A Look Back, Jan. 24

By JIM BRIDGMAN

For the Gazette

Published: 01-23-2025 11:01 PM
50 Years Ago

■The facade of the Hampshire County Courthouse has begun to crumble. Some eight chunks of stone varying in size, a few as large as six inches square and one at least one and a half feet long, have fallen this week from the front of the courthouse. The stones are falling from above an archway on the eastern end of the front porch facing Main Street.

■The Northampton Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously last night to permit construction of a 150-boat marina on Island Road on the Oxbow, but Northampton Planning Board Chairman Charles W. Baranowski said last night the board may sue to overturn the ZBA’s approval of the variance to permit construction of the marina.

25 Years Ago

■Republican Peter Abair, who is no stranger to the 105-community 1st Congressional District, has stepped forward to challenge U.S. Rep. John Olver, D-Amherst. Abair, 35, a state government administrator, worked for the late U.S. Rep. Silvio O. Conte, R-Pittsfield, Olver’s predecessor, and in the western Massachusetts’ offices of Govs. William Weld and then Paul Cellucci.

■Options for Holistic Living is vacating the storefront it rents at 112 Main St. and consolidating in a suite of rooms on the second floor of the former Ann August clothing store at 108 Main St. The move is part of a larger metamorphosis of a business that owner Patricia Blain has been adapting since she and her former partner, Wayne Mercier, started selling environmentally friendly products in a 3-by-6-foot booth in Thornes Marketplace nine years ago.

10 Years Ago

■Police are continuing to investigate anti-Semitic and racial graffiti found on Sherman Avenue this week to determine what charges are most appropriate for the two teen suspects. Police allege that the teens spray-painted swastikas on the nearby bike path, as well as on a car and tree near 5 Sherman Ave., wrote “Jews” on the same tree, and painted the “N-word” in the middle of Sherman Avenue.

■The dilapidated barn, more crumbling buildings and other rubble have been cleared from the property on Huntington Road in Worthington once owned by potato farmer Bernard “Ben” Albert. The land is now owned by the town.