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UMass Amherst Old Chapel Restoration Earns Honor

WAMC

    An historic preservation organization is honoring UMass Amherst for the $21 million two-year renovation of the Old Chapel building.

    The Victorian Society in America is commending the project for its “comprehensive exterior restoration and adaptive use of the interior.”  

    The Old Chapel, built in 1885, reopened this year after it had been closed 18 years due to structural deterioration.

     After he was hired five years ago, Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy e made restoring the Old Chapel a priority.

     " Everyone said ' why haven't we done that', so quickly support fell in place for getting it renovated," he said.

      The building is a multi-purpose facility. The top floor has a large open space for performances and lectures.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.