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April 22-23 1995 Weekend Gazette by Laura Longsworth |
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| "Business area considers concept of historic square" EASTHAMPTON -Throughout much of this century, Cottaage Street was a thriving business center known as Nashawannuck Square where long-time residents remember politicians stopping to campaign, people lining up to see movies, and specialty shops selling everything from shoes to homemade candy. Today, some storefronts on the street still stand empty, the doors of the Majestic Theater are locked, and few shoppers wander the sidewalks. But business leaders like Mai Stoddard, who owns buildings on Cottage Street, are now trying to revitalize the area by making its past a vision of the future. "It was like a square, a center," said Stoddard, holding a colorized picture-postcard of Nashawannuck Square with trolley tracks stretching down the street, people lingering on the sidewalks in front of shops and horses and buggies serving as the mode of transportation. The transformation may take time, but it will begin in simple ways this weekend when volunteers plant pear trees and flowers and, in general, clean up the area. Also, Susan Pepin-Phillips, a member of the Economic Development Committee, said the guardrails on the northern end of Nashawannuck Pond -which she called "the entrance of Cottage Street" will be decorated with flower planters. There are long-term plans, too. Efforts are underway to bring new businesses to the area, improve buildings,and create more parking. The belief that new life can be breathed into Cottage Street is perhaps well-portrayed in a poster available through the newly formed Economic Development Committee meant to be hung in vacant stores. It reads: "This I building is not empty, it's full of opportunity." The committee would also eventually like to plant trees and put benches in the parking lot across from the Majestic Theater, said Pepin-Phillips. And the town is talking with I Chester Yamilkoski, owner of the lot and theater, about acquiring the lot for parking, according to Selectman Thomas Hamre. In addition to the posters that describe empty stores as opportunities, 8-by-4-foot murals depicting scenes of Easthampton -like Mount Tom reflected in Nashawannuck Pond -painted by students under the direction of fourth grade art teacher Dennis Campbell will soon be hung in empty windows this spring. For some, a new image of Cottage Street can be achieved, in part, by tidying up details. |
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