Should Northampton save St. John Cantius Church? That’s the $500,000 question.

St John Cantius, the Catholic Church on Hawley Street in downtown Northampton, was built in 1912 and consecrated in 1913. The large building, impressive in height and beauty, with a soaring campanile, is a superb example of medieval Italianate architecture The building is the significant feature of the Pomeroy Terrace National Historic District.

The Church served as a parish until 2010, when the Archdiocese of Springfield consolidated churches in Northampton and closed this one. In 2020, the archdiocese sold the parcel that included the church itself, the parish hall and the rectory to O’Connell Development Group for $1.6 million. O’Connell razed the parish hall and the rectory.

In the years since the church’s closing, many ideas have been floated, many proposals made, for the use of the former church. Those proposals have included a farmers’ market, a restaurant, a brew pub, an entertainment venue, a concert hall, a new (at the time) home for the Center for the Arts, a senior living center, restaurant, live-work space, affordable housing, the Resilience Center, and a tourist location, among others.

Unfortunately, for various reasons, none of these proposals turned out to be feasible or economically viable. Looming over the recent discussions and debate has been the possibility that O’Connell would tear down the church and construct high-end condos. Many believe that this was O’Connell’s plan all along.

If it was the plan, it has been thwarted. After much pushing and shoving and public protest and hearings, O’Connell has agreed to preserve the church and use the space to construct rental apartments. After building a second floor, there will be ten units, eight of about 800 square feet and two of about 1,400 square feet. The rent would be market rate.

There’s more. An historic preservation restriction written into the deed would require O’Connell and any future owner to preserve the building and its historic exterior in perpetuity regardless of cost. That obligation would include maintaining the building, its façade, the bell-tower and their historical and architectural integrity in conformity with the guidelines of the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

In exchange, the City would pay $500,000 of its Community Preservation Act funds to O’Connell. That amount is less than O’Connell’s initial proposal of

$830,000, but obviously it’s still a lot of money. The building needs significant immediate repairs, and the $500,000 would defray the cost but not cover it.

The amount of the payment to O’Connell is one ground for opposition. There are others. Because the project envisions only private rental apartments, the public benefit is restricted to the public’s appreciation of the building and its exterior. In addition, the proposal does not include any affordable housing. These objections should be weighed. But there are countervailing considerations.

Community Preservation Act funds can be used for four purposes. The first is historic preservation, as the initial purpose and title of the law make clear. The other purposes are community housing, open space preservation, and recreation. Some funds for those four different purposes are, in effect, segregated, and today $335,737 is held in an account earmarked for historic preservation. That $335,737 will cover most of the $500,000. The remaining $164,263 will come from general CPA funds, which are available and appropriately used for this purpose. There is no other competing extant or anticipated historic preservation proposal for this fiscal year. No affordable housing proposal will go unfunded or underfunded because of this expenditure for the church building.

Let’s be clear — this is not a perfect plan. The proposal would be better if the price tag were smaller, if it included affordable housing, if somehow there were public access to the interior space. That said, one entry on the other side of the ledger is that Northampton needs smaller rental residential units like these built downtown.

The reality, as I understand it, is that we are beyond the point where tinkering with the plan or more negotiation is possible. The Northampton Historic Commission and the Community Preservation Committee both unanimously have recommended approval of this project, and the final decision to approve or disapprove now goes to the City Council for an up-or-down vote on Thursday, October 6.

I am neither an historian nor an architect, and I have no religious or ethnic connection to St. John Cantius. I do, however, have enormous appreciation for older buildings of Northampton that give the city economic and cultural vibrancy and character and which connect the past and present for all of us.

A year or two from now I do not want to be walking downtown, perhaps with friends or family, past new upscale condos on Hawley Street and be moved to say, “Remember that spectacular church that stood here for 110 years?”

Yes, I know — I agree — the proposal could be better. But the better or the best should not be allowed to be the enemy of the good. The St. John Cantius Church building is unique and irreplaceable. For ourselves and our posterity, we should save it. I hope the City Council does.

Bill Newman, who lives and works in Northampton, writes a monthly column.