NORTHAMPTON — For many employees and clients of Tapestry Health, the organization’s Northampton location stands as more than just an office space. It has grown into a site associated with safety, radical progress and overcoming adversity.
More than four decades after opening its doors on Center Street, Tapestry’s Northampton office will open in a new location at 76 Carlon Drive on Feb. 6.
“This is the end of an era in place that has been very important to the town,” said clinician Jenny Fleming, who has been with Tapestry since 1993. The office will close at its current site on Feb. 1.
On Friday, current and former staff gathered at the location to reconnect and say goodbye to the clinic location that has been operating since 1973 — the same year that the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that legalized abortion.
“It kind of represents everything Tapestry means,” Tapestry Chief Executive Officer Cheryl Zoll said of the office. “The history here, the various battles.
“The most important thing is just recognizing Tapestry started here in 1973, and it’s still here through many challenges,” Zoll added.
When Tapestry was first launched under the name Family Planning Council of Western Mass, the organization focused on providing low-income women with reproductive health care, offering its services on a sliding scale — a lifeline for the significant number of clients who lacked health insurance.
Since then, the organization, which changed its name to Tapestry in 1998, has expanded its services to accommodate various health needs, such as those arising from the HIV epidemic and opioid crisis, and serves over 13,000 clients each year.
Tapestry operates facilities across western Massachusetts, but the Northampton office is the only one that has been in its original location since the organization’s launch, making it “sort of a bedrock place,” according to Fleming.
Over time, the organization has weathered funding challenges and hostile political climates, Fleming said, including pressure from people who want Roe v. Wade overturned. While Tapestry does not perform abortions, the clinic provides options counseling.
An additional challenge came about when the state Department of Public Health issued new regulations that the current office space could not meet due to its structure, said Sydney Fortier, health services manager for Tapestry in Northampton, prompting the move.
For Fortier, the change of location is “bittersweet.” While the new office space will appear more like a traditional medical facility, Fortier said, she noted that many clients felt that Tapestry’s office space provided a more comfortable environment than most clinics.
“We’re happy to have some new things for everyone, but we’ll definitely miss being here,” Fortier said. “This clinic has really become a symbol.”
The gathering attracted a mix of about 70 current and former employees over the course of three hours, according to Fleming.
Former employee Jessica Austin, who worked at Tapestry from 2004 to 2008, was among those who stopped by to bid farewell to the old place.
“If you’ve worked at Tapestry, it really fills a special place in your heart,” she said.
“There’s something about it being in the heart of Northampton that speaks to the community,” she added, citing a vibrant, progressive character that she associated with both the clinic and the city.
Fleming attributed the event’s turnout to a sense of connection that she believes the organization’s mission fosters.
“When you work together on a vision that’s helpful and hopeful, you draw people into a connection that’s important,” Fleming said.
She added, “There’s a powerful sense of community that I think is something of an antidote for what’s going on in the wider world.”
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.