Southampton, Larrabee School Building

Devise a plan that will revitalize the historic town center, strengthening citizens’ sense of community by connecting the features described and by finding creative uses for town land around the Larrabee Building, which is planned to be the new Town Hall. Proposals are encouraged to include ideas for reusing the existing Town Hall.

Located in Hampshire County in western Massachusetts, the town of Southampton occupies about 29 square miles and has a population of about 5,900 residents. Up until 30 years ago, Southampton was largely a rural community, despite its location next to the City of Holyoke and less than 20 miles from downtown Springfield, the largest city in western Massachusetts. More recently, the town has become a middle to upper middle class suburb, with a relatively high average family income. Active agricultural farms are also disappearing – all that remains is a couple of dairy farms and horse farms. Historically, the working landscapes of Southampton have shaped the physical, economic, and cultural character of the community. The forest lands, and remaining farms continue to contribute to the economic and environmental well-being of the town.

The town offers an appealing rural character and many desirable natural attributes. It is these attributes, combined with its proximate location, that make the town desirable for new development that may eventually alter its unique rural character. Most current development consists of single family homes; the remainder of land in Southampton is hilly and forested, with some scattered open fields in agricultural use.

Southampton is currently zoned to encourage large areas of rural residential development on large lots, with the majority of town (62%) zoned Rural Residential. Commercial development is restricted by zoning to three areas: Commercial Highway at the north end of town along the north-south highway known as The College Highway (State Route 10); and two small Commercial Village districts north of the Town Cemetery, also on College Highway. There are several smaller grandfathered businesses in the Neighborhood zoning district to the south, which includes the town center area. Mixed Use Development is not currently allowed in Southampton, but the town is taking steps to amend the zoning bylaws in 2009 to allow this type of use, especially in the historic village center.

Town Center

The historic town center of Southampton comprises of a cluster of older homes along East Street and the College Highway, the existing Town Hall, the general store, a school building which predated the Larrabee building on the same site, the Southampton Grange (torn down a few years ago), the original town library (now Heritage Books) and the Congregational Church.  The closing of the general store, the construction of a new library, the closing of Larrabee and of the grange, along with the development of commercial properties to the north along College Highway resulted in activity around the original center being greatly diminished with a consequent loss of community identity.

The existing Town Hall is located on East Street. Adjacent to the Town Hall to the west, on the corner of East Street and College Highway, is a private home with space rented to a photography gallery. The property includes part of the Town Hall parking lot, which is used as such under terms of an easement which may expire when the building is no longer used as a Town Hall.

To the east of town hall is a private home built of brick similar to that used in the Town Hall. Across East Street to the north are two homes dating from the 18th century. On the northeast corner of East Street is an old building which once was a kind of general store much frequented years ago by students from the Larrabee school. It was in recent years a gun shop, and now is a private home.

Town Hall
*Proposals for reusing the Old Town Hall building are encouraged.
The future of the existing town hall, a building which dates to 1903 and once housed both town offices and an auditorium which served as a community center, has yet to be determined. The accompanying floor plan was the basis for a projected renovation in the early 70’s, which never took place. However, it does give an idea of the over all dimensions of the building. The basement is expected to remain the headquarters of the Town Police Department, which currently occupies the entire floor and may ultimately need to take over some of the main floor. The main floor (“Proposed Upstairs”) is currently configured as shown in the plan, although the uses of the rooms differ from those proposed in the plan. Most of the 2nd floor (“Existing Floor Plan”) is currently used for storage. The entire space to the right of the stairs is one open room. The building is served with town water and electricity, and is heated by a gas fired hot water system.

Town Cemetery
Established in 1732, the “Center Cemetery,” is believed to be the oldest continuously operating cemetery in the state and one of the oldest in the country. Its continued use has been assured by the recent purchase by the Town of a 60 acre parcel which abuts the cemetery to the west. Part of that parcel will be used by the cemetery while the rest will be used for passive recreation. The Cemetery is located about a half mile north of the Larrabee building on the College Highway.

Conant Memorial Park
On land donated by the Conant family to the town in the 1950’s, the park contains about 18.5 acres right in the historic village. Its amenities include playground equipment, tennis courts, a children’s baseball field, a fountain, and a pavilion available for use by the public and by private groups with a permit.

The Historic North School
In the southwest corner of Conant Park is a 19th century one room school. Unused since 1932, it was moved to its current location in the 1970’s. It contains a collection of furniture, books, maps and other educational materials, some dating from the 19th century. It is controlled and maintained by the Southampton Historical Society.

The Clark-Chapman House
Located across the street from the northwest corner of Conant Memorial Park, the Clark-Chapman House has a rich collection of historical artifacts, both domestic and agricultural, many of them dating from the 19th and early 20th century. It is the headquarters of the Southampton Historical Society.

The Congregational Church
About 250 yards to the North of the Clark-Chapman is the Congregational Church, dating from 1788. As in many New England towns the church was once the center of town activity.

Southampton Village Center
Please note the following corrections.
The Larrabee Building is already planned to be the new Town Hall, but proposals for reusing the existing Town Hall are welcome. Note that proposals should focus on strategies for creating a lively village center.

Across Maple Street from the Congregational Church is the Larrabee School building. The town is moving forward with its renovation and conversion to a Town Hall. Although a contract has been let for the building renovation plans, the future of the surrounding town owned land has not been decided. The smaller aerial photo shows the five parcels of town owned land around the Larrabee building. The Town Fire Station is adjacent to the Larrabee building.

The Town Library
Dedicated in 1996, the Town Library is located off East Street about 300 yards west of Town Hall. The back side of the Library property abuts Conant Memorial Park and provides easy access to the park pavilion.

The Veterans Memorial
The Town’s Veterans Memorial is located in a small triangle of land across the College Highway from Larrabee building.

Businesses
In addition to the aforementioned photography gallery, businesses within a half mile of Larrabee building include Heritage Books, Sage Books (a used book store), and several small service businesses. To the north of the Center Cemetery a stretch of the College Highway contains the business center closest to Larrabee. It includes a restaurant, a convenience store-gas station, an auto repair shop, lawyer’s offices, a Pediatrics office, and other small retail and service businesses.

The Site

Redevelopment of the Larrabee Building has been discussed for many years. When the Larrabee School closed about a decade ago, town officials and community leaders began the effort to save the building and re-use it. Although Southampton seemingly does not have a traditional downtown, the Larrabee site is located in the original village center of Southampton, directly across from East Street, Southampton’s earliest “downtown”. The site is included in the local historic district recognized by the Massachusetts Historical Commission and sits directly across from the Town Common.

As the topic of many reuse discussions, the site has been described as the “anchor” of the Village Center revitalization effort and a key area in Southampton’s attempt to resurrect a traditional downtown. Together with the addition of sidewalks on East Street (a MA Highway “Footprint” project, currently in the 25% design phase), an art gallery, Edwards Public Library and beautiful Conant Park, the core of this future “downtown” exists.

It is hoped that the Larrabee building will be the focal point of this renewed historic town center. Currently used only as an auxiliary to town hall, the building is slated to be renovated and converted into a new town hall with some space rented to private businesses. The town has voted funds to complete this renovation and planning is underway. The town is interested in this site becoming the first mixed-use project in town.

The project site consists of one parcel of land, approximately seven acres, currently owned by the Town of Southampton. There are two buildings on the site, the Larrabee School Building and the Southampton Fire Station. The parcel has frontage on Maple Street and College Highway (Route 10). The site is currently zoned Residential Village, which allows a limited amount of commercial uses.

Smart Growth Challenges

The region’s Valley communities such as Southampton are suburbs of the urban core communities with a mix of developed and rural landscapes. They have a unique set of challenges and issues, including:
• Retention of community and rural character in the face of development that threatens to degrade this character and connection to the community’s past;
• Urban sprawl has resulted in loss of farmlands, open space, and important environmental assets
• Rising house prices have created a housing affordability gap
• Commercial sprawl and highway strip developments have degraded community character and created traffic congestion
• Commuting times are increasing as residents drive longer distances to places of employment.

Smart Growth Strategies

Some of the Valley Vision strategies that are particularly applicable to the Valley communities include:
• Zoning for mixed use village centers and infill projects
• Strategies for preservation of farmland and open space, including the Community Preservation Act and Transfer of Development Rights
• Commercial strip development controls
• Housing opportunities, including zoning for more diverse housing types and inclusionary zoning for affordable housing
• Cluster development bylaws
• Building an intermodal bicycle, pedestrian, and transit network to allow people to access city destinations without using cars
• Creating greenbelts and blueways to protect river corridors and important environmental assets.

Site Specific Resources
Southampton Site Video

Town of Southampton Website

Satellite View of Southampton

Valley Vision 2 Plan

Valley Vision Toolbox for Southampton

Southampton Conservation Commission

Documents

Site #2 Southampton Competition Brief

Supporting Images and Documents

CAD site plan

Old Town Hall Plans