NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The future of a trio of historic houses on Church Street is now up to a private developer willing to take them on. 

 

The properties at 116, 124 and 130 Church St., and a vacant lot on Arnold Place, all adjacent to each other, were taken by the city in February after years of being tied up in Land Court. 

 

The city has contracted with Bishop West Real Estate to sell them off and they are listed on the company's website as $177,000 for all three plus the vacant lot. Separately, Zillow.com has them listed at $53,000 for 116 Church; $67,000 for 124 Church, $42,000 for 130 Church, and $21,000 for Arnold Place.

 

The prestigious pair of Queen Anne mansions were designed by Marcus F. Cummings of Troy, N.Y., the architect of what is now the North Adams Public Library. A. W. Hodge (116 Church) and Frank A. Walker (124 Church), local businessmen and occasional partners, brought in bricklayers and contractors from Boston to build them in 1882.

 

The Hodge home was described as "one of the most elegant and desirable homes in North Adams and North Berkshire." But both properties were short-lived as single-family homes and, by the 1930s and '40s, had been broken up into flats or were being used as office or business space. 

 

Walker went broke in 1909 and his Phoenix Flour & Grain Co. went into foreclosure. The mill was the oldest in the city and torn down five years later to make way for the Mohawk Garage. Walker was councilor and longtime chair of the Board of Assessors, with his frequently repeated claim to fame being he had handed the new city charter to first mayor and neighbor A.C. Houghton. The Walkers saw their home and belongings sold at auction and moved into the Boardmans. 

 

Several families lived at 124 Church, the most notable perhaps being banker and City Councilor George Flood, who had what was then a duplex restored to back to a single family in 1945 and lived there until 1960, when Harriette B. Lerrigo owned it. The near-twin at 116 housed a day-care center in the 1940s and was advertised as flats in the 1950s.

 

The third, smaller house, built in 1900, was the First Baptist Church parsonage for more than 50 years, and seems to have remained intact as a family home the longest. The Arnold lot had a large apartment house that the city declared a nuisance and ordered demolished nearly 20 years ago. 

 

Franklin E. Perras Jr. had picked up the properties in a buying spree earlier this century. When he died in 2017 at age 79, the houses sat in limbo in Land Court waiting out an unsuccessful search for an heir. 

 

The past eight years have not been kind, as the porches on one of the Queen Anne's has collapsed, their copper piping was stolen, and windows broken. 

 

Pictures of the insides are a contrast in extravagant carved wood moldings and fireplaces, brass hardware and Venetian glass against piles of collapsed plaster from ceilings and walls, peeling paint and wallpaper, and water damage. 

 

Hopefully, these landmark fixer-uppers will find buyers willing to invest the time and money to restore their glory.