HOUSATONIC — As the town continues to struggle with what to do with the former Housatonic School, momentum could be building for the iconic structure’s demolition.
At Monday’s selectboard meeting, Sean VanDeusen, who heads the town’s Department of Public Works, updated the board on the condition of the school and recent developments on the property in the heart of the Housatonic section of Great Barrington.
Several windows on the first floor have been broken by vandals recently, so VanDeusen has asked a contractor to look at the damage and give an estimate on what it would cost to board up all the windows on the building.
See video below of Monday’s selectboard meeting. The discussion of Housatonic School begins at 6:40, and later with Suze Fowle at 55:40:
Town staff has also been instructed to do a daily walk around the grounds and report to authorities any further damage or mischief. With a playground immediately to the east and a community center, known as the Housy Dome, to the west, there are plenty of children in the area who could be harmed by dangerous debris.
“There’s been quite a bit of vandalism of the windows, so we are trying to address the security concerns,” VanDeusen said.
There is a hole in the roof that causes rainwater and melting snow to penetrate the building and damage the floors below. This has caused officials to explore what VanDeusen called “a very short-term solution” involving throwing a tarp on the roof.
Two weeks ago, VanDeusen indicated the roof was not safe to walk on, in part because of the aforementioned hole. This week, he said a tarp installation would be complicated because workers would have to be secured using ropes and anchorings.
VanDeusen said that would cost in the neighborhood of $14,000, which he does not have in his budget. Two years ago, town meeting approved [go to page 51] $650,000 for “Housatonic School improvements” that included a new roof and windows.
But that money could not be used for the tarping, VanDeusen explained, and would require a separate capital allotment not currently in his budget. Some of the money was for bonding purposes and part of it was a grant from the Community Preservation Committee.
Selectboard member Ed Abrahams added that he had recently seen a post on Facebook calling for the school to be torn down.
“I was surprised how many people jumped on, thinking that was a good idea,” Abrahams said. “So I want to say it out loud.” Abrahams emphasized that he was not necessarily advocating for demolition but that “everything’s on the table.”
Former selectman Dan Bailly, who chairs the Housatonic Improvement Committee, which is charged with recommending a solution to the selectboard, said all options, including demolition, are on the table.
“I guess I’m encouraging you to look at numbers,” Abrahams said. “It’s not entirely a financial decision — what to do with that building — but to look at numbers and I think maybe it is time to consider that.”
Estimates for environmental remediation of the building, which included demolition, were in the range of $700,000, but town manager Mark Pruhenski has noted that the figure without demolition was closer to $275,000. He cautioned, however, that those numbers were several years old.
Housatonic resident Suze Fowle, a former member of the Planning Board, said the building has been mostly empty for more than 15 years and the building has sat dormant and become an eyesore. The property sits next to a park where children play. That green space is sometimes referred to as a common.
“It seems to me that by using that space to improve and expand our town common, our village common, would be the best way to recreate the vitality and the dynamism that used to be there when the school was occupied,” Fowle said.
Interestingly, Fowle has found an unlikely supporter in longtime Housatonic resident Andy Moro, who also chairs the Republican Town Committee. Moro suggested demolition in a letter to The Edge in 2019.
“The correct answer to our problem may be to tear the building down and build a village green,” Moro wrote. “This new area could be enclosed by a small fence, like the one next to Stockbridge town hall, for the children. Money from the Community Preservation Act can be used for open space.”
Fowle wanted to know if any thought was given to issuing another request for proposals to would-be buyers of the property who might be interested in developing it.
Board chair Steve Bannon said the town was awaiting a recommendation from the Housatonic Improvement Committee before deciding whether to seek developers again.
Shuttered by the Berkshire Hills Regional School District more than 17 years ago, the Housatonic School has a long and checkered history. The former community elementary school opened in 1909 and has remained mostly empty since 2003 when Berkshire Hills consolidated its schools with a new regional elementary- and middle-school campus on Monument Valley Road in the northern part of Great Barrington.
In 2013, the Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire (CDCSB) proposed a mixed-use development that included 11 units of affordable housing, and commercial space including space for nonprofits and even a satellite office for police. But then-town manager Kevin O’Donnell put the kibosh on the proposal after strong community opposition.
Click here to read an Edge story looking back at that time. And click here to read an Edge op-ed by former CDCSB executive director Tim Geller, headlined, “Housatonic School: Fact and fiction.”
More recently, in 2019, the town pulled the plug on a proposal by Grayhouse Partners to redevelop the building through a public-private partnership. The proposal called for a mixed use of the building that included so-called business incubator spaces, and collaborative workspaces for technology and business. The proposal, which would have left the town the owner of the school, struggled to find adequate funding.
Later that year, the town’s since disbanded Economic Development Committee toured the building and ultimately suggested using the former school as a child care facility or office condominiums.
“It seems like if we focus on improving the village common and park and making it a place for kids and families and neighbors to meet each other and have a community, then we can restore some of that vitality better than waiting for some miracle developer,” Fowle said.
The Housatonic Improvement Committee meets tomorrow night, March 11, at 6:30 p.m., via Zoom and conference call. Click here for the agenda and for instructions on how to attend.
