don't live here.
B. You don't live here.
C. You don't live here.
I'm sorry, Ed, your post put me to sleep. What was that you were pontificating about?
Instead of some of the stuff it is being spent for, is there any way the community preservation slush fund could be "leveraged" here?
These are civic-minded developers -- they are in this for the money, yes, so is Team Maria -- we all have to pay the light bill. They make a lot of money, and pay a lot of taxes -- municipal (not just to Amherst), state & Federal. There are non-cash things of value to them -- civic goodwill being one, but there are often other things too. And there is always "naming rights."
E.g. Hampshire College getting the DPW to do stuff with heavy equipment for them -- what it cost the town, on a "when we have a chance" basis, was far less than what it would have cost HC to contract it out -- because the DPW was supervising the job. And the DPW knows how to do that. (UM's Tilson Farm Power Plant is what happens when you don't -- deciding to pipe live steam 1.9 miles downhill *before* running it through your turbines comes to mind.)
The other building would make a lovely visitor's center -- on the edge of the Common, or Kendrick Park. Maybe both -- or, if feasible, as a similar "platform" up to Maria's Morass or down to one of the rec areas. Here's why:
It's a lot cheaper/easier/neater/safer to use a building as a hub for outdoor electricity (water & sewer too -- think RV "hookups) -- yes, you can have breaker boxes on the sides of trees (as they do on the Boston Common) or bring in Diesel-powered 480 volt generators; yes, you can run garden hoses from tapped hydrants and have holding tanks that hopefully will be dumped into an actual sewer -- but if you are doing this with frequency, it is a whole lot preferable to have this stuff routed through the (lockable) basement (or even "crawl space" of a dry, heated building.
Even if you are only using stuff that can plug into a standard household outlet (120 volt, 15 Amp), when you start getting into outdoor decorative/theatrical lighting, or even sound, your power consumption becomes multiples of what entire single-family houses use. While a house may have a "100 Amp Service" or a 200 Amp Service" (you actually have twice that as you split the 240 volts), this is what the main breaker (hopefully) trips at -- your maximum sustained usage should only be 75% of that, and your average total usage will be a LOT less.
(Take KWH from your bill, multiply by 1000. Divide by number of days the bill is for, and then 24. That is average total wattage of your house. Divide by 120 -- that's your total average amperage at 120 volts. (It actually runs 117-118, and if you have an electric stove, etc., those run at 240 volts, using both sides of the panel.) You need the big wires both because of peak usage and to prevent a voltage drop due to distance, the latter being why Edison' concept of DC was defeated by Westinghouse's concept of AC, which could go through transformers.
The Christmas tree I used to have by the UM pond used what 3-4 houses usually do...
(continued)
part 2
In other words, you start needing either lots of wires and/or very thick wires, and/or needing to go to higher voltages (e.g. 240, 480) -- large motors (e.g. Merry-Go-Round) will use all 3 phases, which is 4 wires inside the thick black cord and something to plug it into... If you *have* that, and know what you are doing, you may go with some version of a 120/208 volt "Wye" system like a large building will have, or maybe even at a higher voltage. If you don't know what you are doing, don't know that someone else did something not quite to code (e.g. put three wires under the same screw on the bus instead of wiring a pigtail), or even use a different (correct, but different) protocol than what you are plugging into, you can get voltages a lot higher than what you want them to be -- things can go very bad quite quickly.
A UMass student, who had just moved into his dorm, plugged in his computer -- and it exploded -- which is what tends to happen when you run 480(?) Volts through something designed for 120 volts. I was told that one of the three wires ceased making a good connection and hence reference to ground was lost -- which is why code says not to do this...
And while plugs are only supposed to fit what they should, absolutely anyone can go down to Home Depot and buy a screwdriver and the one that will. Or simply open up the panel and jam a few wires in -- one woman's boyfriend had connected her drier that way - and he'd connected to the main leads above the main breaker, there were wires running across the bathroom floor with no overprotection at all...
This is why it is nice to have everything in a locked area, and to know that is being plugged in, and to look at it *before* it is. One reason for Diesel generators (e.g. amusement rides) is knowing what you are getting -- "plug this in there -- and no where else" is something that even a ARHS grad can understand.
Want events without the generators running -- you need a large, secure infrastructure -- and be able to convince folks you won't fry their equipment.
Has Joel Greenbaum filed his lawsuit yet?
I think 2:05 made my point for me, and 1:19:
"MAKE ME WHOLE AGAIN" -- GIVE ME WHAT WAS STOLEN FROM ME -- AND I WILL GO AWAY. UNTILL THEN, I DO LIVE HERE -- FOR ALL ETERNITY IF NEED BE.
You aren't owed anything. You have delusions of grandeur.
In the Stephen King story Storm of the Century, Linoge was talking about the abduction of one of the townspeoples' male children as what he wanted before he'd go away. Linoge (Legion) was a demon. Perhaps Satan himself. But please, no matter how verbose, don't give Ed your son or daughter.
Oh ed, you forgot your meds again, didn't you, dear?
Batshit crazy.
Ed don't you realize you're the "Comic Relief" of this Blog. Larry is just making money off of the hits you draw. Such a pitiful existence you have. I feel bad for you.
Ummm, 8:29, I don't really care what people whom I do not respect think of me -- what I care about is that UMass not be permitted to sweep what they did "under the carpet."
Remember the motto of the Pequot's: "We're still here."
Well, I am too.
I want something returned to me -- I don't expect to get it, but don't intend to be silenced until I do. I have a life -- I have a life in spite of UMass, this is my recreation.
Ed, you sound like the most entitled whiner baby of all time. Get on with your life and make something of yourself.
Oh! I beg your apartment! Lol. I thought it really Was a demand they give you a male child.
12 Hallock street is just the last remaining corner of a building that has long since been torn down. Well, I guess it wasn't perceived as being all that historic in its day.
You mean the spoke and amherst copy, both of which will be demolished within 5 years according to most accounts.
Ed, you sound like the most entitled whiner baby of all time.
What you call "Whining", I call "Ensuring 'Never Again'" -- making it too expensive to do what they did to me to anyone else.
Get on with your life and make something of yourself.
What the hell makes you think I haven't? This is my recreation.
Ed,
You are just a short lobster, immature and a throwback.
All of this blabbering from Ed, yet he never states exactly what was done to him and what he wants returned. Just more delusions.
I think he's saving it for the book.
He writes a books worth of nonsense a week.
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