By Susan Well

I am Susan Well, chair of the Northampton Historical Commission. The Commission's charge is to identify, protect and promote the historic assets of the city. When we speak, you expect to hear that the old main complex should be saved. It should be saved.

Interested individuals contacted us thinking we should spearhead the movement to save the buildings. I had to follow my head, not my heart, when I encouraged them to form their own grassroots group because it would be unexpected and what they said and did would have a great deal more impact. The Commission wants to publicly thank the Save Old Main Campaign for the time and effort they have contributed. We would not be in this room now if it weren't for them.

You have heard why the buildings should be saved and wonderful ideas about how it can be done. This is a building on the National Register of Historic Places, no mean feat. A property needs to be architecturally significant or historically significant. For example in Northampton, Calvin Coolidge's duplex on Massasoit Street is historically important because he lived there without being architecturally significant but the Florence Diner is on the Register because of its architecture not its history. The Old Main complex is significant on BOTH dimensions.

I have heard the argument that preservation on Hospital Hill should be ignored because of the horrible things that happened there. That is like saying that Auschwitz or slave quarters on a southern plantation should be bulldozed. It's a position that you should reject.

Since 1975, the Historical Commission has given annual awards to building owners who have preserved their properties. As I look at the approximately 100 winners, I see a railroad station converted to a restaurant, several factory buildings that are now apartments, offices, condos or some combination of the above and I see the Calvin Theater. Were any of these buildings in better condition than Old Main? Had any of them been abandoned for less time?

As taxpayers, we do not expect tax-supported development to meet lesser standards. Using tax money to demolish this historic complex is an outrage. Who would want to be responsible for another Cosmian Hall?

The Department of Capital Assets Management (DCAM) should pay the developers the same amount to preserve the complex as they would pay to demolish it. Barring that, the developers should pursue historic tax credits and other sources of preservation funds. I believe that Massachusetts Historical Society (HC) is awaiting and expecting such requests.

In 1995, the City, state Department of Capital Planning and Ooperations (DCPO) and Mass Historical Commission signed a Memorandum of Agreement regarding the Northampton State Hospital. If old main is demolished, DCAM must encourage new buildings and landscapes that are sympathetic or comparable, including a campus-like organization and a massing at the crest of the hill with smaller scale and sized structures of heterogeneous building types sited along the slopes of hill. Rehabilitation and new construction must meet the Secretary of the Interior's guidelines. If this plan came to our commission for review, we do not think it would fare well.
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