NORTHAMPTON — The city’s Historical Commission voted Monday night to support renovation plans saving former St. John Cantius church with $500,000 in Community Preservation Act funding.
The Commission also agreed — as part of the same 3-0 vote — to take on the responsibility of policing future work at the building should the project go through and the city have a permanent historic preservation restriction.
Owner O’Connell Development Group’s application now goes on to an as-yet-unscheduled fall meeting of the Northampton Community Preservation Committee and eventually the City Council.
“I think this is a great opportunity to make this building even better,” Historical Commission Chair Martha Lyon said. “But it has to be handled right.”
Also voting were yes were committee members Harvey Hill and Barbara Blumenthal.
The Historical Commission received more than 40 letters expressing opinions on the project, she said.
Built in 1913 by Northampton’s growing community of Polish Catholic immigrants, the building at 10 Hawley St. retains many decorative elements inside and out, said Mark Thaler of Lacey ,Thaler, Reilly, Wilson Architecture & Preservation in Albany, New York, who was hired by O’Connell to do a historic buildings report on the structure.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield closed the church at Hawley Street and Phillips Place as a place of worship in a wave parish consolidation in 2010.
The Diocese sold the property to Holyoke-based O’Connell in 2020 for $1.6 million for a townhouse development.
At first, O’Connell said they had plans to preserve the church building and put townhomes around it. But in 2021 O’Connell said COVID made that plan uneconomical and it filed a still-pending application to demolish the church.
The community rallied around the church and O’Connell came back asking for the $500,00 as part of a $4.6 million plan to build about 10 residences in the church.
Matthew Welter, vice president of development at O’Connell, said Monday the $500,000 would pay for exterior work on the building including a new roof and repointing the mortar on the exterior masonry to stop leaks.
Commissioners asked about using period-correct materials like the slate tiles on the roof now, or a facsimile.
We are dealing with, in this age, some severe supply chain issues and availability becomes a pressing issue,” Welter said “We would like to match, I think , the spirit of the work. But to understand that there are some market forces that are working against us.”
O’Connell would have to add more windows to the back of the church, where none exist now, in order for people to live in that space. But Welter said the new windows will match the style in the rest of the building.
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