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HomeArchiveVol. IV No. 5 3/1/2023Notes from the Historical Commission, February 21, Hybrid meeting
Vol. IV No. 5 3/1/2023

Notes from the Historical Commission, February 21, Hybrid meeting

Present:

  • Linda Jackson, Chair
  • Peter Williams
  • Maria Carr

HC reviewed if applications made to Community Preservation Committee (CPC) were compliant with three rules required by the Commonwealth. Was it a document or artifact? Was the document or artifact historically significant? Did it preserve, restore, or rehabilitate the artifact or document?

  1. Application from Berkshire Theater Group for $124,000 — part of a multi-million-dollar project. Restore roof, dormers, and cupola. There was discussion about whether this is a restoration (which would bring it back to the year built with things like original cedar shake shingles) or a rehabilitation. Approved.
  2. Application from the Waldorf School to CPC for $100,000 plus per year for four years
    1. Chair said Waldorf negotiating to buy building — CPC cannot award money to rehab building they do not own. Assumes transaction finished soon.
    2. Chair questioned any money for roof as roof was just replaced by Town.
    3. Remediation of asbestos and other hazardous materials.
    4. Reconfigure entrance to accommodate elevator (lift), install lift.
    5. Enlarge top floor by raising roof in one area and extending useable space.
    6. Williams said appeared to be rehabilitation not restoration — still fundable under the law — building in the historic district, and historic artifact important to history of Town. Approved.
  3. Cemetery
    1. Restore old section of cemetery.
    2. First project, after assessment, restore John and Abigail Sergeant stones.
    3. Restoration is done in Three Steps. Step One — cleaning is done.
    4. This request is for $42,000 for Step Two.
    5. Satisfies three criteria — approved.
  4. Stockbridge Library two projects.
    1. Restore 8 of 9 Daguerreotypes by Anson Clark who photographed people and places in West Stockbridge and Stockbridge in the 1840s and 1850s. Clark lived in Stockbridge. He photographed Agrippa Hull (the ninth of the nine images already restored.) Approved.
    2. Digitize documents. Our Town Counsel has said digitizing does not meet the criteria. Williams researched and found many other CPCs in many other Massachusetts towns fund digitizing. "Our TC too strict." Matter of common sense that digitizing preserves. Chair said approve project and is must use administrative funds up to $4999.
  5. Patrick White, Chair SB, via Zoom invited the Historic Commission to attend a SB meeting with the Historic Preservation Committee to discuss what they do.

Meeting adjourned.

Editor's note: 1. A building is considered an artifact; parts of the building can also be artifacts. 2. A Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s.

 

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Photo: Lionel Delevingne