McCray's Farmland to Be Preserved

While trawling through the Republican's archives for articles about local land conservation and related topics, I stumbled across this piece about conservation in South Hadley from June 2009.

McCray's farm has long been the last dairy farm in South Hadley (to put this in some perspective, only 50 years ago there were 10), and years ago they diversified their farming "portfolio" to include a miniature golf course, a creamery, a zoo, and seasonal hay rides.

The McCrays are trying to put 95 acres of their land into a state preservation program, to keep it as is (farmland) in perpetuity. It's about time that more land in this still somewhat rustic part of town got preserved. Much of the surrounding land has been developed in the past 15 to 20 years, mostly with hideous McMansions (who thinks these beastly things are attractive?), but it used to be stunning--picturesque fields rolling all the way to the river. (Across the river in Holyoke, there is still a sign on I-91 for a place to pull over for a "scenic view"--this is the land that McCray partly owns. Much of hasn't been scenic for years.)

Here's to hoping this plan goes through (if it hasn't already!).

100 Morgan Street, South Hadley

I'm going back a few years with this blog post (which is fine in a blog that deals a lot with history, right?) to discuss the sad fate of 100 Morgan Street in South Hadley. This house, built in 1750, was older than the town, having been constructed when South Hadley was still a part of Hadley. For 255 years this little colonial house existed, then, in the summer of 2005, it was torn down. Why? I never really understood why, to be honest. Yes, the house was in poor shape. I spoke to a member of the SH Historical Society about the house, and he seemed unhappy about the situation as well, but said that it was determined to be unliveable. Why? I didn't ask the question, so I don't really know. However, Mount Holyoke College owned the house before selling it to a developer who had no choice but to tear it down, I was told, so perhaps the college is to blame for not carrying out adequate maintenance. That would be a real shame.

Obviously, sometimes there is nothing to be done but tear down a dilapidated building, unless someone has the financial wherewithal to do a huge renovation. For this tiny house, unremarkable except for its great age (there were/are few buildings in the town older than it), demolition was apparently necessary. I think there is more to it than that, but I haven't any evidence, just what I saw when I examined the house myself. It wasn't collapsing!

I just hope some of its pieces were salvaged for use elsewhere. Especially the old doors, beams, and glass.

In the photos provided (interiors and exteriors that I shot shortly before it was torn down), you can see that the house really was just an ordinary-looking dwelling. Inside, it suffered some vandalism, it seems (see the hand prints, etc.). It was still 255 years old, though--no small feat!

Now there are two new houses on the house's lot. You'd never know it ever existed. So it goes sometimes...