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Here is an article from the Eagle dated Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009:

PITCHING IN TO PRESERVE HISTORY
By Scott Stafford, Berkshire Eagle Staff

PITTSFIELD -- The Berkshire Bank Foundation and the Soldier On veterans facility have joined forces to provide volunteer labor in an effort to save a deteriorating local historic property.

Early in October, roughly 20 volunteers from those organizations will be clearing pesky vegetation from around the foundation and exterior walls of the William Russell Allen House on East Street.

The former home of William Russell Allen -- the great-grandson of the Rev. Thomas Allen, 'The Fighting Parson' of Revolutionary War fame -- has remained vacant and at risk since 1978.

The Allen House is overgrown with pine trees and remains a perennial threat to both vandalism and the weather. But it is considered a testament to the Gilded Age in Pittsfield. The 1885 Queen Anne Victorian style home was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1981.

According to Carole Owens, executive director of William Russell Allen House Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to the salvation of the structure, the work done by the volunteers will be the first step in a multi-tiered effort to stabilize the house and make it ready for further restoration work.

'And they're doing it for nothing, saving the project about $16,000,' she said.

A few trees that are too close to both the house and the foundation will be taken down. Overgrowth around the house and the ivy creeping up the walls will also be removed. This work will prevent further damage to the house by encroaching vegetation. A temporary stairway to the rear entrance will also be installed.

Once that work is done, the state will pay for a security and fire alarm system to be installed, and plumbing and wiring on the first floor to be brought up to code. The windows will be unboarded and the heat turned on. The state has allotted $180,000 to the stabilization effort that will continue through the end of the year.

Through this work, the house will be more visible and the ornate windows will again become part of the Allen House vista.

'It won't look like a hollow-eyed withering giant anymore,' Owens said. 'It will look like a grand old house again.'

Posted By: John Reagan - 08-25-2009
Views: 1781





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