John Sinton: Understanding history of a place important

I’m responding to Claudia Lefko’s March 13 column on the gloriously rich topic of placemaking [“Placemaking or unmaking place?”]. I applaud her appeal to imagine what Northampton will look like and contest her dour vision of the future.

Placemaking is what hundreds of us did when we joined together years ago to reimagine the downtown. That process has ended and implementation will begin with the blessing of thousands of us residents.

If you want to continue to imagine Northampton, I would urge you to immerse yourself in one more book, “Devil’s Den to Lickingwater: The Mill River Through Landscape and History,” which you can borrow from the library. Imagine Nonotuck before the Europeans; figure out how the original colonists laid out Northampton; watch the Mill River gurgling through the middle of town only to turn into a roaring flood; listen to the pounding of the tool factory coming from Paradise Pond; read about plans to create a Coolidge memorial greenway along the Mill River.

Now imagine the stench leaking from the 100-year-old sewerage as it overflows down Elm and Main. The more deeply you understand the history of a place, the richer will be your vision for its future. People have been reimagining this privileged perch on the Great River since Native Americans arrived thousands of years ago. I’m excited to see a better future unfold for us.

John Sinton

Florence