[MassHistPres] UMass Signs Agreement with MHC

[Joseph S. Larson]

PRESERVE UMASS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, March 28, 2009

Contact:
Joseph S. Larson
Corresponding Secretary
Preserve UMass
27 Arnold Road
Pelham, MA 01002-9757
larson at tei.umass.edu


The administration of the UMass Amherst campus signed, on March 25, 2009, a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Massachusetts Historical Commission containing four (4) stipulations intended to mitigate the adverse impact on a historic building complex caused by construction of a new student recreation center. Co-signers of the MOA are the UMass Building Authority (part of the UMass President's Office), the Town of Amherst Historical Commission, and Preserve UMass, a private group that is promoting the preservation of historic features of the UMass Amherst campus.

The Stipulations in the MOA include an agreement on the part of the Amherst campus and the UMass Building Authority to document and record in the state's archives the historic features of a 1912 barn that was demolished to make room for the construction of a new student recreation center. The barn was one of a complex of four historic structures that the Massachusetts Historical Commission found eligible for nomination to the state and national registers of historic places. The remaining structures of the historic complex are Blaisdell House, the oldest university-constructed building on the campus, Grinnell Arena and the Queen Anne style horse barn, both of which were involved in the development of today's nationally known Bay State breeding line of Morgan Horses.

In a second stipulation, the campus and Building Authority agree to make available to private parties or collectors structural elements of the demolished barn. In the third stipulation the campus and Building Authority agree to construct on the campus a permanent exhibit that documents and displays the history of the Massachusetts Agricultural College (later Massachusetts State College and now UMass Amherst). The plans of the exhibit are to be reviewed by the Amherst Historical Commission and Preserve UMass.

The fourth stipulation lays the foundation for appropriate future treatment and preservation of over 100 historic buildings on the UMass Amherst campus. In this stipulation the University agrees to undertake a professional survey of all campus buildings fifty (50) years old and older, using procedures that comply with state and national standards. These include evaluation of buildings eligible for nomination to the state and national registers of historic places. Although the campus contains several buildings eligible for registration, none have been nominated to date. In the past a number of buildings on the campus that were listed on the Inventory of Historic and Archaeological Assets of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have been destroyed.

According to UMass Emeritus Professor Joseph S. Larson, representing Preserve UMass, the professional survey Stipulation number four (4) is well underway. The professional firms that are conducting the survey are Einhorn Yafee Prescott, PC an architectural and engineering firm from New York City and Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. of Watertown, Massachusetts. Professional staff members from these firms have produced draft assessments of nearly all of the historic buildings and the historic landscape context of the Amherst campus. UMass Amherst Facilities and Planning staff members and representatives from the Town of Amherst Historical Commission and Preserve UMass are currently reviewing these drafts for completeness and accuracy. Provision is being made for an opportunity for the public to comment on these documents after the drafts have been reviewed. When the review has been completed discussions will begin on which buildings will be nominated to the state and national registers of historic places.

"The professional survey represents the first time that the buildings on the UMass Amherst campus have been professionally inventoried and assessed for their historic and architectural significance" said Larson. "The UMass Amherst campus contains samples of American architecture dating from 1728 to the present and Preserve UMass believes that they are held in public trust by the University and should be treated in a professional manner consistent with their significance. In addition to their architecture, several buildings are associated with historic events and prominent individuals significant on the local, state, national, and international level. These include local involvement in the American Revolution, Daniel Chester French, sculptor of the Minute Man, John Harvard's statue on the Harvard campus, and the Lincoln Memorial, significant university research contributions to the state and nation, and the successfully introduction of modern agriculture to the nation of Japan by William Smith Clark, third President of Massachusetts Agricultural College."


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