Bytes from the Bean by Joe Manning 3-1-0012:00AM / Wednesday, March 01, 2000
I remember standing with my father
many years ago
his hand on my shoulder
as we watched the old buildings
across the street
disappear into dust
From "Old Timers," a poem by Joe Manning
For my new book, "Disappearing Into North Adams," I have been pouring over the documents for the south side urban renewal project that took place from 1968 to 1974. I have learned a lot, but it has not been a happy experience. I had no idea what North Adams looked like before the demolition started, because my first visit here was in 1996. All I knew was what the old-timers told me. It’s been hard to get a picture in my mind of the city, when all those historic buildings and beloved stores and restaurants filled the space now used mostly by cars, pigeons, and stray shopping carts.
The more I have talked to people, and the more I have walked around the city, the greater sense I have been able to make of it. I remember running into my friend Tony Talarico on Eagle Street at the 1998 Downtown Celebration just as I was ready to head home. Like always, my car was parked in the Kmart lot about two hundred feet in from Main Street, probably near where the old Transcript building once stood. Tony said, "I’ll walk you to the car. Where is it?" Without thinking, I said, "I parked it on Bank Street."
The urban renewal records are mostly a collection of maps and charts showing the demolition and redevelopment plans, and the appraisals done by the city on each parcel that was to be taken by eminent domain. Since property owners were entitled to fair compensation, the city had to come up with an estimated market value for each parcel. The appraisals contain graphic and detailed descriptions of each building and its contents, and black and white photos taken from several angles. I have been examining these documents off and on for more than a year. I usually pick out several folders, each containing records of one parcel, and look through them for about an hour or two.
One interesting item was a developer's plan to turn the old city hall into a restaurant. As most of you know, the new city hall was built on the site made available by the demolition of the James Hunter Machine Company.
The photos and descriptions of the buildings have given me the opportunity to finally get to know pre-urban renewal North Adams, even if I didn’t grow up with it. It makes me sad to see what I missed out on. There’s a striking photo of the St. John's Parsonage on Summer Street just west of the church. It was a beautiful building with a big curved window facing the street and a stone façade similar to the church. It is described in the appraisal as "a 2 ½ story and basement, granite and stucco structure containing a total of 8 rooms and three baths. The first floor contains 4 rooms and a powder room." Like all the other one hundred or so buildings described, the St. John's Parsonage is now buried inside a row of file cabinets in City Hall, its epitaph in a manila folder.
Below are two quotes from "Steeples."
"They had the old National Bank there. I mean, that was antique. They had big stone pillars. They went through the whole place and didn’t stop and think what they had. On one side of the street, they had three restaurants. I can remember when I got out of the service and came back here in '45, you could go in those restaurants, and nine times out of ten, you’d have to wait for a table. I’d go in sometimes at nine o’clock at night, and there’d be ten or fifteen people in there. I can remember way back when I was a kid, Main Street on a Saturday night, you couldn’t move. There was people by the hundreds. Even during the week, there was people on the street all the time."
-Victor Aubin
"I watched them tear it all down with tears in my eyes. I was wheeling my children in carriages. I would go down and watch, and I’d say, 'They’re gonna tear down the Richmond Hotel today. Oh my gosh, the fun we had at the Richmond.' I remember when they tore down the Cutting building. It was a department store, and it was sort of fancy. They had those things at the cash register like conveyor belts. They’d put your money in, and it would go up to the office and back around. It was so much fun watching it. You know, every time they tore something down, all these wonderful things would go with it."
-Joanne Saltamartini
I’ve been thinking about it for a long time; and I’ve come to the conclusion that we need to bury our regrets in a file cabinet, put them in a manila folder labeled "memories," and stop writing an epitaph for North Adams. We need to embrace the positive changes that are happening all around us. It's time to move on. Here is a list of a dozen good things I have been noticing around the city recently. Big news or little news, all items add up to cause for optimism.
1. The North Adams Public Library has converted its catalogs to computer. There are computers available for visitors. Just sign up and log on to the Internet. The desk has been moved to the center hall, and the room they vacated has been turned into a lovely reading room. The first time I saw it I said, "What happened? Where am I?" But I love the change. Get ready for more big and welcome changes in the next several years including the long-awaited expansion.
2. The Flatiron Block is being renovated by Eric Rudd. It’s a slow process, but it’s starting to look good. Soon we will have an attractive row of art spaces that will dress up Eagle Street. Speaking of the Rudd’s, after ten years of quietly making a name for itself and making a valuable impact on this community, the Contemporary Artists Center at the Beaver Mill is going strong. Aren’t you thankful that Eric and Barbara had the foresight and guts to save this historic mill?
3. Norm Bleau is back at the barber shop following knee surgery. I talked to him last week, and he looks great. Thank God, because my wife says I need a serious trim.
4. It looks like we’re going to have two Jack’s Hot Dogs soon!
5. The Bean is going to do dinner one Saturday a month starting March 11th. Call Audrey amd make a reservation.
6. Fifty-Five Main is now open where Zoie’s used to be, and I hear it’s already doing well. I went to the open house a couple of weeks ago, and Chris Gillooly’s Sprague/MASS MoCA photos on the walls make it a charming setting for dinner.
7. Papryi Books has a whole series of events in April in honor of National Poetry Month. Do you remember when you could only find this stuff in Williamstown?
8. MASS MoCA is getting set for another big summer. Kidspace is now open and getting great reviews. Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra is coming in April. I drove over for the Jump Up and Zydeco dance party last Saturday and it was sold out. They had 500 people there! Pretty soon, we will be treated to new works of art in the galleries, new leaves on the upside down trees, and a new round of tourists.
9. Digital technology and e-business are a growing force in our economy; and they are bringing in job opportunities for educated young people who find this area a welcome change from their overcrowded suburban home towns. Like our ancestors that emigrated here a hundred years ago, they will being their own culture and ideas, and they will lift up the community. Welcome to the mountains folks!
10. I talked to Mike Boland the other day. It’s looking good for the restoration of the Mohawk. I’ll be the first one at the ticket window when it reopens, but like all of us, I need to be patient and supportive of the effort that Mike and his committee are making.
11. The North Adams Historical Society is getting ready to do an exhibition on the history of the various immigrant populations who came to the city. This is another example of the incredible growth of this organization over the past three years. Go down to their museum at Heritage Park and see what Lorraine Maloney, Deborah Sprague, and the other dedicated members have been doing for your city.
12. The Northern Berkshire Community Coalition continues its mission of strengthening neighborhoods and keeping alive the spirit of caring and volunteerism that has characterized this city for many generations. Last November’s Neighborhood Expo and January’s Martin Luther King Day celebration attracted large numbers of residents of all ages, and of many nationalities and faiths, all of whom share the values of goodwill, brotherhood, and charity. What sets the Coalition apart from many social action agencies is that the staff understands the community they serve, and they have the will and ability to lead people where they want to go.
On my last visit, I stood in the Kmart lot on a warm, misty day on the spot where Bank Street and Summer Street used to intersect and looked across Main Street at Newberry’s. There are several well-known Randy Trabold photos in the Transcript files of that view. Of course, in those photos, you peer at Newberry’s through the narrow space that was Bank Street, bordered on both sides by tall brick and stone buildings. It looks quaint, but so claustrophobic. Newberry’s appears to be on the other end of a train tunnel.
I wish I could have had the opportunity to walk down that street. I would have stopped in front of the Transcript and watched the papers run off the presses. Across the way, I might have popped in to Pat’s Lunch (later Tony’s) for a donut and coffee, and then I could have headed over to State Street through one of those forbidding alleys. Only in my dreams, I guess.
In another month, the "flower people" will be sprucing up the median strip on Main Street. I try to think of those little things when I’m faced with another day of urban renewal files. Each document and photo remind me again of what is gone, and that I never got a chance to see it. With my eyes, my ears, my pen, and my camera, I will continue to enjoy and record the blessings and beauty of this place. You never know. Someday, today’s memories may be stashed away in a row of file cabinets in City Hall.
Visit Joe's website at: www.sevensteeples.com.
Email Joe at: manningfamily@rcn.com |
