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December 14, 2007, 08:43 AM ET
Preservation Fight Stalls Recreation Complex at U. of Massachusetts at Amherst
Work on a new recreation center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has ground to a halt because the university failed to file required paperwork before beginning demolition in a complex of university barns that preservation backers say are historic.
According to WSHM-TV, in Springfield, Mass., the university began tearing down a 1909 cow barn on the site without alerting either state environmental authorities or the state historical commission. The demolition was stopped in October, after an organization called Preserve UMass succeeded in getting the campus included on a 2007 list of the Ten Most Endangered Historic Resources in Massachusetts.
Joseph S. Larson, an emeritus professor in the university’s College of Natural Resources and the Environment who is Preserve UMass’s spokesman, says the cow barn is now too far gone to save. But the organization wants to make sure the university seeks independent assessments of other buildings in the complex, including an 1894 horse barn, which Preserve UMass says is badly deteriorated, and an 1869 farm manager’s house, according to The Republican, a Springfield newspaper.
University officials and state authorities are continuing to discuss how to proceed. Preserve UMass is pushing the university to move the 1894 barn and the farm manager’s house to another university agricultural facility. The organization also wants the university to be required to comply with the state’s environmental and preservation rules in the future.
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