University Club can take you back
By Mary Carey
Staff Writer
Published on October 06, 2006
One of the best kept secrets at the University of Massachusetts, as the expression goes, is the University Club, housed in two colonial-era New England farmhouses in the heart of campus. With its centuries-old ambiance, it can almost seem to luncheon guests that Herman Melville might be seated at the next table.
The Boltwood-Stockbridge House, built in 1728 at its present site and also the oldest house in Amherst, is one of the two houses comprising the club. The other is the Homestead House. Built in 1731, it was moved from its former location - where the Graduate Research Center is now - and joined with the Boltwood-Stockbridge House in 1972.
On Friday, the Faculty Club is celebrating the 275th anniversary of the Homestead House with a dinner.
'For me, it is kind of a haven,' said Michael Friedman, senior systems administrator with the Office of Information Technologies and president of the Faculty Club. 'Because I work in the technology areas, I'm in the newest building, but I can go up there and it is a quiet place. I use the term 'the historic heart of the university.'' The club is far from exclusive, Friedman added. Members of the public are welcomed to drop in for lunch as guests.
Storied history
Daniel Chester French (1850-1931), sculptor of the statue in the Lincoln Memorial and of the statue of the Concord Minuteman, lived in the Boltwood-Stockbridge house as a boy when his father, Henry Flagg French (1813-1885) served as first president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College from 1864 to 1866.
Levi Stockbridge, a pioneer of scientific agriculture, had his office there. And nine Royalists were briefly confined in the house during the American Revolution.
The Homestead House was acquired by the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1928 and was used for many years as a residence for women who were taking the practical homemaking course required of students majoring in home economics.
Organizers of the anniversary party have assembled photographs of the house during the years the young women were practicing their homemaking skills there. Like the club itself, the photos transport the viewer to another era entirely. The women look to be having the time of their lives, writing notes on a desk in the living room, posing in front of the fireplace and bandying rolling pins about. Who knows what the significance is of the student waving a rolling pin while her classmate brandishes a cooking pot?
'It was as if co-op housing was an academic major,' Friedman suggested.
Student views
Students at UMass and Amherst Regional High School have offered their perspectives on some topics in the local news.
Commenting on the ongoing issue of student partying in The Massachusetts Daily Collegian this week, UMass student Matt Janko argues that there should be more opportunities for students to gather and kick back on campus.
After a few cold hours in an Amherst Police Station holding cell after being arrested on a noise violation, Janko concluded that getting arrested doesn't do much to deter people from drinking. Rather, 'The act of making alcohol illegal for minors transforms it from an accessory into a main attraction,' he writes. 'Let the students socialize normally.'
In the June edition of the Amherst Regional High School newspaper 'The Graphic,' recently mailed to parents, reporter Colin Bernatzky writes about his experience talking to homeless people and spending a night on the streets of Amherst. In the course of his investigation, he visited the Survival Center, where Bernatzky found the 'overall normalcy' of the environment 'astounding.' Says Bernatzky: 'The idle chatter with coffee in hand after a hearty meal and the complaints about everyday tasks and challenges made me feel right at home.'
Meetings
TUESDAY: Regional School Committee, 7 p.m., High School Library.
WEDNESDAY: Select Board, 6:15 p.m., Town Room, Town Hall.
THURSDAY: Finance Committee, 7 p.m., 1st floor meeting room, Town Hall; Zoning Board of Appeals, 7:30 p.m., Elina Perrot and George Chasco seek special permit to operate an antique and book shop and cafe with seasonal outdoor dining at 321 Main St.
