10/12/2025
Hi Everyone,
Good afternoon, I hope this finds you well.
At 3 Elm Street, behind the historic, beautiful, and iconic former St. Mary’s Church and Parsonage, Sunwood Builders has proposed to construct an enormous apartment building within the footprint of the existing parking lot on the State Street side of the property — as well as extending the building beyond the footprint of the parking lot by building into the historic and iconic open space at the currently grassy expanse of lawn at the corner of Elm Street and State Street.
The proposed apartment building by Sunwood Builders would be 331 feet in length, 5 stories tall, contain 71 all-market-rate units (thereby containing zero subsidized Affordable Housing units), 34 parking spaces inside the ground level parking garage which would be part of the building, 2 restaurants, 1 cafe (with no on-site parking for either of the two restaurants nor for the cafe), for a total of 88,529 square feet of building structure.
In a word: Massive.
The developer may also intend to create a new curb cut along Elm Street, in front of the Parsonage building, and install a new parking lot in that area of the property. Currently, the developer is floating plans to turn the Parsonage into some kind of inn — but those plans were not submitted at this time.
For many who are familiar with the City’s plans to density and gentrify Northampton, it does not take a great stretch of the imagination to believe that Sunwood Builders could neglect the former St. Mary’s Church, and ultimately go before the Northampton Planning Board and Historical Commission, claiming that it would cost more to maintain the former church than to tear it down and build another new, vast, and incongruous-looking apartment building. It does not take a great stretch of the imagination to picture both the Planning Board and Historical Commission approving of and permitting such a plan.
Sunwood Builders already received approval from the Northampton Planning Board and Northampton Historical Commission for a permit to build this incongruous and towering apartment-and-restaurant structure at 3 Elm Street.
At the same time, no preservation restriction (in perpetuity, or of any kind) currently exists to protect the former magnificent and iconic St. Mary’s Church nor the beautiful Parsonage with its exquisite brickwork, in order to protect them from being demolished in the future by the developer.
The Northampton Historical Commission (NHC) granted the developer a permit for the project with only one condition: If the developer wants to add signage to the property, the developer must get the signage approved by the NHC beforehand. Clearly the NHC is worried about signage, but not about preserving the former church or parsonage!
In response, several abutters appealed the decision by the NHC to the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC). The PVPC then denied the abutters’ appeal and decided in favor of the developer. Consequently, the abutters decided to submit an appeal of the PVPC’s decision to the Northampton Superior Court.
Now, just before the abutters’ appeal has had a chance to get underway, the developer has only recently submitted a motion to the Judge to dismiss the abutters’ appeal completely. Fortunately, the Judge has agreed to an in-person hearing for this matter, rather than dismissing this case out of hand.
This case — if allowed to move forward — could potentially set a precedent for preserving notable historic structures in Massachusetts, and potentially elsewhere, as well.
Patrick C. Keely, the renowned architect who built St. Mary’s Church, built approximately 30 additional fine structures in Massachusetts in his lifetime. That is an incredible achievement. Only 3 other structures by Mr. Keely have been torn down in the Commonwealth. Many people do not want to see that happen to St. Mary’s and the Parsonage.
If preserving this aspect of Northampton’s historic heritage is important to you, please know that it is very important that the hearing for this matter be well attended. If the hearing is not well attended, we may very likely see the demolition of St. Mary’s and the Parsonage, as well as seeing a terrible precedent being set for the construction of monstrously enormous apartment buildings getting built in our downtown centers of Northampton and Florence.
The hearing details are as follows:
Thursday, October 30, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Northampton Courthouse
Use the Gothic Street entrance
Go through security
Go to 3rd floor
Courtroom 2
Please consider reading the pleadings in the attached PDFs for more information on the case.
If you can attend the hearing on October 30th, and share the news of the hearing with as many people you know who care about St. Mary’s and the Parsonage, that would be wonderful.
The abutters have put themselves on the line for the preservation of the former Church, Parsonage, and historic open space. They need our support at this time.
We hope for a very good turn out to show the Judge that people truly care about what happens in downtown Northampton, and that they care about its beautiful and notable historic landmarks — including 3 Elm Street.
Please share this information with as many folks as possible, so that the hearing on October 30th at the Northampton Courthouse is well attended by people who treasure our historic character in downtown Northampton.
If anyone has a Facebook account, could someone please post the details for the October 30th hearing at the Northampton Courthouse at 2:00 pm?
Thank you,
Sincerely,
Jacqui
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