This house and its garage are the last remaining structures on the land.

Click photo to enlarge.

In December of 1928, George Smith Kendrick established a trust for the acquisition of all the properties on the “island” bounded by North Pleasant, East Pleasant and Triangle Streets at the northern end of downtown, in order that the land would one day become a park

Mr. Kendrick died March 18th, 1930. At the October 23rd, 2006 Select Board meeting, the Town received the nine parcels of this three acre property from the Trust.

The Trust acquired the parcels over the decades, one by one, as each came on the market. According to deeds recorded with the County, the first parcel was acquired in 1937, the next in 1951, then 1957, two were acquired in 1962, one in 1964, one in 1987, one in 1993 and the final one in 2000. So why has it taken until 2006 for the Town to receive the land from the Trust?

Jonathan Tucker, the Town’s Planning Director and a local history buff, said that two main factors have delayed the transfer. One is that the bank managing the Trust has gone through multiple rounds of mergers and acquisitions, ending up most recently as Bank of America, and it took them some time to figure out what the Trust was all about. Secondly, since 2003/2004, the Trust has been tied up in land court as it navigated the slow process of preparing to dissolve itself in order to hand over its assets to the Town.

Now that the Town has finally taken title to the property, what’s next?

According to the probate equity decree of 1964, which merged the Trust of George Smith Kendrick with that of his sister Jenny, who died in 1957, the purpose of the Trust (cited in an October 2003 Planning Department document) is:

“…to convert the land so acquired into a landscaped park to be known as ‘Kendrick Park’, for the use and the benefit of the general public, and to maintain said park for enhancement and beautification of that area of Amherst, and to erect thereon a suitable marker commemorating its benefactors.”

The Town is considering its options for how to proceed from here, and how best to deal with the remaining house and its garage/barn.

[Update note: -- The following paragraph and quote were added at 2:10 p.m. on 11/8 to include new information.]

Town Manager Larry Shaffer said the next step is to ask Town Meeting to authorize using money from the Trust to fund a feasibility study for the property; to include consideration of what might be done with the remaining buildings, and perhaps how to deal with an underground stream running beneath the land. He said that George Kendrick's portion of the Trust has a balance of about $12,000, while Jenny's portion has about $36,000. Shaffer said he will confirm with Town Finance Director John Musante that Town Meeting’s approval is required for such an appropriation.

"Ultimately, we hope to construct a park and stitch it into the neighborhoods it abuts," said Shaffer. [End of update.]

Tucker created a fascinating timeline of the property’s history as well as the era in which George Kendrick lived. One might assume that Kendrick’s Trust began with his own property and then bought up all his neighbors, but that is not the case. The Kendrick family never lived on the land in question. George and his wife Matilda lived on the east side of downtown at the corner of what are now Seelye and Spring Streets. His parents and his sister Jenny lived on Northampton Road, an area later to become Kendrick Place. So what was Kendrick’s interest in this property?

George Kendrick was a banker, and several of his fellow bankers and colleagues lived on this land. It is said that he and they were most disturbed by a very visible and poorly-maintained tenement at the southern tip of the property, and believed it reflected badly on the town. Before he died, he drew up the Trust that would acquire this and the other parcels, as well as provide for the needs of his sister Jenny. His intentions for the Trust were conveyed only verbally to his chosen trustees.

“As properties came on the market, the Trust was to buy them secretly, hold them a while and then demolish the houses,” said Tucker, explaining that Kendrick was concerned that if his intentions were known, it would drive up the prices of the properties. It wasn’t until 1964, with the previously-mentioned combination of George and Jenny’s trusts, that his original verbal instructions were formalized and put into writing.

The much-maligned tenement was the first target of the plan, though it took a while to get rid of it. The house was purchased in 1931 by a Northampton lawyer who held it for the Trust until after Jenny Kendrick’s death in 1957. Soon after being deeded to the Trust, it was demolished.

Tucker detailed a brief history of the eleven houses that were standing on this property in 1930 when George Kendrick died, including when and how each was removed. Most interesting perhaps is that two of the house were moved from that location and still stand in Amherst today. One was built around 1893, and in 1980 was moved to 183 East Pleasant Street; the other was built around 1903 and was moved to 140 Fearing Street in 1979. See photos below.

As recently as 1990, three houses still stood on the land – one was demolished that year, and another in 1995.

Now there is one, and its future is uncertain. But after all these years, the town is one big step closer to having a public park bearing Kendrick’s name.

Other tidbits from Jonathan Tucker’s timeline:

• George Kendrick was born in Enfield, Mass., in 1845. Enfield was one of the towns taken over to become the Quabbin Reservoir.

• Before his banking career, Kendrick worked at Kendrick’s Market, his father’s meat and produce store on South Pleasant Street, fronting the Common.

• In 1891, Kendrick was appointed to the finance committee of the newly-formed Amherst Club.

• In 1902 Luke Sweetser’s children deeded land to the Town for a park bearing his name. In 1918, Frederick Law Olmsted created preliminary landscaping plans for that park.

-- Stephanie O’Keeffe

This house was moved from the land to East Pleasant Street in 1980.

Click photo to enlarge.

This house was moved to Fearing Street in 1979.

Click photo to enlarge.