bbb to cpc 03-18-2019.docx18 March 2019
TO: Northampton Community Preservation Committee
I would like to express my wholehearted support for the grant application from the Committee for Northampton for CPC funds to hire expert consultants to complete a National Register
nomination and Statement of Historical Context for African Americans, abolition, and equal rights in Northampton, Massachusetts, 1835-1900. I am a member of two organizations which
already have expressed support for this application—Historic Northampton and the Northampton Historical Commission—but I would like to add my individual support as well.
This project will be the culmination of years of work by Steve Strimer, the Committee for Northampton, and the David Ruggles Center, who have researched and discovered this important,
and long-overlooked, part of Northampton’s history. A National Register district in Florence which encompasses African-American and abolitionist sites, people, and history, will greatly
broaden the scope of already existing local historic districts along Elm Street and Pomeroy Terrace. Much of this history already is widely shared with the public, including schoolchildren,
in large part due to the untiring efforts of Steve Strimer.
I hope that the CPC will approve in full the amount requested in this application. It will be well worth using these funds to hire noted and knowledgeable experts to complete this research
and the National Register nomination.
Thank you.
Barbara Blumenthal