Arnold Place Apartment Owner Struck by Tragedy

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Franklin Perras speaks to the City Council last month.
NORTH ADAMS - Franklin Perras' pleas to the City Council to allow him to save his crumbling apartment building took a tragic turn early this morning when his brother died after suffering a fall in Hinsdale.

Lawrence Perras was found lying unconscious on Route 8 by a passer-by around 10:30 Monday night about a quarter mile from his Holmes Road home. According to media reports, Perras suffered "substantial head lacerations"; he was pronounced dead this morning at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield.

Franklin Perras had asked for more time to rehabilitate his building on Arnold Place because he had envisioned it as a way to support himself and his brother, who had serious health issues, in their retirement.

Hinsdale Police told The Berkshire Eagle that Perras did not appear to have been hit by a car and there was no evidence of foul play. He was believed to have tripped on a curbing near the Mobile gas station on Route 8 and suffered a skull fracture.


Franklin Perras, also of Holmes Road, was expected to provide the City Council with plans this evening on rehabilitating the Arnold Place structure, which he planned to renovate into five apartments.

The building is one of 13 being targeted for demolition as part of Mayor John Barrett III's initiative to combat blight in the city. Arnold Place was among the first four structures brought before the council; the other three, one on Harrison Avenue and two on East Main Street, were ordered razed or rehabilitated in two weeks.

Perras, however, was given an extra two weeks to come with a construction plan and time line because councilors believed he was sincere - if naive - about the bringing his property up to code.
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Bread-Baking Appliance Designer Moving to Mass MoCA Campus

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Commission welcomed bread-baking appliance designers Brod & Taylor to the campus on Monday.
 
The commission voted to bring Brod & Taylor to Building 1. Owner Michael Taylor, who called into the remote meeting, said the space will primarily be used for photography and content creation to promote their products, with an overarching philosophy of growing the bread-baking community.
 
"The genesis of the whole business of this company is to really get more people involved in bread baking," Taylor said. "We think it is something that is good for individuals and good for society; the more people that bake bread the better people are off in the world. We are looking for ways to make connections between people and the community based on bread baking."
 
The 1,500-square-foot space was built out for the company and will include a home kitchen and a microbakery.
 
Taylor said the company started in 2010 and operated out of Williamstown, above the Purple Pub.
 
"It was a business that brewed slowly in the teens but since COVID, sourdough bread sort of became the center of the world. We have expanded rapidly," Taylor said, adding that the company employs around 15 employees who work in the area.
 
Two years ago, they moved to the Norad Mill in North Adams but found the space too noisy to accommodate filming and content creation, Taylor said.
 
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