Dunkin' Donuts To Raze Pittsfield Church for Drive-Through

A Dunkin' Donuts franchise is seeking to tear down St. Mary's on Tyler Street and put up a new drive-through.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Developers aim to demolish a vacant former Tyler Street church and its rectory to make way for a new Dunkin' Donuts drive-through restaurant. 

According to permitting paperwork filed with the city's Office of Community Development, Cafua Management Co. of North Andover, the largest franchisee of Dunkin' locations throughout the country, is in planning to erect this new restaurant on the site of the former St. Mary the Morning Star.

"The proposed restaurant will be 2,100 S.F. in size and will be located on the westerly end of the property," according to a site plan application filed by local firm SK Design. "It will include on drive-thru service window located on the north end of the building."  

According to the application, Cafua is currently under agreement with the Roman Catholic Bishop of Springfield, who decommissioned the church in 2008, to purchase 2.6 acres of the property, which includes parcels at 653 Tyler Street and 75 Plunkett St. The former St. Mary's campus includes five structures totaling over 41,524 square feet, including the church, rectory, convent, a small garage and a former school building that has been closed since 1973.

"The church and rectory will be razed as part of this project," the application indicates. "The school will be razed at a later date. A new parcel will be subdivided out of the two exiting parcels for the proposed restaurant."

The property is zoned for general business, and the restaurant usage is allowed by right. However, Cafua must obtain a special permit for the drive-through operation, one which requires City Council approval in addition to that of the Community Development Board. Because the structures of the church and rectory are less than 75 years old, their demolition does not need to be reviewed by the city's Historical Commission under its Demolition Delay Ordinance.

Cafua's application for a special permit includes a 76-page traffic study prepared by the firm Tighe & Bond, charting the potential impact of the new type of business at this location. Traffic formed a major point of consideration in the denial by the City Council last year of another drive-through permit sought by Cafua at the site of the former Plunkett School building.

Cafua Director of Development and Construction Gregory Nolan declined to comment on the proposed restaurant at the St. Mary's site.

"I have no comment on that location," Nolan told iBerkshires. "We're just going to go through the process."

St Mary the Morningstar was founded in 1915, but the current church building dates back to the 1950s. For decades it served as a cornerstone religious institution in the densely populated Morningside neighborhood, shutting its doors in 2008 amidst a wave of closures throughout the diocese. It has been on the market since 2010, listed on a "Price on Request" basis. 

Mark Dupont, secretary of communications for the Diocese of Springfield, said he could not comment on the potential sale of any diocese property until a sale had closed, confirming only that the St. Mary's property is still on the market and there has been no closing on its purchase 

Speaking generally, Dupont said that as with other closed parishes, St. Mary's had final closing services after which the building was decommissioned and sacramental objects removed and transported elsewhere.  

Dupont added that the proceeds of any local church property stays within that municipality's existing church community.

"After any debt that has been incurred for that property is paid off, the remainder of the proceeds stay in that area," Dupont said. "The sale of any Pittsfield church stays in the Pittsfield Catholic community."

When asked if it was customary for any further opportunities to be provided prior to a sale for former parishioners to visit a church a final time before its demolition, Dupont said this would not be appropriate, due to the fact that its interior would be stripped of its sacramental objects and other appointments, and fundamentally different from its previous state.

"It would not be as they remembered it," said Dupont  "It would not be the same parish building that they knew and loved."

Site Plan Application- 653 Tyler Street by Joe Durwin

Social Service Organizations Highlight Challenges, Successes at Poverty Talk

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
08:04AM / Sunday, April 05, 2026

Dr. Jennifer Michaels of the Brien Center demonstrates how to use Narcan. Easy access to the drug has cut overdose deaths in the county by nearly half. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Recent actions at the federal level are making it harder for people to climb out of poverty.

Brad Gordon, executive director of Upside413, said he felt like he was doing a disservice by not recognizing national challenges and how they draw a direct line from choices being made by the Trump administration and the challenges the United States is facing. 

"They more generally impact people's ability to work their way out of poverty, and that's really, that's really the overarching dynamic," he said. 

"Poverty is incredibly corrosive, and it impacts all the topics that we'll talk about today." 

His comments came during a conversation on poverty hosted by Berkshire Community Action Council. Eight local service agency leaders detailed how they are supporting people during the current housing and affordability crisis, and the Berkshire state delegation spoke to their own efforts.

The event held on March 27 at the Berkshire Athenaeum included a working lunch and encouraged public feedback. 

"All of this information that we're going to gather today from both you and the panelists is going to drive our next three-year strategic plan," explained Deborah Leonczyk, BCAC's executive director. 

The conversation ranged from health care and housing production to financial literacy and child care.  Participating agencies included Upside 413, The Brien Center, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, MassHire Berkshire Career Center, Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Child Care of the Berkshires. 

The federal choices Gordon spoke about included allocating $140 billion for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, investing $38 billion to convert warehouses into detention centers, cutting $1 trillion from Medicaid over 10 years, a proposed 50 percent increase in the defense budget, and cutting federal funding for supportive housing programs. 

Gordon pointed to past comments about how the region can't build its way out of the housing crisis because of money. He withdrew that statement, explaining, "You know what? That's bullshit, actually."

"I'm going to be honest with you, that is absolute bullshit. I have just observed over the last year or so how we're spending our money and the amount of money that we're spending on the federal side, and I'm no longer saying in good conscience that we can't build our way out of this," he said. 

Upside 413 provided a "Housing Demand in Western Massachusetts" report that was done in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's Donahue Institute of Economic and Public Policy Research. It states that around 23,400 units are needed to meet current housing demand in Western Mass; 1,900 in Berkshire County in 2025.