The long-empty Mohawk theater has been the talk of the town in North Adams lately. But what about all the other empty downtown storefronts or properties?
Kenny Rivera manages Pop's Variety Store on Marshall Street. When Man's World Styling Salon closed this year, Pop's moved in.
A corner storefront at Marshall and Main streets in North Adams is one of many that are empty downtown. "For sale" or "for lease" signs populate the windows of some properties there, where memories of crowded streets long have faded. The problem is layered, those in the business community say, from the challenge of increasing foot traffic to the high cost of renovating old buildings.
How downtown is doing, “It depends on what you remember,” said Keith Bona, owner of Berkshire Emporium & Antiques and a longtime city councilor. “I’ll get people who left in the '70s and they come back and say, ‘What happened to the downtown?’” he said. He chats with people who left in the '90s who say, "Wow, things look great."
Duncan Russell signed a five-year lease to avoid getting priced out of his space, Christo's Famous Pizza. “I see the potential in this area,” he said. “I think North Adams is going through this identity crisis. … Where do we go from here?"
Duncan Russell bought Christo's Famous Pizza on Holden Street after working at the business for a year.
Duncan Russell bought Christo's Famous Pizza after working in the shop, and he took over in November. “Eagle [Street] concerns me. It looks like dead space, unfortunately,” said Russell, who is new to the city.
Mark Moulton, an owner of Moulton’s Spectacle Shoppe on Main Street, wants to entice more museumgoers downtown. When people leave the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, “They don’t have a reason to come up here,” he said. “We need restaurants, we need the small shops.”
Jack's Hot Dog Stand has survived other difficult periods, such as the Great Depression and World War II, and still is standing.
Eagle Street has many empty storefronts, like Persnickety Toys, which was an anchor of the street's business community before it closed.
There is work to be done to inform visitors that there are shops on Eagle Street, says Jen Stevens, co-owner of The Bear and Bee.
Main and Eagle streets. From left are the Dowlin Block, the Mohawk Theater and Moulton's Spectacle Shoppe.
Gillian Jones
staff photographer
Gillian Jones has been a staff photographer and columnist for the Berkshire Eagle since 2014. She began her journalism career at The North Adams Transcript in 1992.
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Problems facing downtown North Adams are layered, those in the business community say, from the challenge of increasing foot traffic to the high cost of renovating old buildings. At the same time, new business have opened and there is potential movement on some empty properties, leaving some feeling optimistic.
