North Adams Bank Building, Former Pizzeria Sold

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Two more Main Street properties have sold this month. 
 
The former TD Bank that closed in April was sold on Dec. 9 to Ginko on Main Street LLC for $600,000. The property had been assessed at about $800,000.
 
The former Pizza House on the corner of Main and Eagle streets was sold by Mark and Robert Moulton on Dec. 22 for $200,000 to Impactful Art Factory LLC. 
 
The principal of Ginko is John S. "Jack" Wadsworth Jr., who has been involved in a number of properties in the city including Porches and the UNO Community Center. 
 
The bank building had been listed as being owned by First Massachusetts Bank, which purchased it from Bank Boston NA (Bank of America) in 1998 for $391,067. First Massachusetts merged with TD Bank in 2005.
 
The 20,000 square foot property is prohibited from being used a bank or other insurance or financial services institution for a period of five years. 
 
There has been a bank in that area of Main Street for more than a century. The site had been the former North Adams National Bank that was demolished in 1963 along with its marble lobby. The bank had earlier merged with what was then Hoosac Savings Bank across the street. 
 
First Agricultural Bank, which had offices next door, purchased the former bank building and another property and razed both, the first buildings taken down for urban renewal. The current 6,900-square-foot building was constructed by First Agricultural as its new offices.
 
The two-story Pizza House property consists of three addresses: 117 Main St. and 3-5 Eagle St. The principal of Impactful Art Factory is Andrew Fitch of East Quincy Street. 
 
Mark and Robert Moulton Jr., whose family also operates Moulton's Spectacle Shoppe next door, bought the building in 2004 from John and James Varellas. James and Stacy Varellas had run the Pizza House there for more than 30 years. 
 
The Varellases had also owned a Pizza House in Adams on McKinley Square and on Spring Street in Williamstown, as well as in Boston, Lee and Great Barrington.
 
The corner continued as a pizzeria, first as Moulton's Pizza and as several other entities, including Supreme and Bella Roma. It's been closed for more than a year.
 
The property had originally been Rice's Drug Store, first established in 1866. The corner had been colloquially known as "Rice's Corner" for decades. The business had been in the Rice family, though former Mayor Archie Pratt was a partner for a time, until it closed in 1965. It had stopped selling prescription drugs in 1961. It was owned by Star Realty Co. before the Varelllases bought it in 1971.
 
Three other recent sales were the Holiday Inn and 85 Main St., the New Kimbell Building.
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North Adams Updated on Schools, Council President Honored With 'Distinction'

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff

Superintendent Timothy Callahan gives a presentation on the school system at Tuesday's City Council meeting. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council got an update on what's up in the school system and its president was inducted into the mayor's Women's Leadership Hall of Fame.
 
Mayor Jennifer Macksey, as the city's first woman mayor, established the Hall of Fame in 2022, during March, Women's History Month, to recognize local women who have had a positive impact on the city. Past inductees have included the council's first woman president Fran Buckley, Gov. Jane Swift and boxing pioneer Gail Grandchamp. 
 
She described President Ashley Shade as a colleague and a friend and a former student. 
 
"Ashley is known not just for her leadership, but for her compassion, her ability to listen, to understand and to stand up for those whose voices are often gone unheard," the mayor said. "She has been a tireless advocate for the LGBTQ plus community and marginalized communities at both the local and national level here in North Adams."
 
Elected in 2021, Shade is the first openly transgender person to hold the role of council president in Massachusetts. She also leads the first-ever woman majority council in the city's history. 
 
The McCann Technical School graduate also has served on boards and commissions, "always working to make our city more inclusive, equitable and welcoming," said the mayor. "Ashley not leads not only with strength, but with a heart, and our community is a much stronger place because of it."
 
Shade, wearing her signature pink suit, was presented with a plaque from the mayor designating her a "woman of distinction."
 
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