GREENFIELD — There’s still no opening day in sight for Poet’s Seat Tower, as city officials continue working to determine the best course of action to fix the landmark and figure out how to fund the repairs.
Facilities Director Joe Pugliese told the Planning and Construction Committee last week that the city is still awaiting a final report on the structure’s condition, but a preliminary report indicates that mortar is heavily degraded, and the concrete floors on each level may need to be replaced, which could cost more than $1 million.
“As of now, Marc Sternick, MS Architects, has done a preliminary assessment on the condition of the tower. The mortar and stonework are heavily degraded [by the weather], and will need work,” Pugliese said. “Right now, we are waiting to see if we’ll have the funding for further diagnostic work.”
The tower has been closed since May, after a building inspector’s visual examination found cracks in the mortar and degraded welds in the spiral stairs.
Pugliese said the city was not awarded the grant it had applied for, and would need to find other funding to cover the costs of further testing and repair design, in addition to the repairs themselves. The city is still working to determine the full extent of work needed.
“We need comprehensive testing of the mortar, the steelwork and the concrete slabs, which make up the floor of each elevation,” Pugliese said. “If the concrete work is not, by today’s standards, properly reinforced with rebar or mesh metal grid, it will have to be replaced. This significantly alters the timeline and cost of the total job.”
Pugliese said material costs would not be too high, as the city can reuse stone from the tower, but labor costs, particularly for site preparation, will be expensive, especially if the concrete slabs need to be replaced. He said the entire tower would need to be cribbed and banded to ensure it doesn’t collapse when stone is removed.
Cribbing is a structural system of stacked blocks, timber or concrete that can be used to lift or stabilize structures. Pugliese described banding as similar to the bands holding wine barrels together, and said it would hold the tower in place during restoration work. He added that there are only a few contractors that specialize in soft-stone masonry in the Northeast, and their rates are expensive.
“The cost of preparing the site, and then ultimately releasing it back to us, represents the most significant cost,” Pugliese said.
Planning and Construction Committee members said that as part of the work to repair the tower, the city should enhance security there, including installing security cameras. Pugliese said he should be able to board up the tower using materials the city already has to prevent people from jumping over the fence and breaking in, but to install cameras, the city would need to connect electricity and internet at the site.
“It seems to me that it ought to be all done together,” Mayor Ginny Desorgher said.
“Getting power up there should be a No. 1 priority,” committee member Derek Helie said.
Pugliese said enabling electricity could cost an additional $50,000 to $100,000 or more. Earlier this year, Eversource turned off power to the tower as the power line had been falling off and was no longer safe. To bring electricity back to the tower safely, the city would need to pay for utility poles to be installed along the roadway, which could include placing a pole in the middle of the sledding hill at Beacon Field.
Committee members agreed that Pugliese should take whatever steps can be taken to immediately secure the tower with the materials the city already has, and while the city works to determine funding sources. Members suggested fundraising efforts as a way to support the work, which Pugliese said had been considered in a recent staff meeting.
“Do we think this is a project the city could fundraise for?” Planning and Construction Committee Chair Jean Wall asked. “If we could raise the money for the library, we could raise money for Poet’s Seat. … Let’s urge the community to come together.”
“We as a group understand the importance of Poet’s Seat Tower, in the eyes of the public and what it represents in the city. … We really do want to take this project seriously,” Pugliese said, referencing a large bronze plaque on the current structure listing names of donors who contributed to previous tower work. “There may be an opportunity to reach out to pillars of the community as well here, and if we were able to honor that contribution in some way, we might be able to see more resources.”
The sandstone tower as it appears today was constructed in 1912, replacing the prior wooden structure that was built in the late 1800s. The tower was named for Frederick Goddard Tuckerman, a local poet who died in 1873. He was known for going up the hill to the highest point in Greenfield and being inspired by the view.
Over the more than 100 years the tower has been standing, it has undergone multiple repairs. According to Greenfield Recorder archives in 2017, the tower underwent approximately $50,000 worth of cracked mortar replacement, replacing loose stones and sills. In 2010, repairs were needed to the lighting system, and in 1977, the tower underwent approximately $22,000 in repairs to the railings.
Poet’s Seat Tower was also briefly discussed by the Ways and Means Committee last week. City councilors echoed the sentiments of the Planning and Construction Committee, and said fundraising efforts would be required for the repairs.
“We really just need a good donor,” Precinct 5 Councilor Marianne Bullock said. “It’s gonna be expensive.”
Precinct 6 Councilor Patricia “Patti” Williams said that balancing the needs of other city departments and the goal of keeping tax bills affordable for residents is already difficult. Adding the expense of the tower’s repairs would present an even bigger challenge.
“Considering the state of the economy and the needs of the people,” Williams said, “frankly speaking, spending money on brick and mortar … it’s not a priority.”
