Don't Tear Down This Barn!

Cowls barn, 134 Montague Road, North Amherst

After impassioned pleas by North Amherst neighbors with no vested interest other than visual, the Amherst Historical Commission voted unanimously (4 yes, 3 absent) to impose a "one year demolition delay" on W.D. Cowls, the largest private landowner in the state, doing business in the town of Amherst before there was a town of Amherst.

 Amherst Historical Commission

The barn sits immediately behind and looms over the Cowls family farmhouse -- built in 1768 -- which now serves as company headquarters.

 Cinda Jones failed to convince the Amherst Historical Commission to allow demolition

The barn is within spitting distance of the cow barn @ 113 Cowls Road that will be almost completely dismantled and rebuilt for the selling pleasure of Atkins Farms Country Market, a relative newcomer at just over 100 years of doing business in the far south end of town.

 Cow barn:  future home of Atkins Farms Country Market

 More than a dozen friendly neighbors showed up to oppose demolition

The cost to repair the barn for agricultural reuse approached $250,000, which would not provide a viable return on investment.  The current preferred plan is to donate the salvageable wood to the Emily Dickinson Homestead for an interpretive historically accurate barn raising on the property.

Q: What would you put in place of the #historic barn? A: Parking is 1 option. (Geez why don’t you stick a gun in your mouth? That was fatal)
— CitizenWald (@CitizenWald) July 23, 2014

The one year delay does have an "escape clause" whereby the owner can come back in three or four months showing that there are no economically viable solutions to save the structure, and the delay could be lifted.

The Historical Commission seemed genuinely troubled over enacting the full delay, pointing out that Ms. Jones had already done many of the things an owner is expected to do AFTER the one year delay is imposed.  

Barn with 1 year stay of execution (left) Atkins new north location (right)

 

Learning From History

 332 West Street tobacco barn circa 1916 (now under a one year demolition delay)

Amherst recently received  $10,000 in matching funds out of the Survey and Planning Grant Program overseen by the Massachusetts Historical Commission to hire a consultant to map out historic outbuildings (carriage houses, barns, sheds, etc) in the downtown and village centers.

 

35 Triangle Street, Carriage House built for Leonard Hills 

Conversion of single family homes to student rentals could threaten many of these structures sprinkled throughout the town.

According to Community Development Planner Nate Malloy:

"The inventory is not regulatory in nature. If a structure is identified, surveyed, and inventoried, it is not required to be preserved, nor does its presence on the inventory prevent it from being altered or demolished. This is an exercise in documenting what outbuildings are in the community. The intent is to use this inventory to raise awareness of outbuildings and their importance to the cultural heritage and physical character of the community."

 98 Spring Street

The money matches $10,000 Amherst Town Meeting already approved from Community Preservation Act funds, bringing the total budget to $20,000.  Target goal is 100 structures, and Mr. Malloy is confident the consultant will have no trouble finding that many to inventory.

Owners are encouraged to provide the Town and consultant with any background information about their property and the structure identified under this program.

Lessey Street carriage house

 

Hawthorne Farm shed

Don't Delay

179 Northampton Road, Amherst

UPDATE:  The commission voted not to implement a one year demo delay but asked the Design Review Board to look over plans for new construction.  Zoning Board will also decide a Special Permit to allow the new home to be two family vs the current one family zoning.

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The Amherst Historical Commission will discuss a possible one-year demolition delay (their maximum authority) for this haunted house located on busy Rt 9, just opposite Amherst College luxurious Pratt Field.

The owner, Peter Wilson, aka Wilson Properties Group, LLC, will not be in attendance tonight as he was never officially notified about the meeting.

In Amherst it is standard practice for the Historical Commission to peruse any demolition permit before allowing the wrecking ball to swing. In September the commission failed to implement a delay on a 100+ year old barn on Lincoln Avenue (possibly connected to poet Robert Frost), thus clearing the way for a housing speculator to construct another rental unit in an area accelerating towards student rental domination. 

If the Historical Commission failed to delay the destruction of the  Lincoln Avenue barn, which was in comparatively good repair, they should not take long deciding to let this scary house fall. 

T-I-M-B-E-R!

The historic old North Amherst trolley barn, compatriot to my next door neighbor, the Amherst DPW and their beloved "barn", did not survive the attempt to offset a recent major tilt and came crashing down like the Flying Wallendas circus pyramid act gone wrong.

Distorted like a giant alien Halloween mask

Conspiracy theorist instantly set to wonder, however, since the owner, Cinda Jones, wished to demolish it a couple years ago but was prevented by a one year "demolition delay" order of the Amherst Historical Commission.

 All that remains is the view

The public safety hazard it presented was the main reason she cited for the demolition, as it could suddenly fall and do collateral damage.  Like this for instance:




That demolition order expired July 28th, thus Ms. Jones was free to demolish it that very day, kind of like what Amherst College did with an old fence around one of their historic houses on college street. Now it will cost even more to dispose of the remaining rubble.

Historic preservation is a worthy, noble endeavor that dates back almost to the founding of our great nation (plus fifty years of course).  But property rights -- "A man's home is his castle"-- dates back to the very day of our founding.

Once the pile is cleared and the area zoning changed, a new mixed use development (commercial and residential), one with a great view, will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes of the old trolley barn.  All aboard!

Original Trolley Barn Cowles Road North Amherst, built 1897.  File Photo July, 2011

Second Trolley Barn, now Amherst DPW, built 1917

A brief history of the local Trolley by Jonathan Tucker

Gone Like the Wind

Trolley Station on North Pleasant Street, built 1911 destroyed 5/29/12

So I can't help but wonder if this inappropriate demolition of a historic structure is a reenactment of the murder of Thomas Becket by King Henry's stooges, who thought his highness had officially ordered it.

On Tuesday a construction crew trashed the historic little gem that state officials in Boston wanted to preserve for a while longer but local UMass officials made perfectly clear they wished it gone, gone, gone.

 Gone without a trace

Interestingly, the dirty deed happens soon after thousands of students--potential witnesses-- leave campus and hidden from view by a new fence.  The first time UMass tried to demolish it back in 1994, a faculty member blew the whistle--thus giving the structure a long reprieve.

Coincidentally enough this unauthorized destruction occurs only weeks after Amherst Town Meeting showed strong support for maintaining the integrity of historical structures by overwhelmingly passing the Dickinson Historical District zoning bylaw.

Yes, our local Historical Commission had requested this particular building be preserved but they have no authority over UMass, thus they could not issue a one year demolition delay.  And even if they did issue that official restraining order, this despicable deed was supposedly done independent of owner (UMass) oversight.

Said historic preservation pit bull Joseph Larson, "Contractors can sense this indifference and are more likely to misbehave." Indeed.

A Historic Decision

Tonight Town Meeting will decided the fate of the most historic neighborhood in Amherst, choosing to preserve forever the look and feel of the sacred Dickinson Homestead and immediate surrounding area, or allowing the creative whims of any owner who buys a piece of our collective core.

Henry Hills House built 1863

Leonard Hills House, built 1864 

Two ultra prime building lots on Main Street below Henry Hills House

The Hills Houses built by father and son, designed by architect William Fenno Pratt

First Congregational Church (center)  opposes historic district restrictions

Tacky signs like this (on left) would be regulated by Historic District rules--but they probably are now anyway

Railroad Street Station, built 1853

The Evergreens, home to Austin Dickinson, built 1856

Occupy the Trolley stop

Trolley Station on North Pleasant Street, built 1911

Those who fail to appreciate history are doomed to retweet it.

Last week I asked UMass director of campus planning Dennis Swinford about the current status of the quaint brick trolley waiting station (now recycled as a bus stop shelter) and received this ominous reply: "The Massachusetts Historical Commission issued a ruling that the structure can be demolished after photo documentation and measured drawings are prepared and submitted to the Mass Archive."

In other words, the bulldozers are already warming up.

Retired Professor Joseph Larson, a historical preservationist on a mission, recently pegged the cost to save the station at $75,000...down considerably from the original lone quote UMass received at $200,000.

Considering the Amherst flagship campus has witnessed an unprecedented construction boom over the past ten years, averaging over $100 million annually, that new quote to save a healthy piece of history comes to less than one-tenth of one percent--an even more startling statistic than the Occupy mantra centered on the 1%.

Original Trolley Barn Cowles Road North Amherst, built 1897. One year demolition delay expires 7/28/12

Second Trolley Barn, now Amherst DPW, built 1917

A brief history of the local Trolley by Jonathan Tucker

Turn about fair play?

UPDATE: Wednesday afternoon. So who needs the caterpillar-like mainstream media, as Mr. Wald reports on his blog that last night the Historical Commission he chairs heard tons of testimony--almost all of it against the plans of the People's Republic of Amherst to nuke the property--and continued the hearing until next week.

Jim Wald reports

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So it will be interesting tonight to see if the Amherst Historical Commission treats the town of Amherst the same combative way it has private entities lately by enforcing a one year demolition delay of a quaint old New England farmhouse and this old barn, the "Hawthorne Property" recently purchased by Amherst for $500,000 in free money--otherwise knows as Community Preservation Funds.

The Historical Commission recently forced the town's largest landowner, Amherst College, to delay for one year the demolition of an 80-year-old fence around one of its many properties. Chairman James Wald declared it a matter of principal: "We're making a statement that preservation is important."

Our appointed history aficionados also forced the Cowles family to delay the destruction of a 100 year old barn in North Amherst that CEO Cinda Jones laments is in danger of collapse.

Perhaps the Historical Commission should keep its eye on the prize, as Town Meeting is potentially going to vote the formation of a Historical District in and around the Dickinson Homestead that would automatically limit new development and renovations to existing structures.

But, if impacted neighbors and homeowners get the impression our Commissioners are a tad too militant then they will fight the creation of Amherst's first Local Historic District which, in itself, would be somewhat "historic" and requires a two-thirds vote of Town Meeting.

Unfortunately, in the People's Republic of Amherst, the NIMBYs usually win.