GREENFIELD — Brian Knight Research, a Vermont-based historic preservation consultant, has been tapped to undertake the task of updating and adding to Greenfield’s historical inventories.
“Having this information is very useful to the city in determining how we can protect our historic properties,” said Planning and Development Director Eric Twarog, who is serving as the co-coordinator for the project with Historical Commissioner Margo Jones.
Following a competitive bid process, Brian Knight Research was awarded the contract to complete the review.
The information gathered during this process — funded by a matching $20,000 Massachusetts Historical Commission grant — will provide new and updated information for the Massachusetts Historical Commission inventory forms that were submitted in 1984. That grant funding is being matched by a Community Development Block Grant.
“That’s pretty dated,” Twarog said, referring to the review completed by Margo Jones in the 1980s. “We want to have an up-to-date inventory of historic and cultural resources.”
Specific project goals include conducting a community-wide survey to assess and document up to 140 selected cultural and architectural resources. The exact scope of the project is still to be determined, according to Twarog.
“[Brian Knight Research] will be doing some drive-bys and visiting properties in the coming weeks,” Twarog continued. Members of the firm will be carrying a letter of authorization for conducting the historical survey.
The review, in particular, will include downtown Greenfield, the Main Street Historic District, the East Main-High Street Historic District and the Green River Industrial Heritage Area — which consists of River, Mead and Deerfield streets.
Cultural resources are the physical elements in the landscape that remain from historical patterns of human activity, according to the city. Many components of a community’s historical development are associated with the location and type of surviving cultural resources. The community-wide survey relates cultural resources to historic patterns of architectural development, land use economic development, social and demographic history, and events that had an impact on the community.
The survey will also recognize ethnic and cultural diversity in the community and identify cultural resources associated with the history of underrepresented minority groups.
One of the goals of this project is also to update or add inventory forms associated with African American history in Greenfield, and reflect the role that the properties and their original occupants played in the community’s history.
Twarog said the contract between the city and Brian Knight Research goes through September 2024.
“As a result of [the review], we can come up with strategies of how to preserve our history, and possibly come up with a local historic district and preservation plan,” Twarog said. “The first step is inventorying everything.”
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne.