Letter: The Importance of Preserving Mother Amherst’s Living Room
1929 photo of the main reading room at the Jones Library. Furnishings, floor coverings, art work and lighting created the ambiance of a Connecticut Valley home. Photo: Jones Library Historic Structures Report, amherstma.gov
The following letter was sent to Robert Peirent, The Massachusetts Historical Commission, and the Advisory. Council on Historic Preservation on January 29, 2025.
The purpose of the historic preservation of buildings is not just to save the buildings because they are old, but because they are important, or useful, or dare I say, loved. What is preserved is not just stone and wood, but also the way in which people interact with a
building. The Jones Library is not just important and useful, but also loved. It has been called Amherst’s living room. It has been a comfortable and welcoming space for almost 100 years, loved by generations of children and adults. The interior is beautiful and warm.
The proposed project will turn it into a cold, antiseptic space, and do so to conform to a concept of how a library interior should be designed, called open plan, that has been tried in other types of buildings and failed. The two elementary schools that Amherst is closing were designed as open plan, and walls and dividers were soon added. If the town proceeds with the demolition and enlargement of the Jones Library, what will be lost is not just the beautiful historic elements of a building, but also the warmth and comfort of a living
space.
Lou Conover
Lou Conover is a resident of Amherst’s District 1
I believe this photo shows the current children’s picture book room. Project plans keep this room exactly as it is. The stairs being removed are behind the left wall so the west children’s room can be a little larger. The fireplaces and beautiful woodwork will stay.
The homey rooms on the first and second floors will still be homey. Planned open areas are in the new building, replacing the current atrium.
I encourage people to take a look at the floorplans available online: https://www.joneslibrarycapitalcampaign.org/plans
It continues to be a mystery why the plan isn’t to spend the necessary funds to replace the leaking glass atrium at the center of the 33 year-old brick addition, rather than demolish the brick addition and its metal roof with a 50+ year lifespan. I agree with Lou Conover, the result of the expansion would be a cold, generic interior with a higher-maintenance exterior that will need repainting every 10-15 years. By any measure, library management has done a poor job maintaining the already-large library building. More space is not the answer. The current Jones building needs its interior deep cleaned and renovated, its interior space reorganized, with the bulk of the investment made in upgrading its infrastructure. If the demolition-expansion project goes forward as proposed, in future years, this project will leave residents shaking their heads about how such an expensive, unnecessary expansion was allowed to happen, especially in such precarious financial times. The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind, by the people blowing smoke. Lots and lots of smoke.
And to remind, there were only 3000 yes votes (of 5000 total votes, of 40000 residents) for this project, it was not some great mandate; plus how many of those 3000 donated?, as donations are a lagging indicator of how weak the actual support is.
As encouraged as I was to live in the town where only the H is silent, I am discouraged to live in the town where the town council and town manager can’t say ‘ELL NO !! to this mess.
One day, I needed to cross the river by our village. Though I could easily swim across, I had a book in each hand, and swimming might get them wet.
A farmer on the riverbank saw my plight. He offered me his raft to cross the river, keeping me and my books dry, if I’d carry a few letters to fellow farmers across the river before returning with his raft.
As I was about to push off on that raft, a teacher called out from the nearby village school, offering her rowboat if I’d also carry a big box of journals to her colleagues across the river.
While I readied her boat and awaited her box, a scion of the village’s namesake factory rolled by in his wagon. From his high perch atop the wagon, he failed to notice its wheels striking both the boat and the raft, rendering them un-river-worthy. Rather than repair their watercraft — each having served them well for many decades before — and without apology to the farmer nor the teacher, the scion proposed a huge yacht to cross the river.
The village leaders and their friends loved the idea of this yacht so much that they worked with the factory scion to raise funds to build a great one — big enough to do all the things that they imagine modern yachts might do! And since this would be a public-private-partnership, needing the support of the farmers and the teachers, the leaders and the scion promised putting parts of the broken raft and the broken rowboat in prominent places aboard the modern yacht to remind each and every one about their roots in the village.
By promising a modest downpayment for the yacht, the leaders persuaded the just enough villagers to borrow the rest. But by then, many of those letter-awaiting farmers were no longer farming; and many of those journal- awaiting colleagues were no longer teaching; and I had re-read my two books so many times that I’d forgotten why I needed to cross the river the fist place!
Of course, it was soon after the village leaders had spent all that modest downpayment — plus a chunk of those borrowed funds — for a dry-dock to build the yacht on the riverbank, that a great storm roared through the river valley, flooding both river and riverbank, destroying the half-built dry-dock and low-lying parts of the village.
Fortunately, the farmers and teachers had joined to rebuild the raft and the rowboat, and we oft’ joined together to discuss all the books and the journals we had been reading, as well as a way to run our village a bit better….
Tale of a farmer and teacher
Rob, this puts me in mind of Aesop’s fables, a tv show about which was a favorite of mine on Sunday mornings before Mass when I was a child.
As “The Frogs Who Wished for a King” speaks directly to the current state of national affairs, your submission regarding the Jones Library Plan hits the nail on the head, if not in the coffin of Amherst’s infrastructure and financial future.
Good on ya!