From The Republican
By Fred Contrada
Wednesday, August 13, 2010
The James House, a 19th century building that some feared would become a white elephant for the city, is about to complete its transformation to an adult learning center.
Teri A. Anderson, Northampton’s Economic and Community Development Coordinator, said this week that the city has awarded a $201,000 contract to Garland Construction of Chicopee to complete the second phase of renovation. The project will be financed entirely with federal stimulus funds and a gift from the Beveridge Foundation and will not cost the city any money, Anderson said.
The city bought the Gothic Street building in 1994 for $355,000 with the thought of using it to house a new police station. A planning committee instead chose to build the new police facility next to the current one on Center Street.
The Franklin-Hampshire Juvenile Court occupied the James House for several years before moving to Hadley in 2008. About that time, Mayor Mary Clare Higgins began developing a plan to use the building for adult education, noting that Northampton is one of the few county seats without a community college.
The first phase of the project, which transformed the former juvenile court administrative offices into child-care classrooms, was completed last year. The labor for that project was donated by the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, Local 108 and by the Westover Job Corps.