[MassHistPres] Update on Historic UMass Buildings and Landscapes

[Joseph Larson]

Update from Preserve UMass

 

Old Chapel (1885) (AMH. 80)

UMass Amherst Chancellor Subbaswamy has initiated a campaign to renovate the
upper floor to its original assembly hall condition and to repurpose the
ground floor and basement for modern uses. This has triggered competing
proposals from several interest groups, some of which seem to be
incompatible with this historic structure and others that draw on the
history of the building and the university.

 

Horse Barn (1894) (AMH. 109)

Funds have been raised to move this structure, once home to the Bay State
Morgan horse line, to a new Agricultural Learning Center north of the
Amherst campus where the interior ground floor will be used for small
meeting spaces and offices and preserve save selected examples of the
original Morgan stallion stalls. The huge upper hayloft will be converted to
an assembly room. Funds are now being raised to do the interior work.

 

Historic Pond Landscape (1892) (AMH. 951)

In the course of a Section 106 National Historic Preservation Act Review, a
Memorandum of Agreement was issued that contains several findings and
stipulations. Among these:

1.       A finding that the Massachusetts Historical Commission and the US
Army Corps of Engineers both agree that this landscape is eligible for
listing on the National Register.

2.       An agreement to return the Pond to its historic water elevation.

3.       An agreement that work done on the Landscape will be guided by the
Secretary of Interior's Guidelines on the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes.
Preserve UMass takes the position that these Guidelines provide the
professional framework for UMass to maintain Fredrick Law Olmsted's (18660
recommendation that a pond be created at this site and Frank A. Waugh's
(1920) naturalistic landscape design.

 

Anyone interested in details on these matters can contact
larson at tei.umass.edu.

 

Joseph S. Larson, Ph.D. '56 G58

Corresponding Secretary

Preserve UMass

27 Arnold Road

Pelham, Massachusetts 01002-9757

413-256-8256

 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/mailman/private/masshistpres/attachments/20130905/be3a39cc/attachment.htm>