NORTHAMPTON — It has been called a “hall of tears” and a “hall of broken hearts.”
The Hampshire Probate and Family Court handles divorces, adoptions, name changes, guardianships and wills. Since the 1970s, the court has seen tears of both anguish and joy at its 33 King St. location. But soon, those family scenes will be playing out in a new setting, with more privacy for clients.
The court is moving to a newly constructed building at 15 Atwood Dr. The current plan is for the court to close its business on April 26 and move over the week end, opening up at its new location two days lat er.
“As our society changes, our court changes,” said Judge Linda Fidnick, who has presided over the court for the last eight years.
“It’s going to be a benefit to the court staff,” said Hampshire Register of Probate Michael Carey. “It’s going to be a benefit to the people who use this court.”
Over the years, the 33 King St. building, which once served as a parking garage, has seen its share of problems, such as water leaks from the windows and from the ceiling.
“When it rains outside, it rains inside,” said Fidnick of the leaks, which have been fixed, at least temporarily.
Parking has also been a problem, even affecting the judicial process, said Fidnick: “We literally take breaks in trials for people to go out and feed the meter.”
Additionally, the state has determined that the judge’s lobby is not adequately secure. And the 33 King St. building lacks a holding facility for prisoners. Fidnick has had to go across the street to 15 Gothic St., which houses Northampton District Court and Hampshire Superior Court, to hold hearings involving prisoners.
On the positive side, Fidnick said that the court’s current location is right in downtown Northampton and close to public transportation.
“We’re going to miss it because it’s a great location,” Fidnick said. “It’s the center of Northampton.”
The Massachusetts Trial Court made the call to move out of the King Street building, after first putting a rehabilitation plan into place in 2012. However, the court then determined that the state-owned building could not be properly rehabilitated while still occupied, and in 2015 the trial court put out a request for proposal for a new home for Hampshire Probate and Family Court.
Probate and Family Court will take up the entire first floor and parts of the second floor of the 15 Atwood Dr. building on the Atwood Professional Campus. All told, the court will occupy 22,000-square feet of the new space, which it will lease. Development Associates constructed the building based on plans provided by the trial court.
“It’s going to increase by one-third the space that we have now,” Carey said.
The new location will feature more than 150 parking spaces, as well as dedicated public transportation stops.
Fidnick said that the space’s two new courtrooms will be larger and “reflect the dignity of the process.”
Unlike 33 King St. with its infamous hallway, there will be conference rooms where attorneys can meet with their clients in privacy, as well as a bigger multipurpose room that can be used for educational programming.
The new space will feature 10 prints from the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, including one from “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.”
“They’re bright, they’re cheerful,” Fidnick said.
There also will still be pictures on the walls featuring children with parents, grandparents and other guardians.
“We wanted it to be a family-friendly environment,” she said, adding that the pictures are there to remind those in the court that “your children are your children forever.”
Among the people excited for the move is Acting Chief Probation Officer R.J. Waskiewicz.
“We’re thrilled,” he said, noting that the building on King Street has water leaks, beyond the ones that Fidnick and Carey cited, as well as an old phone system.
“Hampshire County deserves better,” Waskiewicz said. “They’re going to get better.”