Adams Park Street Buildings Go to Mortgageholder

The Carlow Building, right, and the Jones Block were auctioned off on Thursday.

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ADAMS, Mass. — The Jones Block and the adjacent Carlow building are now owned by the bank that holds their mortgages.

A public auction for the Park Street properties attracted four or five interested buyers to bid on one or both of the three-story buildings on Thursday afternoon.

Auctioneer Ronald Marcella of Marcella Associates of Dalton tried to gin up interest but the top bidder was MountainOne, coming in at $500,000 for both buildings, through bank consultant Bob Bender.  

The buildings had been owned by Gerard Sanchez, operating as Samuel Adams Enterprises LLC, who filed for bankruptcy protection in January, the day before the buildings were scheduled to be auctioned off for foreclosure.

The Jones Block had been purchased for $100,000 from the town and the Carlow for $480,000 in 2008. Sanchez had planned to invest $2 million in the buildings — the Jones Block had been vacant since a fire in 1996 — but only part of the promised work was completed.

The Carlow building is 23,635 square feet on a 1/2 acre; the Jones Block is 12,900 square feet on 8,275 square feet of land.

The value of the two buildings is $2.125 million while $1.3 million is owed to MountainOne, according to court documents.

Structure Fire in Adams Closes Schools, Calls in Mutual Aid

Staff ReportsiBerkshires
09:43AM / Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Fire Chief John Pansecchi, in white, talks strategy on Wednesday. 

ADAMS, Mass. — At least eight fire companies responded to a Wednesday morning a structure fire in the old MacDermid Graphics building.

Firefighters and responders from Cheshire, Dalton, Hinsdale, Lanesborough, Lee, Savoy, North Adams, Pittsfield, Williamstown. Hinsdale also sent its rehab bus and Northern Berkshire EMS was on the scene with its rehab trailer. 

The fire was reported at about 7:30 a.m. and black smoke could be seen looming over the old mill building at 10 Harmony St. Harmony and Prospect streets were closed to traffic. 

The Adams Police Department posted on Facebook that Hoosac Valley Elementary School and Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter Public School classes were cancelled for Wednesday. The schools are located not far from the structure.

Their post also reads, "Children on the bus already for Hoosac Valley Elementary School will be brought to the middle school gym at Hoosac Valley High School."

"BArT was already in session and will be evacuating to the Adams Visitor Center."

 

Fire Chief John Pansecchi said firefighters are approaching the blaze by pouring water at it from every angle.

 

"We have a fire in the building, looks like we have a lot of fire in the building and we're trying to get to it," he said. "Places have already collapsed prior to the fire, place that have collapsed since the fire, so not a lot of activity inside the building."

 

The mill, the former W.R. Grace, is made up of a number two- and three-story structures covering about 236,749 square feet. The fire was located in a long building toward the back of the property that runs alongside the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail. The roof was fully engulfed in flames and collapsed in on itself around by 8 a.m.

 

Trucks from Williamstown were being situated in the Russell Field parking lot and firefighters were trying to find a location where they could attack the blaze from the trail. 

 

Pansecchi said the building is supposed to be vacant.

 

"I was working when the call came in," he said. "My guys did a great job getting set up putting some hose lines and being prepared and got some plans put together when I got here to extend that and that's what were looking at."

 

The cause of the blaze is unknown at this time but the state fire marshal was on the scene. 

 

Pansecchi said firefighters are providing observations from the outside and the North Adams drone has been deployed to determine the extent of the blaze. The buildings are large and unsafe in most cases to enter. 

 

"We're making good progress but we're not at a point I'd call it contained," he said. "There's already places that have caved in prior to this."

 

He's been joined by fire chiefs from the various departments, who have been aiding the attack from different fronts. 

 

"It's a really big help [having them] because you've got so much going on fighting a fire you don't think of the other things," the Adams chief said. "They start making suggestions."

 

Some of the structures on the complex date to 1881, when Renfrew Manufacturing built to produce jacquard textiles. It was the last asset of the company, and its machines and inventory were stripped out in 1927. 

 

The mill's had various owners and periods of vacancy over the last century, but was probably best known as W.R. Grace, a specialty chemical company that bought it as part of the acquisition of Dewey & Almy Chemical in the mid-1950s. 

 

MacDermid took it over in 1999 but closed the plant three years later, putting 86 people out of work. 

 

The property has been vacant since and was purchased by 10 Harmony Street LLC for $53,500 in 2019, according the online assessor's records. Principal of the LLC is listed as John D. Duquette Jr.

 

Staff writers and photographers Breanna Steele, Jack Guerino, Tammy Daniels and Marty Alvarez contributed to this article.