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The two Queen Anne homes have been empty for years and boarded up as the case was in Land Court.
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The structures are two of four properties the city took for back taxes.

North Adams Takes Possession of Historic Church Street Houses

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
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The porch collapsed on 116 Church several years ago. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The state Land Court in February finalized the city's tax taking of four properties including the brick Church Street mansions.
 
The prestigious pair of Queen Anne mansions had been owned by Franklin E. Perras Jr., who died in 2017 at age 79. 
 
The properties had been in court for four years as attempts were made repeatedly to find Perras' heirs, including a son, Christopher. According to court filings, Christopher reportedly died in 2013 but his place of death is unknown, as is the location (or existence) of two grandchildren listed in Perras' obituary. 
 
Mayor Jennifer Macksey said the next steps will be to develop requests for proposals for the properties to sell them off. 
 
She credited Governor's Councillor Tara Jacobs for bringing the lingering tax takings to the Land Court's attention. Jacobs said she'd asked about the status of the properties and a few days later they were signed off. 
 
It wasn't just the four North Adams properties — the cases for three Perras holdings in Lanesborough that also had been in the court for years were closed, including Keeler Island. Another property on Holmes Road in Hinsdale is still in the court.  
 
The buildings at 116, 124 and 130 Church St., and a vacant lot on Arnold Place had been in tax title since 2017 when the city placed $12,000 in liens. 
 
The building at 34-40 Arnold Place was declared a public nuisance in 2008 and ordered demolished. The crumbling apartment house had been empty for some time by that point.
 
The Queen Annes had started out as single-family homes but later broken up into apartments. The past eight years have not been kind, as the porches on one of the buildings has collapsed, their copper piping was stolen, and windows were broken. The city secured the windows and open doors with plywood to keep out squatters. 
 
The two structures were designed by Marcus F. Cummings of Troy, N.Y., the architect of what is now the North Adams Public Library. Also known as the A. W. Hodge House (116 Church) and the Walker House (124 Church) they were both built in 1882 by bricklayers and contractors brought from Boston. 
 
They were nominated for the National Register of Historic Places and, along with the vacant 130 Church, sit in the Church Street-Cady Hill Historic District.
 
They were condemned a few months after Perras died and have frequently been pointed out as historic structures worth saving, but any attempts were stymied by their court status.
 
Perras had gone on a buying spree in North Adams and Lanesborough in the late 1990s and early aughts, purchasing 124 Church in 1994, Arnold Place in 1998 and then 116 Church and 130 Church in 2008 and 2009, respectively.
 
A mortgage of $258,000 taken out on 124 Church in 2008 (used to purchase 116 Church) was declared "satisfied" by TrustCo Bank in 2021 along with a mortgage on 130 Church. 

Tags: delinquent taxes,   historic buildings,   Land Court,   

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Main & Mill: A Vibrant New Restaurant on Main Street

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — You can now enjoy another eatery on Main Street by well-known restaurant siblings Colleen and Sean Taylor.

Their restaurant Main & Mill opened for the first time Tuesday, bringing their vision of creating something vibrant and new to downtown North Adams.

"We have created Main & Mill to be part of our day. It's very seasonal ingredients, thoughtful cooking, beauty, beautiful presentation and dishes. And we really wanted to be part of the community, the downtown area, and start a vibrant area on this end, which has been shuttered for a while," said Colleen.

The building is owned by Ginko on Main Street LLC, which has granted 20 years exclusive possession of the property to Latent Builds as the developer. Jack and Suzy Wadsworth, behind Ginko, are development partners with Karla Rothstein and Salvatore Perry of Latent.

The bank closed in early 2021 and was purchased by Ginko late that year. Plans for the property unveiled three years ago envisioned a restaurant, retail, a park and rooftop bar. 

Colleen saw potential and said she initially wanted the building when it first went up for sale. Being good friends with Rothstein and Perry, she helped them design the kitchen and the bar before learning in March that she could lease it as a restaurant space, something she told them would be a great idea.

She said one of the most important things about the restaurant was the collaboration between Rothstein, Perry, and the Wadsworths, who put a lot of time and energy into the building.

"If Sean and I had done it, we would not be able to do what the collaboration supported. The collaboration of the three of us being able to really have that kind of money to put in down here. The design that the architecture firm that Carla and Sal own is stunning," she said. "The time and effort, everyone came together to do this in a really trusting manner."

The two wanted the restaurant to be an all-day venture, so people could eat at any point throughout the day, all week long.

"We wanted it to be open for coffee and socialization in the morning where people can meet, have their cup of coffee, have a quiche, a vegetarian quiche, or croissant or yogurt. Something intentional with their coffee," she said. "Then move into a lunchtime for the downtown business or anybody, and then go into supper, dinner, with drinks later into the evening. So have it really be open all day long, so that there wasn't a void on any particular day."

They also wanted to do something different than the other restaurants they owned.

"We didn't want to mimic any other restaurant in town. We wanted to bring something that was inspiring, something that had some familiar things that people would see, and other things that we would bring to them for them to experience," she said.

As a woman business owner, Colleen said she wanted to bring a female chef into the kitchen. 

Colleen brought on Chef Anna DeRose, who she said puts twists on a lot of her dishes.

"So we have a creme brulee, but our creme brulee is topped with marshmallow," she said. "Our creme brulee is like almost two desserts in one. It's a s'mores creme brulee. So you could have a s'mores, and you could have a creme brulee - but when you put both of them together, fireworks go off."

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