A Matter Of Trust

West Experiment Station, 682 North Pleasant Street

The mistrust created by the unfortunate demise of the Trolley Station three years ago continues to hang over UMass:

Statement from Joe Larson, Preserve UMass

Click to enlarge/read

Trolley Station on North Pleasant Street, built 1911 trashed June, 2012

 West Experiment Station sits on busy North Pleasant Street

682 North Pleasant Street

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

Deja Vu Destruction

 Triangle of land is a "wetland resource area" (Connecticut River on left)

So this unfortunate incident of clear cutting trees without permission and then saying it was all a terrible misunderstanding reminds me of the regrettable incident at UMass a few years back when a contractor demolished the historic old Trolley Station thinking it was all approved.

Trolley Station on North Pleasant Street, built 1911 demolished 2012

Or the Thomas Becket affair when old King Henry asked a little too loudly, "Who will rid me of the meddlesome priest?" And some of his henchmen did so, thinking they were doing the King a favor.

Pretty much the first thing you see when entering Hadley coming off the Calvin Coolidge Bridge is this swath of property with nothing on it now but an abandoned gas station.  And until recently the next thing you saw was the rotting remains of the Aqua Vitae restaurant.

It looked pretty lousy three months ago, and today with the clear cut trees scattered about horizontally, it still looks pretty lousy.  Although removing the old Aqua Vitae building was a huge step in the right direction.

I'm told there were at least a half-dozen trees that were in good shape and did not deserve to die.

Hadley has a right to be pissed over Pride President Robert Bolduc ignoring a Conservation Commission order to leave the darn trees alone.  Don't mess with a volunteer commission in a tight knit farm community like Hadley.

So assess a fine on Mr. Bolduc for a couple thousand per healthy tree whacked, make him replant a bunch more (some of them sizable) to replace the slaughtered ones, and allow the site to be cleaned up and construction of something nicer to commence.

It is as after all, Hadley's front yard. 

Brick By Brick

West Experiment Station back in June

Let's hope UMass has not bitten off more than they can chew with the West Experiment Station reconstruction project to make way for the new $100 million Physical Sciences Building.

 West Experiment Station 11/29/15

As of today the historic old building has been completely dismantled and will hopefully be reassembled by 2018, integrated into the new Physical Sciences Building, for a unique blending of the old and the new.

West Experiment Station today

Trolley Station on North Pleasant Street, built 1911 trashed June, 2012 by a contractor without full approval

Preserving The Priceless

Amherst College Pratt Field this morning

When Amherst College went about a $12.5 million major renovation of Pratt Field a couple years ago a tree as old as the athletic field itself ( circa 1891) stood in the way of that progress.

Rather than taking the simple, cheap way out -- destroying the tree and replanting a new one -- the College spent $100,000 to move the majestic Camperdown Elm 30 yards to safety.

 Camperdown Elm this morning

Sure they are a private college with a decent endowment (although an Anonymous benefactor paid for most of the renovations, including the tree move) and UMass is a public University with a small endowment.   But when it comes to protecting your historic heart and soul, cost is secondary.

West Experiment Station 682 North Pleasant Street this morning

West Experiment Station is one of the original buildings on campus from W-A-Y back when UMass was known as Massachusetts Agricultural College (1887).  It is also highly visible located directly on North Pleasant Street, which cuts through the heart of the sprawling campus.

When I asked the UMass Facilities & Campus Services folks via their Facebook page if they were tearing down West Experiment Station I received (rather quickly) the following reply:

Demolished? No! Moved (slightly)? Yes! And this is great news for WES all around. Actually, the building isn't technically being "moved" (because the age/fragility of the mortar work won't allow us to just pick it up and plop it down); rather, it will be completely *deconstructed* and then completely *reconstructed* a couple dozen yards west and a bit south of its current location. Completely new (and deeper) foundation, brand new building systems (MEP), and about 50% more of the building wheelchair accessible, too. We're achieving this by "buddying" the renovation, especially with respect to utilities, with the Physical Sciences Building project going up just behind/north of WES. The building is also being moved in order to anchor a return of Ellis Way --the reestablishment of which is part of the Campus Master Plan.

However, Preserve UMass point man Joseph Larson is not overly happy with the situation and after the fiasco with the Trolley Stop three years ago, I can't say I blame him.

Click to enlarge/read

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.