West Stockbridge — On Saturday afternoon, the doors to West Stockbridge’s Old Town Hall at 9 Main Street will be flung wide open, welcoming Berkshire residents into what is, once again, a community center. Under the care of the West Stockbridge Historical Society, the once-defunct 1800s structure has been transformed into a meetinghouse for concerts, yoga classes, and shows.
The June 17 festivities, scheduled from 1:30 to 4 p.m., offer residents the opportunity to view the progress of the building as well as enjoy a jazz concert, refreshments, and a tutorial on how to research the history of West Stockbridge homes.
How it happened
Built in 1854, the Old Town Hall originally served as a community center, with the lower floors dedicated to commercial space and the upper floor designated for town activities, said West Stockbridge Historical Society President and town historian Bob Salerno. Throughout the era, the building contained a bank and the offices of a barber; surgeon; farm equipment seller; and a lawyer, who doubled as town clerk, treasurer, and other municipal officers. “One stop shopping,” Salerno said of the space.
In 1904, part of the structure was converted into the town library, with other areas reserved for the Select Board and police station, he said. In 2004, however, the building was abandoned as those tenants moved to a former elementary school facility. In 2008, the town put the building up for sale. “Thank God for the real estate recession,” Salerno said. “Nobody bid.”
After the local governing body sought to tear down the building, a petition to save the structure garnered 300 signatures, an event that, for Salerno, was “the spark plug” to the renovation process. The West Stockbridge Historical Society was resurrected and purchased the building from the town for a nominal fee of $1. “At the meeting where we gave the Select Board the dollar, they turned around and gave it back to us and said, ‘you’re going to need it,’” Salerno said.
And, the Select Board was correct, as committee members began to work on the structure the following year, with contractors tearing out walls and opening up the second-floor space as a concert hall. In the spring of 2010, the Boston Symphony Orchestra was rehearsing for a benefit when its principal clarinetist surprisingly informed Salerno that the disheveled room possessed “symphony hall quality sound” and cautioned him to “not mess it up.”
The first concert held at the site drew a full house, with overflow patrons sitting on town lawns and streets, Salerno said, adding that the interest to return the structure to its community center roots was “very high.” Since then, donations and matching grants provided funding—to the tune of $850,000—to restore the building, modernize it to current code regulations, and bring it up to the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
But the task wasn’t easy, especially with a vision to maintain the structure’s historical nature. Rotting window mullions were replaced and an extension was added to incorporate ADA accessibility to the site, including bathrooms, a new street entrance, and an elevator. The mildewed green carpet was removed together with layers of linoleum, revealing the original Southern Pine floors beneath. The exterior paint was scraped, a new metal roof was constructed, and gutters attached.
A heating oil spill four years ago caused damage to the building’s interior, eating up the remainder of the restoration monies raised.
Moving forward
The work is far from over, Salerno said, with estimates upwards of $100,000 needed to complete the process including adding a new heating and air conditioning system, painting the 1904 tin ceiling, and finishing work on the new bathrooms. “The challenge is the Massachusetts Historical Commission has a preservation restriction on the building so any work we do has to get approved by them,” he said. “And they’ve been very reasonable.”
For example, each window in the upstairs hall had to be crafted by hand, Salerno said. “The mullions aren’t standard so you can’t go to Home Depot and get it,” he said. “All of that stuff has to be done to the original.”
To date, the Old Town Hall has hosted 36 chamber music concerts, jazz series, art shows, historical talks, theater shows, and community yoga, Salerno said. “What we’ve done is return the building to the centerpiece of the community,” Salerno said of the past 15 years of renovations.
For more information, see the West Stockbridge Historical Society’s website.
