SPRINGFIELD — Contractors have constructed a permanent internal frame designed to support the 190-year-old brick walls of the Gunn Block, 473-477 State St., believed to be the city’s oldest commercial building.
And the $250,0000 project is coming in under budget, said Chris Russell, executive director of the Springfield Business Improvement District, who is also managing things for Gunn Block owner DevelopSpringfield. With the money that’s not spent on the shoring up, DevelopSpringfield wants contractor Breadloaf of Middlebury, Vermont, to repoint and repair more of the brickwork, Russell said.
The next step will be to meet with local contractors about a new roof. After that, DevelopSpringfield will solicit proposals to redevelop the building, likely for a use in keeping with its commercial zoning and history as a store.
Russell doesn’t want to preclude any proposals. But he anticipates the first floor will be some sort of retail use with housing upstairs.
The building’s early 19th-centruy brickwork needed a contractor like Breadloaf that specializes in rehabbing older buildings.
The internal wooden frame has bolts that go through the brick walls that hold plates on the outside. The idea is to stop the walls from bowing outward.
“It’s beautiful but was not entirely stable,” Russell said. “It had been compromised for many years with water coming in.”
The city condemned the Gunn Block in 2012. Most recently a bar, the building has been vacant for years. It was built around 1830 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is Springfield’s oldest surviving commercial building and one of the few masonry blocks remaining from the 19th century.
The Gunn Block was built to house Elisha Gunn’s flourishing trade in “West Indies Goods” such as coffee, rum, molasses, sugar and spices. At the time, the Springfield Armory drove commercial growth on the street.
The second floor of the Gunn Block had a large hall for social events, including meetings of the Hampden Lodge of Free Masons and armory workers who met to organize and promote their own welfare.
DevelopSpringfeld, a public-private partnership that takes on the city’s most troublesome property rehabs, bought the Gunn Block in 2013 for $90,000.
It has funding for the project covering both the shoring up, some environmental remediation work and the architectural and engineering work: $250,000 from the Community Preservation Act, $168,000 from the MassDevelopment brownfields program and $7,500 from the Architectural Conservation Trust.
State and Walnut Street in the late 19th Century with Rockingham House (left) and Gunn Hall (right). (File Photo)
The winning bidder in the project is eligible for $450,000 in state tax credits for the preservation of historic buildings. A bank has already committed to buying those tax credits to finance the project.
It’s a lot of money and work for a building that wouldn’t warrant that kind of investment from a for-profit developer. That’s why DevelopSpringfield exists, Russell said.
“If the gap is so large it doesn’t make sense for a private developer, but the project is critically important for the fabric of the city, that’s a good project for us,” he said.
The first floor of the Gunn Block was last home to a pub. The bar, featuring ornate wood carvings like the one above in a file photo from 2013 , is still intact.(Republican File Photo)
DevelopSpringfield is also preparing to restart a bid process on its building at 77 Maple St. Known as the Springfield Female Seminary, it is also one of Springfield’s oldest buildings.
Plans for 77 Maple were based around turning it into coworking space, Russell said. But that plan is probably out due to the coronavirus pandemic.
DevelopSpringfield successes include the Bridge Street building that now houses Valley Venture Mentors, removing an old motel that was on what is now the site of the State Street Pride gas station and convenience store, and helping assemble parcels of land for a medical office development on Carew Street.
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September 30, 2020 at 04:50PM
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Gunn Block, believed to be Springfield’s oldest commercial building, stabilized and prepped for redevelopment - MassLive.com
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