ADAMS, Mass. — More than 100 years of history came crashing down on Monday morning as the former Commercial Street School was demolished.
The building was owned by Commercial Street School LLC, which purchased the nearly one-acre lot at 87 Commercial from Aladco in 2014 for $125,000. The manager of the LLC is David Desmarais, owner of Aladco. The property was being used for parking for the laundry company across the street and warehousing.
The three-story building hadn't been used as a school in nearly 40 years. The structure was built between 1882-3 along with two other grammar schools accommodate the town's burgeoning population.
"It's always regrettable when a historic structure is demolished especially a school that may have fond memories for many former students and faculty," said Eugene Michalenko, a member of both Historical Commission and Historical Society. "Considering that new uses were found for the other former neighborhood schools, losing one to a wrecking ball leaves a bitter twitch in our community's memory."
Michalenko said the neighborhood around the school had grown up very quickly the year before its construction because of the opening of the Jacquard Mill, built by Renfrew Manufacturing Co. on Harmony Street. The now vacant mill had later been home to Dewey & Almy, W.R. Grace and MacDermid Corp.
The Commercial Street School was similar in structure, he said, to Renfrew School "but it was more graceful in architecture."
There were eight rooms serving children up to Grade 6 and it was designed for 350 students although in 1924, Michalenko said, only 229 were enrolled. When the new high school opened in 1969, Commercial and two other schools became kindergarten through Grade 3 and Renfrew was closed. When Proposition 2 1/2 was enacted in 1981 and severe budget cuts resulted, those three schools were closed.
While the school is now gone, its bell is on display at Hoosac Valley Elementary School.
Adams Excavating Co. made short work of the building on Monday and by afternoon it was mostly leveled. The demolition permits were filed in early April.
Aladco has no official plans on file for the soon to be open area and nothing has yet gone before the Planning Board.
This is the second large structure to be removed from the highly trafficked Commercial Street. A vacant building at 50 Commercial St., built in 1921 as an automotive garage, was demolished by the town last year because of its deteriorating condition.
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Adams Community Bank Holds Annual Meeting, Announce Growth
ADAMS, Mass. — The annual meeting of the Community Bancorp of the Berkshires, MHC, the parent company of Adams Community Bank, was held on April 10, 2024, at Charles H. McCann Technical School in North Adams.
The meeting included reviewing the 2023 financial statements for the Bank, electing directors and corporators, and highlighting upcoming executive personnel changes.
"In 2023, the Bank experienced another year of growth in assets, loans, and deposits, noting the Pittsfield branch reached $26 million in customer deposits from its opening in December of 2022," President and CEO of Adams Community Bank Charles O'Brien said. "Those deposits were loaned out locally during 2023 and helped drive our #1 ranking in both mortgage and commercial real estate lending, according to Banker and Tradesman."
At year-end 2023, total assets were $995 million, and O'Brien noted the Bank crossed the $1 billion threshold during the first quarter of 2024.
Board chair Jeffrey Grandchamp noted with O'Brien's upcoming retirement, this will be the final annual meeting of the CEO's tenure since he joined the Bank in 1997. He thanked him for his 27 years of dedication to the Bank. He acknowledged the evolution of the Bank as it became the premier community bank in the Berkshires, noting that branches grew from 3 to 10, that employees grew from 40 to 135, and that assets grew from $127 million to $1 billion.
An executive search is underway for O'Brien's replacement.
The Adams Beautification group, which has been quietly sprucing up the town since 2022, hopes to bring in more members of the community during a community cleanup day scheduled for Saturday, April 27. click for more
Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter Public School history teacher Alla Chelukhova has been selected as the April Teacher of the Month. click for more
Desroches graduated from the Police Academy on March 22 in the top tier in his class. He's currently in the field training program and assigned to Sgt. Curtis Crane.
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Michael Wynn, who was selected in January to run the center, submitted a level operating budget of $57,500 but said he could pull funding from different lines to ensure there was money for advertising this fall.
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