The Historical Commission is looking to establish a historical district to preserve the facade of Park Square.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Creating a historic district around Park Square would take about a year through the work of a study committee. 

The Historical Commission last week mapped out the first phases of establishing a district for the historically significant city center so its facade is preserved and protected. This includes petitioning the City Council for a study committee, which will eventually produce a final report, and weighing the cost of a consultant against a self-guided process. 

"I think we could do it in-house," the City Planner Kevin Rayner said, pointing to resources available from the Massachusetts Historical Commission. 

Park Square is seen as an obvious location to start. The central area was laid out a few decades after Pittsfield was given a town charter in 1761 and was the site of the first agricultural fair in 1810.

"I don't think anybody is going to argue too hard that the buildings directly around Park Square are historic, and that we should preserve the look of Park Square as it is," Rayner said. 

The historical district is not expected to cover "massive swaths of Pittsfield" and would use National Historic District boundaries as a guide. 

The city has more than 20 locations on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Park Square Historical District, but the designation just allows communities to apply for federal tax credits and doesn't impose restrictions on buildings.

After consulting Somerville's planning staff about its historic districts, it became clear that the city could basically appoint Historical Commission members to the yearlong study committee. Three to seven members would be appointed by the City Council. 

"The Historical Commission could have their regular meeting, and they could open the meeting, do their business, close the meeting, and then if we had study committee business, we can open that meeting separately," Rayner explained. 

"And then in the what's called the preliminary report, which needs to be submitted as a part of the study committee's job, you could suggest to City Council that the Historical Commission become appointed as the local historic district commission at the culmination of the plan, and basically, we would probably rebrand the Historical Commission to something to show its enlarged responsibility at the end of that." 

It was suggested that they hire a consultant for this process, which would come at a cost. 

In other news, the feasibility study for the William Russell Allen House is underway, and the rough goal is to have it completed by the end of the year. 

The Historical Commission has received more than $33,200 in Community Preservation Act funding for a feasibility study on the 1886 home, said to be "the finest example of Queen Anne design in Pittsfield and one of the finest in Berkshire County." Now, its bones are showing in several places, and windows are boarded up. 

The $42,500 feasibility study was funded in the city's $526,548 CPA budget for fiscal year 2025.  The rest of the cost was covered by the Berkshire Historical Society. 

Rayner reported that there was a recent kickoff meeting with the consultant firm, and site visits are scheduled in September to look at the interior of the building. 

The deteriorating historical property is owned by the state's Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, but was built by the son of Thomas Allen, who underwrote the construction of the Berkshire Athenaeum, and great-grandson of Thomas Allen, Pittsfield's first congregational minister. 

In the past few years, DCAMM has indicated it is in support of the property's disposition and redevelopment for productive use. 

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