Nights of Thunder

The real Demolition Derby

In Ward Three, fall means the Morgan House show and the Three County Fair. I heard the action at the demolition derby on Friday night coming in the windows and wafting across the old graveyard. When Sunday night rolled around, I walked down to the Fairgrounds.

"It's like being in a barroom, only you are outside," says my friend Bobby to me, talking about the midway.

The beer smell does carry from the open-air tents, and you can stroll around with your 16 ounce Bud draft without any problem. You can look at the stars, you can look at the pretty girls. There is that fabulous kielbasa stand down near the animal barns, country music, a lot of food stands with pizza and fried bread treats, and the whole thing is a great old-fashioned mélange of smells and noise. The cows, the manure, the kielbasa, the Old Spice, the Chanel number five, the sweet smell of hydrocarbons. And over the sound of the calliope music and the screams of riders on the whirl-a-gig rides is the roar of unmuffled engines and the crash and another crash as a Cadillac De Ville gets rear-ended by a Crown-Vic, spins around and takes out a Honda passing by. The smoke rises, the horn blows, and the firemen rush out and put out an engine fire. The crowd roars. To read the full story, click here

Demolition Derby: Part Two

The Case of the Cement Sandwich

The only photograph we have of 29 Cherry is one taken by a neighbor on its last day before the demolition guys started work. The Bobcat is parked, ready to go, and the first dumpster is on hand.

On June 22, 2010, about two weeks before the Timothy and Wendy Van Epps closed on the cottage at 40 Union Street, a Sandri controlled realty trust, Roxbo Development, bought 29 Cherry Street, a house built in 1880. Their lot directly abutted the cottage. They paid $297,000 to a lawyer who represented the late Irene and Lester Kozontkoski.. Like 38 Union Street, its pre-1900 construction date would ordinarily give it a one-year reprieve from demolition if it was deemed of historical value, but it never came before the Historic Commission.

To read the complete article, click here

To see the demolition progress at 29 Cherry, click here

How did this fully restored 1850-era house on Union Street

vanish and became this?

How to get around the Demolition Delay Ordinance,

Part One

Mike Kirby with Lu Stone


Sometimes curiosity can get this old cat into real trouble. Lu and I walk down Union Street often on our way downtown. She has been researching the development of our Market/North Street neighborhood and compiling an inventory of its 19th-century houses. We knew that there had been a demolition at 26 Union because the frame house, dating to the 1820s, had been badly damaged by fire during the wave of arson attacks that hit the city in January, 2010.

But the massive new building going up at 38 Union next to the jail? This was a puzzlement, and Lu wondered how a house that had won a Historic Preservation award from the Northampton Historical Commission only eight years before could suddenly disappear. Read the full article here.