After 50-plus years, University Club tries
on some new shades
Historic hues replace familiar white paint
By Sarah R. Buchholz,
Chronicle staff
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Fred Orwat, of Darland Construction in Chicopee,
paints the University Club. (Stan Sherer photo)
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ven
longtime members of the campus community probably haven't seen the
University Club get a fresh paint job before; staff in Facilities
Planning guess it hasn't been done for more than half a century.
But over the last few weeks, scraping, caulking, sill repair, and
- yes - painting have taken place at the home of the Faculty Club
on Stockbridge Road.
Principally made
up of two of the oldest homes in Amherst, the Stockbridge House,
built in 1728, and the Homestead House, built in 1731, the club
is now a slate-blue-gray with a light trim of the same hue and dark
red accents on its sills and doors.
"On old houses
in New England, you find a lot of red doors, even though the color
was expensive back then," said Marty Smith, manager of Planning
and Architecture at Facilities Planning.
Although the club
has been white for much of its life, it's impossible to tell what
the original color was, according to Smith. "We don't believe
that the clapboards on there are original," she said. "It
probably sat around for a while unpainted. So we went to pick some
colors that would set the building on its site and that would be
period colors like you see in Old Deerfield, reminiscent of the
milk paints that were used."
In addition to
historical accuracy, one reason the club is getting new colors is
to avoid the problems associated with a white building, particularly
one that is too large for its lot, Smith said.
"One of the
best things you can do, visually, is to paint it a dark color so
it begins to recede and not overshadow its site," she said.
Smith also said that a darker building won't show as much of the
Hadley farm dirt that blows across campus as the white siding did
and the dark red doors will minimize the appearance of fingerprints
and wear.
"Our crew's
really been doing a good job," Smith said. "They're not
just painting. They've been replacing a lot of boards. Some of the
sill boards were really in tough shape."
"I'm ecstatic,"
said Dennis Scott, manager of the University Club. "I've been
here for 16 years, and I was already proud of this place, but now
I'm like a kid with a new toy. It's looking great. I like the colors;
we chose them because they fit into New England."
"I've heard
a universally positive response," said Joe Larson, president
of the Faculty Club, a private membership organization that holds
the liquor license for the University Club. "Everyone I've
talked to likes it."
"I can't
get over it," Scott said. "I go out and check it every
20 minutes. It's just amazing. The campus is welcome to come and
look at any time."
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