Bytes from the Bean by Joe Manning 5-9-9912:00AM / Sunday, May 09, 1999
I am writing this from my new home in Northampton (actually Florence, which is a distinct village in Northampton with it's own Main Street and Post Office). Packing and moving is an experience we can all do without. It went okay, though, and I am happy to be settled. Leaving Torrington after twenty-three years was strange. I never really felt attached to the city; at least I didn't think so.
Several weeks before moving day, I began to notice things I never noticed before, like the fading Coca-Cola sign on the side of an old building on Water Street. While heading downtown early one Saturday, I caught sight of the sun on the Meara block, and I drove back home and got my camera. The flowers on the grounds of the Torrington Company were blooming, and I forgot how beautiful they look in front of the bricks and wide windows. On the day before we closed on our house, I stopped for a school bus and saw two little girls running from the house, while their mother stood at the door and waved. It hit me that this is the place where my kids grew up and went to school, and where we had our first house, and where my wife and I spent all but seven years of our marriage.
So, I guess I am guilty of taking my hometown for granted. Are you? The next time you are out and about in North Adams, look carefully at your surroundings. What would you miss if you had to move? Let me know. I will enjoy hearing from you.
I was in town on Thursday, the 6th. Walking up Eagle Street around 9:00 in the morning, I was shocked to see the vacant lot at the corner of Eagle and Prospect (across from Neville's). Sure, I had read about it in the Transcript, but it had slipped my mind. The house that I was so used to seeing was a favorite of mine, even if it was crumbling from neglect. I wondered how the North Adams citizenry would have reacted if the city had torn down one of those Victorian homes on Church Street.
If you look at the list in the library of historic homes, you will see the obvious places: the houses on Church, Bracewell, and East Main. These were the homes of the rich industrialists and powerful professionals who shaped the city's economy and life style in its heyday. But their opulent homes are no more historic than the one hundred year old tenements and multi-family houses that are lined up along Furnace and Walnut, or at the corner of Eagle and Prospect. These houses were occupied by the working class families who struggled bravely through hard times, who worked for low wages, and who built, with their own hands, the graceful buildings that stood on Bank Street and State Street, and that still adorn the north side of Main.
I found the following on the website for the National Historical Register:
The quality of significance in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture is present in districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that possess integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association, and:
A. That are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history; or B. That are associated with the lives of significant persons in or past; or
C. That embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction; or
D. That have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in history or prehistory.
How old does a property have to be to qualify for listing?
Generally, properties eligible for listing in the National Register are at least 50 years old. Properties less than 50 years of age must be exceptionally important to be considered eligible for listing.
One tends to assume that for houses to be "historic," they must have been occupied by the rich and famous. Under item "B" above, they have to be occupied by "significant" persons. It is not unreasonable to argue that the working class people who lived in the tenements and multi-family houses were "significant." In fact, it's obvious. Some of their former occupants may very well have done the masonry or carpentry work on Mr. Cutting's house on Church Street, or cared for his children, or maintained the landscaping. So what makes the old homes of the working class any less "historic?" The former house on Eagle and Prospect, with its period architecture, its distinctive characteristics, and the personal history of its former occupants, was a historic house. It is a shame that most of us don't recognize this concept.
We should all feel proud of these old homes and tenements that make so many of the neighborhoods unique. I am researching the history of some of these houses for my next book. I think it would be wonderful if many of these homes had a special marker stating the date built and the name of the original owner…just like the ones on Church Street! Is there a house like this in your neighborhood?
My first trip to North Adams from Florence was full of discoveries. I drove to Windsor on Route 9, turned right on 8A, and then left on 116 to Adams. For much of the time, I followed the winding Westfield River. It was foggy and gray, enhancing the feeling of isolation that folks must experience in places like Goshen and Savoy. It seems like a good place to own a four-wheel drive and a satellite dish. I was disappointed that some of the towns like Cummington can only be seen by exiting on an access road that comes back on Route 9 a mile later. The sun came out briefly just as I was descending the steep hill into Adams. I was so excited when I realized that I was going to make it to the Bean in only an hour.
After all the stress of moving out, moving in, and two closings under the watchful eyes of real estate agents and lawyers, I was elated to have a chance to relax. After my usual morning conversation around the table, I walked over to River Street and climbed up to the top of the sand bank. The clock tower rang, and I stood there for an hour and shared my dreams with the low clouds.
Visit Joe's website at: www.sevensteeples.com.
Email Joe at: manningfamily@rcn.com. |
