NORTHAMPTON — Thomas R. Benoit stood outside his old dormitory Saturday morning with his arms outstretched.
“It’s all gone,” he said, shaking his head. “All gone.”
Benoit, 69, lived in Rogers Hall for four years when he was a student at the former Clarke School for the Deaf. He stayed on the second floor. The building looked like a postcard, he said.
Fifty years later, the 1966 graduate drove from his home in Chicopee on Saturday to confirm what he saw on television that morning: The picture-perfect building had been consumed by flames the night before.
The former Clarke School building at 47-49 Round Hill Road was the site of a three-alarm fire Friday night that tore through the building. The blaze drew 20 on- and off-duty firefighters to the scene and raged until 4 a.m. Saturday, according to Northampton Deputy Fire Chief Tim McQueston.
Crews from Easthampton, Amherst, Holyoke, Williamsburg, Whately, Hatfield, Hadley and Southampton battled the blaze Friday night, according to a statement from the Northampton Fire Department.
By Saturday afternoon, McQueston deemed the property at 49 Round Hill Road a total loss. Two families were displaced from 47 Round Hill Road.
Investigators swarmed the scene and caution tape kept curious neighbors away from the wreckage.
The air was stale as firefighters sprayed water onto hot spots throughout the day Saturday. The building at 49 was charred and the roof had caved in. Piles of crumpled, ashy wood sat on either side of the front door.
Investigators have not found a cause or a point of origin, according to McQueston. The investigation was still underway Sunday night.
The two buildings at the address are joined by a connector. No. 49, the site of most of the damage, was vacant and under renovation to become an apartment building. No. 47 is a 22-unit apartment building that opened to tenants July 1. About half of the units are occupied, according to residents.
McQueston said the flames did not make it across the firewall into 47, but tenants may not return to their apartments because a quarter of the building was damaged by smoke and water.
According to McQueston, the Red Cross helped three displaced residents Friday night. Others found their own accommodations.
Paul Garbarini, of 32 Round Hill Road, praised the firefighters’ efforts as “valiant.” He wandered down the street Friday night to watch first responders battle the blaze. According to Garbarini, many neighbors stayed outside past midnight and watched the roof collapse.
The loud cracks of the building succumbing to the fire were like nothing he had ever heard before.
“It’s something I hope I never hear again,” Garbarini said. “There was the haze of the smoke, and there were all these fiery sparks shooting up. It shot right in the face of the guy on the ladder, and he didn’t waver.”
For Sam Hughes, of Specialized Construction in Southwick, the loss was personal. Hughes, who lives in Holyoke, is a subcontractor who has been working on the renovation since the spring.
“It’s an absolute tragedy,” Hughes said. “To see the amount of work put in by the architect, the engineer, the town planning commission, the historical commission, the contractor. To have it disappear in one night is absolutely devastating.”
Hughes called the building his “home away from home” because he and his team have spent so much time working there. Specialized Construction rebuilt the structure from the inside, installing 47-foot beams and cutting new stairwells. It was hard work, Hughes said, especially in the dog days of summer.
With the hard labor nearly complete, Hughes said he was looking forward to installing drywall in the building and adding final touches like trim and other carpentry work in the months ahead.
“You finish all the hard work on Thursday, and see it burn down on Friday,” Hughes said. “It’s really just shocking.”
According to Hughes, Crocker Builders is the lead contractor on the project. A representative from the company was not immediately available to comment Saturday.
The building is certainly a loss for developers and tenants, but it is also a historical loss for Northampton, according to John Bowman.
Bowman, a local historian, has lived in Northampton since 1978. He wrote a book about the history of baseball in Northampton with fellow resident Brian Turner. During his research, he said, he became particularly interested in the Round Hill School when he discovered its students played an early version of baseball there.
Soon, Bowman became fascinated by Round Hill Road itself, delving into its real estate history.
According to Bowman, the core of the scorched building at 49 Round Hill Road was built in the 1820s and has ties to the wealthy Shepherd family and historian George Bancroft.
“That building has a tremendous amount of history,” Bowman said.
Bowman’s research suggests the property was one of three houses built by the Shepherd family. It was rented and later sold to Bancroft to establish the short-lived Round Hill School. The Clarke School acquired the property years later and established Rogers Hall, named for Harriet B. Rogers, the first principal of the school. Additions were built to accommodate sleep-over students, but the old wooden frame of the Bancroft house remained, Bowman explained.
“At the center of Rogers Hall is what some at the Clarke School claimed was the only remaining part of the three original Shepherd houses,” Bowman said in an email. “This was the house that George Bancroft lived in while he was with the Round Hill School, and so the Clarke School called it the Bancroft Room.”
Because the building is a total loss, Bowman said he suspects the remnants of the Bancroft house are lost, too.