Ware Reconnaissance Report

Connecticut River Valley Reconnaissance Survey

Massachusetts Heritage Landscape Inventory Program

June, 2009

Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Franklin Regional Council of Governments

PROJECT TEAM

Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Richard K. Sullivan, Jr., Commissioner Joe Orfant, Director, Bureau of Planning & Resource Protection Patrice Kish, Director, Office of Cultural Resources Wendy Pearl, Director, Historic Landscape Preservation Initiative Jessica Rowcroft, Preservation Planner, Heritage Landscape Inventory Program

Regional Partners & Project Consultants Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Bonnie Parsons, Principal Planner, Manager of Historic Preservation Programs Anne Capra, Principal Planner, Land Use Jim Scace, Senior Planner/GIS Specialist

Franklin Regional Council of Governments Margaret Sloan, Director of Planning & Development Melissa Adams, Land Use Program Manager Kimberly Noake MacPhee, Natural Resources Planner Patricia Smith, Land Use Planner Ryan Clary, GIS Specialist

Local Project Coordinator Paul Hills, Ware Community Development Department

Local Heritage Landscape Participants Michele Barker, Preservation Massachusetts Cynthia LaBombard, Ware Historical Bill Barman Society Julie Bullock, Ware Historical Society Linda LeDuc, Palmer Town Planner John Carroll, Ware Parks Diane Moriarty Chris DiMarzio, Ware Planning Board Michael Moriarty Melissa Fales, Ware River News Judi Mosso, Ware Community Development Chris Hamel, The Republican Scott Mosso Aaron Kent Sheila Nevue, Ware Conservation Donald Kent Commission Martha Klassanos, Ware Conservation Denis Ouimette Commission and Open Space Comm. Martha Rohan, Ware Historical Society Carol Zins

INTRODUCTION

Heritage landscapes are special places created by human interaction with the natural environment that help define the character of a community and reflect its past. They are dynamic and evolving, reflect the history of a community and provide a sense of place. They show the natural ecology that influenced land use patterns and often have scenic qualities. This wealth of landscapes is central to each community’s character, yet heritage landscapes are vulnerable and ever changing. For this reason it is important to take the first step toward their preservation by identifying those landscapes that are particularly valued by the community – a favorite local farm, a distinctive neighborhood or mill village, a unique natural feature or an important river corridor.

To this end, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and its regional partners, the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG) and the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC), have collaborated to bring the Heritage Landscape Inventory program to twelve communities in the Connecticut River valley region of Massachusetts. The goals of the program are to help communities identify a wide range of landscape resources, particularly those that are significant and unprotected, and to provide communities with strategies for preserving heritage landscapes.

Connecticut River Valley Heritage Landscape Inventory Project Area

The communities within the Connecticut River valley region of Massachusetts are diverse in their settlement patterns and economic histories. What they hold in common is a foundation built on agriculture that was carried out in communities traversed by a series of major waterways and tributaries, from the Connecticut River to the Deerfield, Sawmill, Green, Millers, Quaboag, Swift, Mill and Ware Rivers. This region contains significant cultural and historic resources and uncommon natural beauty. For some of the communities, industry developed alongside agriculture, so that today the heritage landscapes reflect both agrarian and industrial pasts while providing recreational and educational opportunities. From scenic town commons and natural areas, to civic buildings and burial grounds, the heritage landscapes within the region collectively tell the story of their varied and often complex history.

Methodology The methodology for the Heritage Landscape Inventory program was developed in a pilot project conducted in southeast Massachusetts. It is outlined in the DCR publication Reading the Land, which has provided guidance for the program since its inception. In summary, each community organized a heritage landscape identification meeting during which residents and town officials identified and prioritized the natural and cultural landscapes within town that embody the community’s unique character. This meeting was followed by a fieldwork session led by the project team, including the local project coordinator and staff of FRCOG or PVPC, accompanied by interested community members. During the fieldwork session the Priority Heritage Landscapes were assessed and opportunities for preservation were explored and discussed. The final product for each community is an individualized Heritage Landscape Reconnaissance Report. This report outlines the community’s landscape history, describes the priority heritage landscapes along with associated opportunities, issues, and recommendations, and concludes with implementation strategies.

PART I: HERITAGE LANDSCAPE INVENTORY

Ware River from Covered Bridge, 2009.

LOCAL HISTORY The town of Ware is located east of the Connecticut River valley. The towns of Palmer and Warren form its south boundaries, West Brookfield, and New Braintree form its eastern boundary. Hardwick, Petersham and New Salem make up its northern boundary, and Belchertown is on its western boundary. The northern third of the town is occupied by the land and water of the Quabbin Reservoir.

The history of the establishment of the town is almost as complicated as its borders, as it began in 1713 as a large tract, known as the “Equivalent Lands”, from which sections were split off on all sides until what remained was incorporated as the Town of Ware in 1761. When the Quabbin Reservoir was created in 1927 portions of Enfield and Greenwich were annexed.

The first known Native Americans in the area were the Quabaugs, a part of the larger group known as the Nipmucs, who came to the Ware River falls for fishing in the spring. They are thought to have used the Swift River and local brooks for fishing camps as well, and to have raised crops seasonally on the fertile river banks. The Quabaugs remained in the area for decades after the first arrival of Europeans, which began in 1729. The western section of Ware was settled after 1729 on a non-traditional, sharecropper-like basis. Bostonian John Read leased his ten thousand acres of land, which he called “Manour of Peace” to poor settlers in 87 ½-100 acre lots and allowed them to stay as long as they could pay their rent. When he died in 1749, the land went to his heirs and was sold off to the tenants.

The eastern section of the area began to be settled in the 1730s as settlers bought land from a land speculation company known as Thomas Marsh and Company. Both of these settlement patterns meant that there was not a single focus of settlement in the town, but a dispersed pattern of ownership. When the first Ware Center meetinghouse was built ca. 1748, it became the town’s civic center. Part of the meetinghouse lot was set off as a cemetery, and a stone pound was added in 1762 and replaced in 1788.

Although Ware was initially an agricultural town, the presence of the Ware and Swift Rivers, and Beaver Brook meant that industrial development in the form of mills powered by water had an early start. The Ware River attracted the Ware Manufacturing Company as early as 1821 and from this time the section of east Ware on the river became the commercial and cotton textile manufacturing center of the town. During this period, agriculture and manufacturing co-existed. The second Ware Center meetinghouse was built in 1799. It was surrounded by agricultural land that was dominated by dairy farms.

Ware Center ca. 1875. In Ware Village new mills were begun, adding the Otis Manufacturing Company and the Hampshire Manufacturing Company. Workers for the mills came from neighboring towns, but a quarter of them were immigrants who came from Ireland, England, Germany and Canada. They worked in the mills in textile manufacture, and making shoes and boots, and - in small shops and their homes – making palm leaf and straw hats

The railroad spurred manufacturing and a doubling of Ware’s population from the 1840s. The textile companies grew and took on more laborers so that by 1880 more than a third of the town’s population came from Canada, Poland, Ireland, England and Austria. Workers’s housing was built near the mills in neighborhoods of frame and brick row houses. Commercial buildings had begun to develop in Ware Village in the 1820s but developed more rapidly on Main Street after the 1840s-50s. While some of the early buildings remain on the south side of the street, on the north side outstanding commercial buildings in Queen Anne and Revival styles have all been lost. Nenameseck Park was laid out in 1844 when a large tract of land set aside by the Ware Manufacturing Company in the village in the 1820s was sold by its successor Company. Rather than a large town common, one parcel from the sale was set aside as park land. The cast iron fence was put up in 1850.

After a fire burned the first town hall, a new Town Hall went up in 1885 to designs by the Boston architects Richardson and Hartwell; the Ware Young Men’s Library designed by Springfield architect Eugene Gardner was built for young men mill workers in 1873. St. Mary’s church was built in 1888. On Church Street the Congregational Society Chapel was built in 1881 and the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1897 by the architectural firm Eugene Gardner formed prior to 1897, Gardner, Pyne and Gardner.

Methodist Episcopal Church, now vacant, with Otis Co. mill housing in the background, 2009.

Ware Village was a densely occupied area of mill housing, mills, commercial blocks, churches and other buildings by the turn of the century. Then in 1907 the Town received its first park when the Grenville Gilbert family donated land for Grenville Park on the Ware River.

Grenville Park with Ware mills in the background, ca. 1915.

At the same time, entertainment came to Park Street when the Casino Theater was built ca. 1906 as a vaudeville theater. It was moved to its current location on Main Street in 1913 and made the transition to movies in the 1920s.

During World War I open space in Grenville Park was planted in vegetable gardens and the mills employed more than 2,500 people producing wool and cotton textiles, so this was a time of concerted community effort.

Ware River Dam from Bridge Street, postcard ca. 1920. Ware River Dam from Bridge Street, 2009 photograph by C. Dunphy.

Main Street looking east, postcard ca. 1940. Main Street looking east, 2006, photograph by C. Dunphy.

While Ware Village was acting as a manufacturing mecca, the farms of Ware Center were producing cheese, butter and eggs at a high rate. Farming remained a factor in the town’s economy well into the 20th century. Creation of the Quabbin Reservoir in the 1920s took up many farmsteads in the northern section of town, however, and farming began to decline.

Competition with textile mills in the southern states and some misjudgments on the part of mill owners led to the closing of the mills in Ware. The Otis Company sold off a section of its manufacture in 1927 and closed in 1937. After the flood of 1938 Ware’s economy was in a severe depression, so a group of mostly Ware residents got together and invested in the town to revitalize it. With the motto “The Town that couldn’t be licked” they bought up mill housing, so that the people who were renting it could buy and have equity in the town. They got the Ware Bank back on its feet and attracted new textile industries to the mills. The group of investors was successful in its enterprise until after World War II when the new industries went south and with them the jobs that had been created. The Otis Company mills have since had commercial and light industrial uses; other mill buildings are vacant.

Otis Company Mills, Main Street, 2006, photograph by C. Dunphy.

Today Ware is a town whose population mainly commutes elsewhere to work (66%). The presence of the Quabbin Reservoir gives Ware a high percentage of undeveloped land in its borders and a scenic resource of great value. The town has 25,459 acres, 16,575 of which are undeveloped. More than 1,800 acres are in agriculture and 2,600 acres are residential.

E P

ha Ch

f e L e S

ok H A A L

M E

C a d w

e l l T C

r E e e E k R T

T T

W M

T L

R A

E S

C W E

S L E T Ware-Hardwick

S T E N R Covered Bridge E E T B AD RO d K K n IS o P F

k c i w K d r a H C Q U A B B I N D I A R E S E R V O I R k O o

o R r D B

TYLE

R E t W V a IL l E S F

KIT D

CHEN ROA D D E

O R

R A

N N

W C

O D

I A A A T

T R M R OAD O

A KE H E I P R

R D E N B D T I N N E N S B

I L O F B I L P N I I E A HARDWICK L U R M W D Q O D ROAD A A A R D R E O RN AD E O BO E F OS N A OF R R D O B N S B O

ROA E D D IK A N D O BI R D B E A O A QU L LD L O I V R T P R R R O R E E LEE B O O T G A IL R S R D G

B E F D D D E A A E L

R O N W O R are Wa W M S

I R C D

R E

H A L O R IL O i A v M P R e L D AI r NS H

C R I WINDSOR O D A D W A D M A N R O O E AD R

E E E F

N R l a

R G t

B O

r B o

o S k O F k S

I o

S O o r

H R

E D E y

d R A L d

D u O

I M R C O

K A D E

D A L

L O I

R V

O D T R R k A A R Ware E o O

D o E T R r

Y B S B R H L r I B E I V e D Rail Trail v E E A G E a H

R W O S

B N R R O Ware Center with O R W W T A H D O L D S Breckenridge S A T N O R I R E W E D and Rich Farms T R R A E ND ST O K d IGHLA R R L H EE K A T

Pon R

W A T P E E ow E L n L S R I D T V B A T RE E T S N E O HI E L D S E E C OA R RK R C N E E R E H O E B H L G T R C F LE E S IRC C T R E C R R S U T E Y E I H O O L H C N C W G S P E R E L S N A E P Grenville O R E A O S S A H A R N A D O T A S Park D TR EE T T King B rook E E S Beaver R T C La k e S Z AST Y B E G E A T T I E S E V E E L E R L S T R S P w R A i T R f O S M t E O

R A W i D A v R F D e D l I a A D C r V t T A O A O E B E r R O Y R N D o E WEST D o R H D D R R U k E L E I T L O G R L L L U S A A A S L O I R K O D N G H V O E N R T I A R O U D D BROOKFIELD R

O O R B O N A B S E D A O

D A I R D D N A P O S R RO N N BE AD R AV E ER WARREN V k L A o A M T o K r E A R

K K B

L r O C e B

v A O O M a O e D RI C E A B

R B TY U

R A O D F B A AD O R R O ER M A AL D P D A

O O R L k AD N o D E o H RO r AT R B N SHADY P R y TOW D A n ER A O n LCH W

E O e B N P R T

S e i

W E l

a B re R W r ive o r o B k Ware ACON RO AD R Downtown E Village

D B A N A CO M O N R R E O L E E L A L D I A R V S D P R N O B A

ROAD Ware Y W LL KE Rail Trail

S t

r J ab e i e sh t

To wn of Town of Ware Ware, MA Heritage Landscape Inventory Project, Connecticut River Valley

00.510.25 Miles

Historic Landscapes Map Sources: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, 2009. Permanently Protected Open Space Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation, Massachusetts Highway Department, and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and the Environment, MassGIS.

Funding:

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and the Environment Department of Conservation Resources

PRIORITY HERITAGE LANDSCAPES In a public meeting on January 15th, a diverse group of public officials and residents met to select the Town’s heritage landscapes. They drew up a list of fifty-five landscapes and from them selected a priority list of eight heritage landscapes. The priority landscapes are as follows:

Grenville Park; Ware Downtown with Common, Town Hall, Library, and Casino Theater; Ware Center Historic District; Ware-Hardwick Covered Bridge; Breckenridge-Rich Farm; Ware River Rail Trail.

Grenville Park

Grenville Park on Ware River, photograph C. Dunphy. Grenville Park is a one hundred and five-acre park that stretches about a mile in length along Church Street and extends east to and across the Ware River where fifteen of its acres are located. The Park’s main entries are on Church and Park Streets through masonry gateposts. The north end of the park is a landscape of woodland and open fields with stone walls. A paved road circles the main hill that dominates the north end and walking paths follow along the banks of the river and through the woodland and fields. The southern end of the park is devoted to playing fields and active recreation.

The park was donated to the Town in 1907 by Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Grenville Gilbert, descendents of George H. Gilbert, the woolen mill owner whose mills were in Ware and Hardwick. The landscape architect who designed the park was the well-known Arthur A. Shurtleff. Until the Quabbin Reservoir and watershed was created with areas open to the public, Grenville Park was the only park in Ware. In the past weekly band concerts were held here from the bandstand.

Opportunities: • Grenville Park in the center of Ware is a well-used park with access to the Ware River, fields, paths, picnic areas and playing fields.

• The Park is in municipal ownership and operated under a Park Commission with the support of a Trust established by the donors.

• The Park is part of the Church Street Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Church Street entrance to Grenville Park, ca. 1907. Issues: • Town budget cuts have hampered the Park Department so that there is no long- term program for landscape restoration or maintenance beyond routine mowing, leaf raking, and picking up blow-downs. The Park Department is working with reduced supplies.

• There has been some illicit dumping of bulky waste in the river area.

• The bandstand needs repair work and clay tennis courts need restoration work to be useable.

Recommendations:

1. The Town should consider developing a public/private partnership to plan and advocate for the park, to provide volunteer labor and funding support. The Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Terra Firma publication “New Models of Stewardship: Public/Private Partnerships” provides critical information on partnerships and provides successful models from across Massachusetts.

2. The Town should develop a master plan for the park so that it has a valid program to engage partners and a plan for the future that can be used to help prioritize capital project needs.

3. The Town could consider working with local musicians to develop a music-in- the-park program to benefit the park and raise awareness of its needs.

4. As a property listed ion the National Register, it is eligible to apply for a Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund grant to pay for work identified through the master plan process. If the community passed the Community Preservation Act, these funds could be used to provide the necessary matching funds.

L D

G D

I A L

B O

E R

R W E E T

A L V L L I I T L V L E T

E R R E R D B

O R L I A I

V G D

AND STREET HIGHL

D T A E E O R R T S STONYPOINTD RIV H E C RK R A U P H C E L

T IL E V Grenville Park

E N

R E

T R

S G

H H

T E WALNUT ST R

U R EE O

N T

V A

H H T I M S

P C R OT OS TA PE GE CT S S TR TR E HI E ET GH ET ST RE ET T E T E E R E T P S R R PA E T R P N K A T D S AV R E T IV K K E K E S I N S L N U R A L

T E E A E T B R S R

E O

E A P E D LE T IN AS T P AN E

T E S L

T R A R T E N

E S T A C R Ware OSS AVENUE Downtown Village T M E OR E SE R AVE T NU T S E E T E T E M X E S M R A P O R E A T L T L P E N S P L S K A STREET M E H

C C A T I V

U N E N

A O U

H D S EM E EET C ON STR E D ELM ST M RE ET

Grenville Park PVPC_309_1 To w n o f Town of Ware, Massachusetts, Ware, MA Heritage Landscape Inventory Project, Connecticut River Valley

0 1,000 Feet

Historic Landscape Map Sources: Other Historic Landscapes Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, 2009. Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation, Massachusetts Highway Department, Permanently Protected Open Space and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and the Environment, MassGIS.

Funding:

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and the Environment Department of Conservation Resources

Ware Downtown with Common, Town Hall, Library, and Casino Theater

Downtown Ware in 1940s, Town Hall (l) Casino Theater (R), looking west.

Downtown Ware began as a mill village in the late 18th century and developed as Ware’s commercial center over the 19th and 20th centuries. For the purposes of this report “Downtown Ware” will refer to the commercial and institutional strip along Main Street, and “Ware Village” will refer to the greater area that encompasses mills, mill housing, water power structures and single-family housing.

Ware Village by the 1820s was beginning to compete with Ware Center, situated further west, as the town’s true center. The shift was given form in the 1820s when the Ware Manufacturing Company set aside a block of land between Pulaski and Main Streets to act as a town “common”, but the Company did not actually deed it to the Town. When the Ware Manufacturing Company’s successor firm closed in 1837 the common was split up into building lots and to a small piece of land that was donated to Ware. That small piece of land became Nenameseck Park in the 1850s when the Village Improvement Society spruced it up with a cast iron fence and tiered fountain. Although much reduced Nenameseck Park became the de facto common in the sense that it is regarded as a civic landscape by town residents. A town hall was constructed in Ware Village in 1848, and by the 1850s, its primacy was established. Single-family homes of moderate and well-to- do residents were being built up Church Street, Pleasant and Chestnut Streets in the Greek Revival style. The Unitarians (1846), the Baptists (1846) and the Catholics (1855) built churches in the village and commercial buildings were appearing on Main Street in larger number. The Corn Exchange Building at 80 Main Street built ca. 1847 in Greek Revival style is one of the remaining examples.

As the mills grew in number and size, mill workers’s housing went up on Pulaski Street, Otis Street, Grove, Pine, and Cherry Streets, among others. Housing was an important strategy to attract and keep workers. Single-family houses in the Italianate, French Second Empire and Queen Anne styles were built on available lots on side streets.

Mill Workers’s Housing, Grove Street, and upper canal, photograph C. Dunphy.

Ware’s mill companies built a canal system that directed the Ware River into the water wheels and turbines of the mills along its banks, and they constructed dams to regulate water flow to assure year round power source. The system of canals, dams, sluices, and raceways are critical visual and auditory features of the Ware Village landscape providing much of its historic character.

Meanwhile, Main Street filled in as a commercial center. Sandford’s Block 40-44 Main Street was built beside Nenameseck Park in 186, and rows of four-story brick buildings were built on each side of the street. Those of the north have since been lost to demolition and fire, but on the south side of the street 54-58 Sagendorph’s Block; 60-64 Lawton’s Block; and 66-70 Build’s block, all built in the 1870s, still fill much of Main Street. The Unitarian Church (now largely demolished and the remains altered beyond recognition) in 1868 and a new Town Hall in 1885 both in Romanesque Revival anchored the west end of the Center. The Ware Young Men’s Library in Ruskinian Gothic style in 1881 anchored the east end of the downtown. As buildings were lost others took their places in succeeding styles. The Casino Theater in 1913 was moved to Main Street to add a Mission style to the Downtown. In 1939 a new fire station by Greenfield architect James A. Britton was constructed on Main Street in the Colonial Revival style.

Young Men’s Library and East Congregational Chapel, both 1881, Gardner, Pyne & Gardner, architects.

In the 1950s an impulse to modernize brought new storefronts to some of the old buildings, which have become, in some cases, part of the historical record of downtown.

19th century commercial blocks with 1950s storefronts, 2008.

Opportunities: • Ware Village has retained many of its historic 19th century buildings and a park that give it a unique character.

• The work of several important Massachusetts architectural firms is found in Downtown Ware. Eugene Gardner as solo architect, and also as a member of the firm Gardner, Pyne and Gardner; Hartwell and Richardson; E. A. Ellsworth; and Gay and Proctor are all represented on Main Street.

• The Downtown and surrounding streets the make up the village contain a mix of commercial, civic, industrial, residential and religious buildings reflective of the town’s complex history. They contain important structures such as dams, canal, sluiceways, and bridges that contribute to the town’s history.

• The Ware River is a beautiful landscape element passing through Ware Village, and it contributes clean energy, hydro-electricity to the Massachusetts grid.

• The Library is planning to expand into the Congregational Chapel, thereby preserving that building.

Issues: • The economy of Ware’s commercial and industrial downtown has been faltering for several decades, so that many of the buildings, structures and landscapes receive mostly rudimentary care.

• The use of vinyl siding and vinyl replacement windows is having a detrimental effect on the appearance many of the historic residential buildings of the area.

• Nenameseck Square’s cast iron fencing has been struck so many times by trucks that it has lost entire fencing sections, which have not been replaced. At this point in time, the town cannot afford a signal that would be a solution to the truck turning problem.

• The mill buildings are under-utilized, which is a threat to their long-term viability.

• The downtown lost a significant building, the Unitarian Church, to a private owner who slowly demolished it and put up an inappropriate wood screen façade.

• The future of Catholic Church properties is uncertain and may be slated for closing in the near future.

• The Casino Theater may be condemned as unsafe due to its long vacancy and structural deterioration.

• The former Methodist Church, now vacant, may be put up for auction.

Casino Theater, Main Street, 2009.

Recommendations:

1. Ware should consider adopting an Adaptive Reuse Zoning for the village, which would expand the allowed uses or densities in the under-utilized mills, vacant churches, and school buildings. This is a way to encourage new uses and rehabilitation for these important buildings.

2. Ware Village should be put on the National Register of Historic Places as an historic district of mill buildings, mill housing, commercial buildings, a park, water power structures, civic and institutional buildings, and single-family residences.

3. Ware might adopt an Affirmative Maintenance Bylaw, which would strengthen its ability to mandate that owners take positive action to stabilize and secure their buildings so that they may not demolish them by neglect.

4. A second important bylaw for the Town to adopt would be a Demolition Delay bylaw based on the age of buildings. It would enable the Town to attempt to find

alternative solutions to the demolition of buildings that it considers architecturally and historically significant. A 12-18 month period of delay is recommended.

5. Ware’s workers’s housing areas could be designated as Architectural Preservation Districts. This designation would set up a review of additions, major alterations, demolitions and new construction that is visible from the public way. It could not proceed without approval. However, minor changes to the exterior such as windows, siding, doors and gutters, would be subject only to an advisory review, but give the owner an opportunity to consider alternative materials, alternative alterations under the guidance of the Architectural Preservation District Commission.

6. Ware should adopt the Community Preservation Act (CPA) to act as matching funds for matching grant programs such as the Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund, for Survey and Planning Grants from the Massachusetts Historical Commission. The CPA would also allow the town to fund preservation work on important privately-owned properties or to purchase preservation restrictions on privately-owned properties that it wants to see preserved.

7. Adaptive Reuse and Infill Development Zoning could be applied to the Ware Downtown. It would promote back-lot parking, mixed uses, compact development, dimensional and parking relief as a means of encouraging additional and new uses in the commercial district.

8. Ware might consider enacting a Planned Unit Development District to cover the mills and downtown as a PUD District. Future development of buildings in the district would be reviewed for its suitability for the district; and if it is suitable, incentives are given that could be greater density, wider variety of allowable uses, and of dimensional requirements. It is a voluntary submission for review.

9. Downtown Ware could be designated a Village Center Overlay District. It would require a review of new construction for its impact on the existing historic area. In return new development could have parking requirements waived or reduced, and flexible set-backs that would accord with the historic set-backs. Mixed uses would be encouraged.

CO TT AG T ES E PR TR E O E S ET R PE T CT S ST N N R E D E E T A P O S R A K K R H A IG H P T S E TR L E EE IL E T V R N

T T E E R S P AR E G H H K R A T T V E S R NU O E H C N R U H T T T E E P C LE E P E E A E A R T S T EE R A R R TR N S S T T K Y T S DD S T S

E R S E K R R E

E T T N E N

R I A

K E P B

R E

A T

AIN STREET EST M W T M E AIN E S R TR T E S ET L L E A A S N T A EET C R PU S T LA T S SK R ST I E E STRE E W ET T Ware Downtown Village

T E E R T S M A P LE X X O S N T T R K S T E E E T E LE R P A MO T M N S ROE S H TRE ET T T U E

O E

S R

ET T T E ELM STR E E E

E M M R R A T I T S L S L I

C C

I W T U N N A

T H

S C E

E H C M

Ware Downtown Village PVPC_309_2 To w n o f Town of Ware, Massachusetts, Ware, MA Heritage Landscape Inventory Project, Connecticut River Valley

0 1,000 Feet

Funding:

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and the Environment Department of Conservation Resources

Ware Center

Ware Center 1799 meetinghouse.

Ware Center is on Route 9 in the western section of Ware. Its location on both sides of Route 9 is explained by the fact that the state route was originally the Hadley Path, laid out about 1660 as a branch of the Bay Path connecting Boston to Albany through Springfield. As the major transportation route, when a location for the meetinghouse was sought, this was a logical place. Ware Center became the Town’s original religious and governmental center when the first meetinghouse was built in 1750 after the new parish of Ware was established in 1742. The Ware Grange building, formerly a schoolhouse, which is pictured below, was built next door to the meetinghouse in 1872.

Ware Grange, 2009. Ware Grange, ca. 1903. Rev. Ezra Thayer came to the church in 1758 and the following year the Thayer house was built on Belchertown Road, a Georgian saltbox-form house.

Rev. Ezra Thayer House of 1759.

Following the minister’s house, an animal pound was built in 1762 and replaced in 1788. It still exists. Other properties on Belchertown Road that make up historic Ware Center are the Pepper-Gould Tavern, ca. 1780, which was built just west of the first schoolhouse,

Pepper-Gould Tavern, ca. 1780. the Isaac Stearns House, ca. 1800, the Rev. Reuben Moss House, ca. 1792, the second Church parsonage of 1826, the John Gardner House, ca. 1800 and among others, the Brackenridge shop site on Flat Brook, pre-1850. The Babcock Tavern, the Sophia Jocelyn House, the Perry Cheever/Julius Cowles House and the Gould and Gardener houses on the south side of the highway have farmland extending south that is an important part of the Center. The Ware Center Cemetery has 18th century stones of identified carvers along with 19th century stones.

Isaac Stearns House, ca. 1800.

But the historic Center extends beyond Route 9 north along Doane Road that becomes Walker Road to include the historic farms that made up the Center: the Szczepanek Farm with it Federal Cape Cod form house, and at the crest of the hill, the 1792 Breckenridge- Rich farm, a two-and-a-half story center chimney Federal style house.

Breckenridge-Rich Farm, ca. 1770.

Opportunities: • The Ware Center Historic District has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

• The Ware Center Meetinghouse has received a Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund grant and has restored much of the exterior of the building.

• The historic farms in the Center have retained their farmlands so the landscape of this area retains its rural, agricultural use. There are additional farms cited in the master list of heritage landscapes in Ware Center, which make up the farming area of Ware.

• Ware Center residents are preservation-conscious and have maintained their properties well. The Breckenridge-Rich House has been carefully restored. It has a barn moved to its property from inundated land beneath the Quabbin Reservoir.

Issues: • The privately-owned Grange building is threatened with demolition. It needs bathrooms and to be made handicapped accessible to be useable.

• Large stones have been dumped into the Town Pound.

• The cemetery stones and landscape as a whole need protection and restoration work, and houses have been built in front of the cemetery blocking visual access to it.

• The privately-owned meetinghouse does not have the funding to complete its restoration work.

• A developer has bought 60-70 acres of farmland on several sides of the Breckenridge-Rich house, and plans a residential subdivision. Development

could threaten the historic landscape that makes up much of the setting of this property.

• The Szczepanek farm is threatened with foreclosure and may be broken up and sold for development. The other farms listed in the master list are also privately owned and not protected.

• Greenwich Plains Road, which is part of the Center, was not included in the Historic District boundaries.

Recommendations: 1. A boundary extension of the Ware Center Historic District should be made to include the houses and land up Doane, Greenwich Plains, and Walker Roads to include the Breckenridge-Rich Farm and Szczepanek Farm.

2. The Town should consider adopting Open Space Residential Development zoning for Ware Center including Doane and Walker Road properties. This would give the Town the opportunity to direct new construction and development to areas in the landscape that would be less visible in order to maintain the rural agricultural appearance of this heritage landscape. The developer would, in exchange, get incentives such as the ability to develop to a greater density.

3. An alternative would be to adopt a Transfer of Development Rights bylaw with Doane and Walker Roads as a “sending” zone. An appropriate “receiving” zone for higher density development needs to be identified.

4. The Town should adopt the Community Preservation Act (CPA) so that it would have a source of preservation funding for such projects as removing the boulders from the Town Pound, for acquisition of an historic building such as the Grange or for purchase of preservation restrictions on the building.

5. Ware should have an age-based Demolition Delay Bylaw to help protect its historic resources by allowing 12-18 months for the Town to find alternatives to demolition.

6. The town might consider enacting Open Space Development Zoning, so that much of the agricultural land and historic development patterns of Ware Center could be preserved.

7. Ware should consider designating Doane and Walker Road a Scenic Road, which would provide a review before trees were taken down or stone walls altered. This would help protect the historic appearance of the road.

8. The Town of Ware should empower its Agricultural Commission to advocate for the farmers of Ware and to represent their needs at local and regional levels.

9. The Town should work with the owners of agricultural land in the Ware Center Historic District and those on Greenwich Plains Road and those contiguous with the historic district to consider placing the land in Chapter 61A protection or to place Agricultural Preservation Restrictions on this important landscape in the town.

10. Several of the Town Commissions, the Cemetery Commission, the Department of Public Works, and the Historical Commission, should be trained in proper maintenance of the landscape and repair of historic cemetery stones, so that when repairs are made they are done with the recommended techniques. For stones that have been improperly repaired in the past, it would be important to have a professional stone conservator redress the damage.

O SB OR NE R O A D

R D W W A O O G L R S R R N E E I K E W L N A

W W

F N I H S S O H W E A

RO R R D D I ROAD CK A

R O A D D A O R

E E Ware Center with N A O Breckenridge D and Rich Farms

N ROAD ERTOW BELCH

D A O R RN VE TA K K C O C B A B

D N A D O E R R

N N S

D A O

A G N

U O

R R O D D

A L

D U

G Ware Center with Breckenridge and Rich Farms PVPC_309_3 To w n o f Town of Ware, Massachusetts, Ware, MA Heritage Landscape Inventory Project, Connecticut River Valley

0 1,000 Feet

Funding:

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and the Environment Department of Conservation Resources

Ware-Hardwick Covered Bridge

Ware-Hardwick Covered Bridge Interior, looking west, 2009. The Ware-Hardwick covered bridge is located on the Ware River and spans between the two towns in the north section of Ware on Old Gilbertville Road in Ware and Bridge Street in the village of Gilbertville in Hardwick. Gilbertville in Hardwick is named for the Gilbert Company, which was owned by Grenville Gilbert of Ware. Gilbertville has been identified by the Town of Hardwick as a high priority heritage landscape, and also had concerns about this bridge as a part of that landscape.

The bridge was built in 1886 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. In recent years the bridge has been closed as it was considered by Massachusetts Highway Department not to be up to current structural standards. Structural reinforcement is planned in the form of steel girders, which are to be installed in 2009. In 1986 it was one of only four covered bridges in Massachusetts still standing in its original location. The bridge’s structure is based on early 19th century American bridge designer and architect Ithiel Town who devised a system of bridge building based on the use of multiple trusses rather than arches. It was known as “the Town Lattice Mode”, and was patented in 1820. The bridge is about twenty-five feet wide and one hundred thirty-seven feet long. One of the main purposes of the bridge was better to connect Ware Village with Gilbertville in Hardwick, the site of the Gilbert Company woolen mills and mill workers’s housing that had been erected starting in 1860. The bridge is owned jointly by the towns of Ware and Hardwick.

Opportunities: • The Ware-Hardwick covered bridge is a rare survival of a form of bridge that was once far more common in Massachusetts so is a heritage landscape of note to residents.

• The bridge is a good example of the structural system devised by architect Ithiel Town so has engineering merit.

• The bridge crosses the Ware River at a beautiful place so views from the bridge as well as of the bridge are particularly fine.

• The bridge is prized by the residents of both Ware and Hardwick who advocate for its preservation and on-going use.

• There are plans and funding available to reinforce the bridge and re-open it to the public.

Issues: • The Massachusetts Highway Department engineers are not able to calculate the carrying capacity of this structure, so to be on the safe side, they have closed it to traffic.

• A closed bridge is prey to vandalism.

• The bridge no longer connects the two towns and traffic must go around rather than drive directly up Old Gilbertville Road.

• The changes proposed for the bridge will alter some of the original materials and incorporate some new features: metal roof, traffic signal light and sprinkler system.

Recommendations: 1. In order for the bridge to be warranted useable by the Massachusetts Highway Department and local fire departments, it may be necessary to be open to the sensitive use of new materials, such as steel beams and a sprinkler system in a wooden bridge.

2. The Towns of Ware and Hardwick should consider working together to designate Bridge Street and Old Gilbertville Road and the bridge as a Transportation Corridor Protection Overlay district. As noted above the Town of Hardwick also identified this bridge as part of a priority heritage landscape, so they might be willing to work on an Overlay District. The intention of this designation would be to protect unwanted changes to the bridge, but also to the roadways leading to it. With a 19th century mill village on one side and a rural wooded landscape on the other side, there are considerable resources present that go into making the covered bridge a heritage landscape, and they all deserve protection. For instance, a buffer zone could be defined that would prohibit changes making an adverse impact on the appearance of the bridge and the roadways leading up to it. Road width, curbing or lack thereof, parking, landscaping and more could be addressed in such an overlay district.

3. If Ware were to have the Community Preservation Act, some funding would be available to direct to the bridge when repairs, or other non-maintenance work became necessary.

Ware-Hardwick Covered Bridge

E E

D D

Ware-Hardwick Covered Bridge PVPC_309_4 To w n o f Town of Ware, Massachusetts, Ware, MA Heritage Landscape Inventory Project, Connecticut River Valley

0 1,000 Feet

Funding:

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and the Environment Department of Conservation Resources

Ware River Rail Trail.

Ware River Rail Trail under construction but in use for cross-country skiing, 2009.

The Ware River Rail Trail is a partially completed trail that generally follows the path of the Ware River on the east side of the town. It is planned for construction on the former tracks of the Boston and Maine Railroad, which were shared with the Massachusetts Central Railroad. So far, the rail trail has been laid out and constructed on the southern half of its route, which is municipally owned. Its northern section is privately owned and negotiations to acquire easements for it have not been pursued by the Town leadership recently, so the northern section is in the planning stage only. In the southern section, WalMart donated land next to the river for rail trail use, and it proceeds from the area of WalMart north for about a mile. Above the constructed section the trail is planned so that it would pass through a residential section of Ware and close to both schools and downtown. Bridge abutments from the era of the railroad are still in place and ready to support new bridges for the rail trail once its route has been fully secured. It would pass along the river at Grenville Park, adding activity to the park and connecting the park to the town in yet another way.

Rail trail abutments and new sewer lines in place awaiting bridge construction, 2009.

There is no good connector from Robbins Road through town to get to Grenville Park. If the rail trail were to go straight through town, it would have to cross main streets, which

would be hazardous. There are alternatives, but they require advocacy by the Town to work out agreements with private owners.

Opportunities: • Ware has a partially completed rail trail that when completed would offer residents a unique recreational trail. It would get people off the road and children going to and from school would be able to use their bicycles more safely. It is a healthy means of transportation and recreation.

• Both Palmer and Belchertown are interested in making rail trail connections through Ware, so there is regional support for its completion. With those towns connected, there would be miles of good recreational trails for biking, skating, walking, and skiing.

• The trail follows the Ware River through much of its planned route and would give more people visual access to the river as a lovely landscape. Particularly in the northern section, there would be an opportunity for trail users to see wildlife in its natural setting.

• The Lincoln family in Ware would like to donate land to the Town in the northern section where archaeological remains are thought to exist of an early settler’s house. The site could be interpreted for rail trail users.

Issues: • Rights for the northern planned section of the rail trail have not been acquired from private owners, stalling the completion of the trail.

• Town leaders have turned their attention to other matters in Ware and have not continued to pursue this project.

• Getting the trail through or around the town center will take concerted effort and it does not appear to be available.

Recommendations: 1. Supporters of the rail trail should take a delegation of town government members to the opening of the Southwick trail in order to show them what is possible for Ware.

2. It would be helpful to gather economic data from Northampton and Amherst or other rail trail communities about the increase in business they have experienced along their trails. The Rails to Trails Conservancy can also provide information on the economic impact of rail trails. This is an incentive that could help reinvigorate the effort to complete the trail in Ware.

3. Engaging more of the public possibly through a “friends of the rail trail” group that would organize walks along the completed sections of the trail, or

bird watching, or organize bike trips along other communities’ trails might get more people advocating for the rail trail.

Start of Rail Trail at Wal Mart, 2009.

E A S D T A O S R TR EE K T IS F

D A

O TYLER R

D H E V A I L R S D KITC W HEN OAD R I C

D A O R C

A D E M N E O P P R B T

E K C N L I I L W A D R R R B O A

A H l W D E i N

a E RO RN AD BO r OFF OS

AN EET T

D NA STR A

ET O E

ING STR R K RO D D IKE AD

L D D E

I N A F O I E B R INTRE

N B BRA NEW

E A E D U L KFIEL ROO Q IL EST B E E W O V R L T D A R E

W P E R B O LE O IL O A G ail D D R D A L O F O R G A

R S AD R NSON RO R R CHI M HUT E E E L N L R I W O M I D C A

H D PL O R AI NS R H O C A I D D W

A N O E

E R e

E E R N G R r O AD B O a R S L IL O D H GE S G RA O W F R R

I S S O S G

A E U IN D H

M L N UM E

C R

S R D E O

D T

D A O A I C D O D R PARK R R IV K E N E I L

B L R I B

O A V

T U A

D D R Q A O E R B Y L D I H A E G E O H D S R A K

O R W

R A P A

L R R W W T

O E E L L I R S A D

N D R

I R A T

W O I R N V HO O E WAR DR OAD R R E B T H S K E CRE HLAND T L SCEN HIG R D A R T E K ET A S S W S T O D H T R R

I E R A R E D S E T T E K O RE R R OW E E R ILL T A I W T V P E E B D E K A I E E E E O R T L P L I D U IL C OA R SH E N N K N V H E R E R E N E E B E R T E U R L LE T V E R T C T R C T S A E CI O G N N R M E R W I N H 9 T O E A T N C E T I E E W S T S R O T A P R E M U H E T T N S R S G O BR E S E O S R S O D A N LD O S O O R I R A K T O

S R D E H T M D O R

E I H H N I L G S

A P V E H

O G S S B E R

O R T T R R A O T P E E

R A EE E E T

S E R E U S S T RE K K

H H T R E S L A L Y R V T T

D T

E E E I N D A N S N E AC E U E V D P

E R E E E R

E A N A T R R I

B R S B P I EET T V STR D IN ROS ST C A S S EA E M AVENUE OFE T T E S K Y R E E W R O D T M A A A R E T A D T P T E S P O E M R E S E L L R R A T P E W W D T P S S MO L OX A A L N E T NR E K M V I S OE E V U S S D E T TRE N D T RE ET EM U O W T T ET O A E N E N G D O I E S D R O W R TR P A I LLI T E A O A S E M T E C N T R L O D E L Y D D I E E L L V R G H A H M R LE I U O AR N I K S M J T D F E ORIE ALE E D L E D O O C ST CL O R S R L U RE LOIS EET CI N U N R G S STR R E T R T B EET E R O G T H A EN U O V H H R A S HI A O E AMS N A A R E R N T T E V P D B U R V D O C D E E E A N O N E U A U B T A N V E O M D E I S A R D N N B A H WEST BROOKFIELD D R V U N A T O O R E E S U I R O N C D A O U WARREN N N E R F W H

D M O O F R A O F D E K N O

I E V S E U REL DRI A I L U V S N A E D L T D T T B E E A K K A R A V C M I E V E R N

O A E E LA V N C K N T M I E E B R O U A A W O R E B L

A K B D

D l I D O N R i A E I G O V a R U S E r L F B R O E T E R N M R L O G A W R VE P I A V DR Y I D I IEW L L V P E KY L A S INE W I CR E N S ST l H T A D E i V I O C A L IR E a O L CL N E R O S D N I RI KLUSG R VE T U N L D R E E E D E E R T T R ER D RA OA A CE SHADY PATH R W OWN T BELCHERT S D e E A r O W R Wa B R ACO N N R E O M E AD L R A R P A W ROAD

F F U O E B L A M

Ware Rail Trail PVPC_309_5 To w n o f Town of Ware, Massachusetts, Ware, MA Heritage Landscape Inventory Project, Connecticut River Valley

01,000 Feet

Funding:

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and the Environment Department of Conservation Resources

PART II: PLANNING FOR HERITAGE LANDSCAPES

INVENTORY AND DOCUMENTATION 1. Massachusetts Historical Commission Records Current Listings: The Town of Ware has 267 properties listed on the inventory of the Massachusetts Historical Commission, including 13 Areas. Properties that have been inventoried begin in the 1780s and end in the 1960s, so the Town Historical Commission has been adding to its inventory over time. The inventory includes mills, mill workers’s housing, structures and areas of significance. This was a thorough inventory project when it was initially accomplished in the 1980s. Recommendations: It is recommended that the Town of Ware continue its work adding to the inventory being attentive to early 20th century to mid-20th century resources, which are more sparsely represented.

2. National and State Register Listing Current Listings: The Town of Ware has three large historic districts and one small district listed on the National Register. There is the Ware Millyard Historic District with 54 resources, the Ware Center Historic District with 20, the Otis Company Worker Housing with 3, the Church Street Historic District with 73. Individual listings are the the Ware-Hardwick Covered Bridge, and Ware Town Hall. The Casino Theater has been given a Determination of Eligibility for the National Register as have the Guild Block, the Robinson-Hitchcock Block, and the Kaplan Block on Main Street.

Recommended Listings: It is recommended that the Ware Center Historic District be expanded to include several important farm properties on Greenwich Plains Road, Doane Road, and Walker Road and include adjacent farms that were previously omitted from the nomination. There should be a South Street area historic district that would include the residential streets adjacent to South Street, Maple, Chestnut and Elm Streets, among others, where the 19th century architecture is worthy of listing. Additionally, there are residential streets branching off Church Street that are worthy of listing in an extension of the Church Street Historic District: Pleasant Street, Park Street, High and Cottage Streets. A Downtown Historic District would include the library, the Congregational Chapel, Nenameseck Park. Mary Lane Hospital should be considered for an individual nomination. There are no Local Historic Districts in Ware. The Methodist Church on Church Street should be designated as a single property Local Historic District, which would give it the level of protection that it deserves. The Town might consider making Ware Center a Local Historic District.

3. Heritage Landscape Inventory List from Local Identification Meeting Each town involved in the Connecticut Valley Region Heritage Landscape Inventory held a local identification meeting to solicit input from a range of community members to identify potential heritage landscapes throughout the town. The lists were prioritized by the community, with help from the consultants, to create a list of five to ten priority areas, which were described in Part I of this report. The complete list of the town’s heritage

landscapes provides a sound resource list for future documentation activities and potential funding opportunities.

• Agricultural • Archaeological • Burial • Civic • Industrial • Institutional • Transportation • Natural • Open Space and Recreation • Residential • Commercial

TOWNWIDE PLANNING AND ZONING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES

Detailed descriptions of planning tools and techniques can be found in the Department of Conservation and Recreation Terra Firma #7 – Taking Action: A Toolkit for Protecting Community Character (2009). This document includes the following sections: Municipal Roles in Landscape Preservation; Thinking in Context: Comprehensive and Open Space Planning; Engaging the Public; and Defending the Resources: Laws, Bylaws and Regulations. This document should be used in conjunction with this report as a guide to acting on the specific recommendations for Priority Heritage Landscapes included in Part I.

The following Community Planning Checklist provides an overview of planning and zoning that currently exists within the town of Ware, zoning changes that are currently underway, and recommendations for further changes that were included in this report and other planning documents.

COMMUNITY PLANNING CHECKLIST TOWN OF WARE

IMPLEMENTATION BUILDING BLOCK NOTES STATUS

Æ Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) Village Center Overlay District – Downtown Ware Transit Oriented Development (TOD) 9 Mixed Use Village Districts Æ Planned Unit Development (PUD) Ware Village and Downtown Æ Adaptive Reuse and Infill Development Ware Village; Ware Downtown Æ Tax Incentive Programs and Business Improvement Districts 9 Open Space Residential Development Ware Center 9 Accessory Apartments Æ Inclusionary Zoning Æ Home Based Business Bylaw 9 Brownfields Inventory 9 Brownfields Redevelopment Projects Æ Transfer of Development Rights Ware Center Æ Agricultural Commissions Ware Center Historic District Æ Right to Farm Bylaws

9 River Protection Overlay District Æ Community Preservation Act Grenville Park; Ware Village; Ware Center Historic District; Ware-Hardwick Covered Bridge Æ Scenic Upland Overlay District Æ Bike and Pedestrian Features Traffic Calming Measures 9 Water Supply Protection District Æ Low Impact Development Stormwater and Erosion Control Bylaw Æ Stormwater Utilities Æ Commercial Site Plan Review Æ Commercial Performance Standards Urban Growth Boundaries / Limits of Sewer and Water Extensions Æ Green Building Standards Æ Municipally Owned Renewable Energy Æ Adoption of Smart Growth Zoning Districts (Ch. 40R) 9 Intergovernmental Compact Valley Vision MOA Æ Planning Board Assistance Program Master Plan for Grenville Park Æ Local Historic District / National Register of Historic Ware Village; expand Ware Center Historic Places District Æ Architectural Preservation District Ware Village Æ Demolition Delay Bylaw Ware Village; Affirmative Maintenance Bylaw – Ware Village; Ware Center Historic District Æ Scenic Roads Bylaw Doane-Walker Road; Transportation Corridor Protection Overlay District – Ware-Hardwick Covered Bridge 9 Successfully Implemented Currently Considering Æ Should Consider Adopting

Comprehensive, Open Space and Other Planning Documents

It is important that Open space Plans, Comprehensive or Master Plans, and other planning documents address heritage landscapes as vital features of the community, contributing not only to unique sense of place, but also to environmental, recreational and economic health.

Current Plans: Ware has three plans currently in use to help guide its future. There is an Open Space and Recreation Plan, that dates from 2007, a Community Development Plan, that was created in June of 2004, and a Local Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan that appears to be undated.

Recommended Plans: Comprehensive planning provides an important frame of reference for a town’s land use decisions and incorporates all of a community’s issues into an integrated plan. Heritage Landscapes need to be made a part of an updated master or comprehensive plan, since the town uses the plan to guide its activities related to community character, historic preservation, environmental health, economic viability and growth. The future of the Heritage Landscapes and the values they contribute should be addressed within multiple perspectives, not solely as historical assets of the community. A Ware Master Plan is therefore recommended.

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES

Outreach, Education and Interpretation In order to create a community of advocates, we need to raise public awareness and broaden the base of support. This includes developing opportunities to learn about and celebrate the places and history of the town, as well as to care for them.

Collaboration Protecting community character, respecting history, and promoting smart growth are interrelated concerns that impact heritage landscapes and require collaboration across a broad spectrum of the community. This includes communication among town boards and departments, as well as public-private partnerships.

Technical Assistance Regulations and creative solutions for heritage landscapes are constantly changing and emerging. Public and private agencies offer technical assistance with the many issues to be addressed, including DCR, MHC, the Franklin Regional Council of Governments and the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.

Technical assistance for developing a CPA campaign, or hosting a CPA informational session, can be obtained from Jay Rasku, Coordinator of the North Quabbin Regional Landscape Partnership (NQRLP). Working with the Community Preservation Coalition, the NQRLP is a regional partner that has been working with municipalities to help meet technical assistance needs in the field. The North Quabbin Regional Landscape Partnership can be reached at: info@nqpartnership or at 978-248-2118. More information about the Community Preservation Coalition can be found at: www.communitypreservation.org.

Funding Opportunities Funding rarely comes from a single source, more often depending on collaborative underwriting by private, municipal, and regional sources. Each town also has a variety of funding sources that are locally-based and sometimes site-specific.

CONCLUSION

The Heritage Landscape Reconnaissance Report for Ware has undertaken an analysis of the priority heritage landscapes identified by the community, their place in the city’s history and how the town might approach their preservation and conservation. But many of the report’s recommendations can also be applied to the landscapes forming the master list, and – as the master list is by no means exhaustive - to those heritage landscapes that are yet to be identified.

One of the most important starting points for protecting Ware’s heritage landscapes is to do further research on the Priority properties that have been identified, such as the Breckenridge-Rich property, the Casino Theater, Grenville Park. And the best way to do that is to bring their inventory forms up to date with additional information on both the buildings and where appropriate their landscapes. Architects and landscape architects should be researched where they are unknown. Once the inventory work has been sufficiently established, the overall context in which the landscapes exist are more easily described and their importance conveyed to city residents, city government members, and to the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

Ware has a strong advocate for preservation in its Historical Commission. The Commission spearheaded a drive to preserve the Ware Center Meetinghouse and obtained a Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund grant. If the Commission were to designate a Local Historic District, Ware would be eligible to become a Certified Local Government (CLG). A CLG is given higher priority over other towns to receive Survey and Planning Grant funds to carry on with the town’s inventory and National Register work.

To capitalize on the work in progress, it is important to use this report to alert government members, committees and commissions to the existence and value of the town’s heritage landscapes, so distribution and discussion of the report will be an important next move.

This is all part of generating community support, and community support is essential to preserving the city’s heritage, be it a mill, a view of the Ware River, a row of workers’s houses or fields that have been worked for several hundred years. Publicizing the report through a series of articles, presentations, and making it available to residents will be an important effort. Creating public awareness is public education and it can be approached through the schools, through the press, on-line and at special events. Above all, leading the community to recognition that it does indeed have heritage landscapes and that they make up the town’s attractive character is a goal that this report can help accomplish.

The three top recommendations are (1) for protective zoning to be adopted for the agricultural land and farmsteads in and around the Ware Center Historic District (2) designate the Methodist Church as a single-property Local Historic District (3) enact a Demolition Delay bylaw based on age for a 12-18 month period of delay.

RESOURCES

Reading the Land Massachusetts Heritage Landscape a Guide to Identification and Protection, Department of Conservation and Recreation, Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, 2008. Terra Firma #1- An Introduction to Historic Landscape Preservation Department of Conservation and Recreation Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, n.d. Terra Firma #3- Putting Historic Landscape Preservation on Sold Ground: Identifying and Protecting Historic Roads, Department of Conservation and Recreation, Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, n.d. Terra Firma #5 Putting Heritage Landscape Preservation on Solid Ground: Stones that Speak: Forgotten Features of the Landscape, Department of Conservation and Recreation, Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, n.d. Terra Firma #7 - Taking Action: A Toolkit for Protecting Community Character Department of Conservation and Recreation Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, 2009. Massachusetts Historical Commission. Preservation through Bylaws and Ordinances, Draft Copy March 11, 2009, typescript. ______. MHC Reconnaissance Survey Reports, typescript,

APPENDIX A WARE’S HERITAGE LANDSCAPES

Note: The following chart presents the master list of heritage landscapes identified by Ware residents for this project. The landscapes with asterisks were designated “Priority Landscapes” by the residents.

HERITAGE LANDSCAPES NOTES AGRICULTURAL *Grange Lincoln’s Farm including archaeological foundations that are pre 1750 Letendre Farm In Ware Center Moriarity Farm In Ware Center Kulas Farm In Ware Center Fullers Farm In Ware Center Shay Farm In Ware Center Pilch Farm In Ware Center Doane Farm In Ware Center Breckenridge-Rich Farm In Ware Center Campbell’s Farm In Ware Center Howard Farm with old foundations and In Ware Center cellar holes *Ware Center including the above- mentioned farms Hitchcock Farm on Church Street In Ware Village ARCHAEOLOGICAL

West Ware with old mill foundations

BURIAL

Aspen Grove Cemetery Indian Cemetery on Robbins Road St. William’s Cemetery CIVIC *Town Common Nenameseck Park *Meeting House, cemeteries and town pound at Ware Center *Town Hall Ware Village Pumping station at Memorial Field Ware Village *Library Consider with Congregational Chapel *Firehouse James Britton Architect

VFW/Old School Ware Village South Street School In Ware Village INDUSTRIAL 1840 Stone Mill *Canal/Water Power System Included in Ware Village/downtown Quarry Street with possible quarry

INSTITUTIONAL All Saints Church Trinity Episcopal Church Mary Lane Hospital South Street Original Mary Lane Hospital Building now Valley Human Services *Methodist Church National Register-listed NATURAL

Dougal Range Coy Hill Snow’s Pond and dam Quabbin Reservoir *Ware River Included in Ware Village/downtown OPEN SPACE Red Provost’s swimming pool near the rail trail *Grenville Park including the waterfall, dismal swamp and Ware River

RECREATIONAL Camp Cook Baseball/Memorial Field *Casino Theater Eligible for National Register

RESIDENTIAL

Old Babcock Tavern, Old Belchertown Road Erastus Salisbury Field House Pleasant Street Church Street Historic District

TRANSPORTATION

Ware Airport Active Old Roads with original names Old Bay Path Road and Hadley Path Lemon Hill, Route 9 *Ware-Hardwick Covered Bridge *Ware River Rail Trail

East Street Railroad overpass and retaining walls