Wednesday, March 01
To the Editor of THE EAGLE:-

I am so glad that someone has finally done something with that beautiful old building on Maplewood Avenue in Pittsfield. I lived there between 1980 and 1983 when it was still a decent place to live. Granted the average age was 82 (I was 26 at the time) but it was clean and safe and just wonderful.

There was a maintenance man who live on the top floor named Danny and it was owned by the George family. They all took great care of their us. I worked at the Registry of Deeds at Park Square and could walk to work and to North Street to shop and to clubs downtown at night — yes there really were places to shop and clubs to go to back then.

The Maplewood was a great place to live when you were young and single back in the early '80s. The other tenants took great care of me like I was their granddaughter, and I watched over them too which was quite a task sometimes, but I loved it. We had a fire truck there at least once a week because someone tried to cook but would forget that they had left something on the stove and then the place would fill with smoke and a smoke detector would go off.

The saddest part of living there would be the almost monthly hearse that would drive up to the door to carry one of our friends away. There were lots of tears in that building that we called home, both of great saddest but also of great joy.

I hope that the new tenants realize what they have there. It's not just another building. It a piece of Pittsfield's history that spans almost two centuries. Live in it, but please love it as much as we all did.

PATTY FAHEY MOLINARI
Winnetka, CA., Feb. 24, 2006