AMHERST — A long-vacant building that stood for generations in the center of Amherst and housed businesses ranging from a car dealership to retail stores, including the first Faces of the Earth shop, has been demolished.
Over the past week, a crew from Associated Building Wreckers Inc., of Springfield, has been leveling the nearly century-old 12,000-square-foot building at 159 North Pleasant St., situated behind Ren’s Mobil Service and next to the North Pleasant Apartments and the downtown post office. The building has been empty for about 15 years.
“The lot is being scraped clean,” property owner Richard Leader said Monday from his home in Laguna Niguel, California.
Leader said that he will soon put the now-vacant .57-acre parcel up for sale.
He is anticipating a quick transaction, noting there has been great interest over the years from developers interested in redeveloping the site. A permanent right of way exists from North Pleasant past Ren’s, he said.
With demands for housing evident in Amherst, and the mixed-use projects such as Kendrick Place, Boltwood Place and One East Pleasant increasing in popularity, Leader said he feels it is likely that the property will become home to a five-story project with residential units on the upper floors and some type of retail use on the street level.
A University of Massachusetts graduate in 1979, Leader said he has seen the town change for the better over the past 40 years, noting that the development is re-energizing the downtown.
He said there are numerous graduate students at UMass, as well as retirees in the area seeking to downsize, who like living in the center of town and within walking distance of restaurants and shops.
“I’m thrilled that someone will make a beautiful building on the site,” Leader said.
The building was built in 1920 as an auto dealership and Paige’s Chevrolet began on site in 1927. Gibson Chevrolet opened at the location after World War II, by which time a portion of the building was also being used as a bowling alley, as vehicle production was suspended during the war. Gibson Chevrolet eventually relocated to Dickinson Street, where it again became Paige’s Chevrolet in the 1970s and then Classic Chevrolet from 2002 until its closing in 2013.
Faces of the Earth opened in the old bowling alley in 1971 as a clothing boutique, gift shop, record store and head shop, closing in 1991 and merging with the Northampton store that had opened in 1986. For a time, a section of Faces was sublet to For the Record, a music store that later relocated to its own storefront across the street. The Salvation Army thrift store was at the site from 1992 to 2003.
Dorothy Hartman, who lives at the Arbors, said she remembers when her father ran Gibson Chevrolet. As a teenager in the late 1940s, Hartman worked in the office on the site.
She has seen the demolition taking place and looks forward to what’s next. “I am curious as to what might happen on that property,” Hartman said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
