image description — A fence was put up around the old Williams Inn on Field Park in preparation for demolition later this summer.

Old Williams Inn Slated for Demolition This Summer

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
02:32AM / Tuesday, June 23, 2020Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williams College plans to begin demolition of the old Williams Inn as early as the beginning of August, a school spokesperson said on Monday.

Last Thursday, the college installed chain-link fence around the perimeter of the building site at the junction of Routes 2 and 7.

Monday morning, Williams Director of Media Relations Greg Shook said the fencing was installed to allow hazardous materials abatement to begin inside the former inn built in 1974 on college land. The college purchased the building and business from the Faulkners in 2014.

That abatement is scheduled to wrap up at the end of July with demolition to follow "soon after," Shook wrote in reply to an email seeking an update.

"Then [the college will] prepare the grounds (grass, seeds, etc.) in late September," Shook wrote. "We're still considering how the site may be used, and no plans have been made yet."

Last summer, the college opened the new Williams Inn at the bottom of Spring Street.

Tags: demolition, williams inn,

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WilliNet Facing Dane's Retirement, Uncertain Fiscal Future

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:39AM / Thursday, January 15, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The face of and driving force behind the town's community access television station will retire this summer.

At Monday's Select Board meeting, the president of the board of WilliNet announced that longtime Executive Director Debby Dane will leave the non-profit on June 30 and move to California, "following her 5-month-old granddaughter."

"The search committee has begun its work to find a replacement hire," Mary Strout told the Select Board. "Deb will be hard to replace, however the board is confident we will find an individual well suited to move the organization forward."

"Now, I'm speechless," Chair Stephanie Boyd replied on hearing of Dane's departure.

Earlier, before Strout made news, Boyd praised the town's Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) Access station, founded in 1994.

"As everybody knows, WilliNet holds our community together, gets our town meetings and committee meetings online as well as all of the work in the town," Boyd said. "I know, after looking at so many towns' public TV stations over the last month that we're very close to the best. Maybe we even are the best.

"I can't say enough good things about WilliNet, the website, the programming, the professionalism. It's really, really incredible. We should all be very grateful for the hard work of Deb [Dane] and Jack [Criddle] and the rest of the team."

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