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North Adams Mulling Repairs to Notre Dame Church

The extent of the damage to the lower section of the buttress.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — City officials say the damage on the back of the former Notre Dame du Sacre Coeur Church is far worse than it looks.

The exterior bricks on southwest buttress have fallen down and there is separation in the bricks on the southeast corner as well.

The damage was caused by copper thieves who pulled out the gutter system and pipes.

"It was directly the result of the water falling directly on the bricks," said Building Inspector William Meranti last week.

But the church is in no danger of collapsing, unlike St. Francis of Assisi a block away that had its steeple removed in an emergency procedure that ended a week ago. In that case, water got into the cap on the bell tower, undermining the structure.

"We are confident in the structural integrity of the building," Mayor Richard Alcombright said last week.

Meranti concurred, saying the interior of Notre Dame, a decade or so younger than the 1869 St. Francis, has a different internal configuration and is more stable.

"We're not fearful of any collapse," he said. In fact, city crews pulled out a lot of the loose brick. "We helped knock it down because we didn't want it to fall on anyone's head."

MCLA in Talks With Anonymous Donor for Art Museum, Art Lab

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:19AM / Monday, April 29, 2024

Andre Lynch, the new vice provost for institutional equity and belonging, introduces himself to the trustees, some of whom were participating remotely.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts may be in line for up to a $10 million donation that will include a campus art museum. 

 

President Jamie Birge told the board of trustees on Thursday that  the college has been in discussions for the last couple years with a donor who wishes at this point to remain anonymous.

 

"It's a donor that has a history of working with public liberal arts institutions to advance the arts that those institutions," he said.  "This donor would like to talk with us or has been talking with us about creating art museum and an art lab on campus."

 

The Fine and Performing Arts Department will have input, the president continued. "We want to make sure that it's a facility that supports that teaching and learning dynamic as well as responding to what's the interest of donor."

 

The college integrated into the local arts community back in 2005 with the opening of Gallery 51 on Main Street that later expanded with an art lab next door. The gallery under the Berkshire Cultural Resource Center had been the catalyst for the former Downstreet Art initiative; its participation has fallen off dramatically with changes in leadership and the pandemic. 

 

This new initiative, should it come to pass, would create a facility on MCLA Foundation property adjacent to the campus. The donor and the foundation have already split the cost of a study. 

 

"We conducted that study to look at what approximately a 6,500-square-foot facility would look like," said Birge. "How we would staff the gallery and lab, how can we use this lab space for fine and performing arts."