Dear Friends of the Colrain Historical Society,
We think you will be interested---perhaps concerned—in the sequence of decisions over the past year that have changed the status of the society related to its longtime home at the G. William Pitt House property. As of this month, the society, and the public, are barred from these buildings.
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| G. William Pitt House, 8 Main Road, Colrain |
As you probably know, the house and outbuildings were left to the town in 1976 under G. William Pitt’s will. The society was to maintain and have the use of the property, where it might store and maintain the growing collection of donated historic artifacts, farm equipment, textiles, photographs and documents. The town voted to accept this property.
Nearly 30 years ago, with money from a bequest and donations, CHS had built another building on the site, the Stacy Barn, in which we stored large artifacts and in recent years held meetings and popular free programs for the public, mostly about local history. And we paid to have the old Hose House, the town’s historic fire station, moved from the old town lot next to the Brick Meeting House to behind the Pitt House.
The house and attached barn are in need of costly repairs, including some foundation work. The select board has decided to “dispose of” the property if the state Attorney General rules that permissable under the terms of the will---either to the highest bidder or to CHS for $1. We believe a sale will need a majority vote at the annual or a special Town Meeting.
Meanwhile, the town has decided that due to a “change of use” classification from residence to business/museum, the buildings now require a Certificate of Occupancy, which has been denied for lack of designated repairs and updates. Consequently, none of the buildings can be used. In fact, for decades the house and attached barn have been used as a museum, storage for the collection, and a meeting place. The only change is in bureaucratic classification in recent years.
We will move our monthly meeting place across the street to Joan McQuade’s barn beginning Thursday, July 12, when we will have a wonderful program about a prize collection item, Ross Purrington’s red covered meat wagon. This is a slice of the social history of Colrain.
If we lose the use of the Pitt House property permanently, we will likely need to give up Ross’s red meat wagon, along with about 2,000 other items in the collection: antique farm and home equipment, photos of long-gone homes and residents, documents, diaries, business records, uniforms worn by Colrain natives in two world wars---the material history of Colrain. That’s what worries us now.
As the visible history of the town disappears---Memorial Hall, the Tin Shop, the historic Griswold mill buildings, the Blue Block, ---we have to wonder what kind of future to expect in a town that gives up its history.
If you are worried too, come to our meetings second Thursdays of the month, write your concerns to the Select Board and/or the Greenfield Recorder.
Belden Merims, for the Colrain Historical Society Board of Directors
