Sunday, April 19, 2009

A Pittsfield landmark, struggling for survival.

Miss Emma and I went back to the shoe factory today - it's an enormous building. Boarded up. Vandalized.
It sits on one side of the Sebasticook River while a keeper's house sits across the Waverly Dam, spring waters crashing over the top.
The front door of the factory could be on a church....If I were to win the lottery I'd buy the factory and turn the first floor into restaurants and artisans' shops and make the top two floors into lofts....what a reclaimation of the past, a reincarnation of the forgotten it could be...

7 comments:

Becky said...

Wouldn't that be great to save that building. Buy a lotto ticket so you have a chance to help out the old building, the ideas sound wonderful, maybe you could sell someone on it and be a partner!

Lili said...

There's one in Dexter that I've had revitalization daydreams about too.

Tatersmama said...

It's a grand old building and it's a shame to see it just sitting there getting older by the minute!

I was thinking along the lines of a bed and breakfast, with those beautiful surroundings...

I'll keep my fingers crossed that you win the lottery, because it's just sad to see it going to waste. ;-(

Gladys said...

Those doors are gorgeous. So I wonder what it would take to make it into a hysterical building?

Dawn Fortune said...

Have you been to Lowell, Mass? The old mills there have been turned into living museums. In Maine, we seem to bulldoze them and make parking lots and mini-malls. I'll buy a lotto ticket too, and if I win, I'll join your venture.

Onedia said...

Just think of it as an artisan studio community with either studio space or live/work space with space open to the public for sales.

Jodi said...

You're right - it would be wonderful to have shops in there.

I love those doors!