Tuesday, February 24, 2004
What can you do with a big old smokestack?
(This is something I sent to the Recorder but they never got back to me and then the issue crumbled to the ground.)
It seems a lot of people want to restore the old Greenfield Tap and Die smokestack to it's original, er, splendor as a symbol of Greenfield's industrial past. Undoubtedly many solid and useful tools were manufactured there, but you'd never know it by looking at that old stovepipe. More readily coming to mind, I find, is imagery of noxious clouds puffing skyward, spreading industrial what-not throughout the land. Next I wonder why that company packed up and left Greenfield in a hurry without even bothering to take their smokestack with them. These images may be part of our history, but are they really the things we want to promote in our town?
The Greenfield that I encounter every day cannot possibly be represented by a defunct smokestack. Walk the aisles of Green Field's Market and you'll find shelves full of natural and organic products conveying a more environmentally friendly message. Stop by Butynski's farmstand and you'll find sweet corn planted and grown right in Greenfield soil. Climb atop Poet's Seat Tower and take in the beauty around you while contemplating the pre-industrial pleasures of the poetic arts. And if thriving industry is the thing that makes you proudest, stop by the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce and ask about the companies that are the backbone of Greenfield's economy today--companies that are the living, growing monuments to our productive heritage.
I'm not saying we need to tear the old thing down, though. I have a better idea. Let's paint it white, stick a gigantic lamp and rotating mirror on top and brace ourselves for the inevitable onslaught of tourists coming to see New England's most unusual attraction: The Landlocked Lighthouse.
On second thought, let's just tear it down and put in a Pizza Hut.
Here are some nice pictures from before and after (lots of great photography at this site).
It seems a lot of people want to restore the old Greenfield Tap and Die smokestack to it's original, er, splendor as a symbol of Greenfield's industrial past. Undoubtedly many solid and useful tools were manufactured there, but you'd never know it by looking at that old stovepipe. More readily coming to mind, I find, is imagery of noxious clouds puffing skyward, spreading industrial what-not throughout the land. Next I wonder why that company packed up and left Greenfield in a hurry without even bothering to take their smokestack with them. These images may be part of our history, but are they really the things we want to promote in our town?
The Greenfield that I encounter every day cannot possibly be represented by a defunct smokestack. Walk the aisles of Green Field's Market and you'll find shelves full of natural and organic products conveying a more environmentally friendly message. Stop by Butynski's farmstand and you'll find sweet corn planted and grown right in Greenfield soil. Climb atop Poet's Seat Tower and take in the beauty around you while contemplating the pre-industrial pleasures of the poetic arts. And if thriving industry is the thing that makes you proudest, stop by the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce and ask about the companies that are the backbone of Greenfield's economy today--companies that are the living, growing monuments to our productive heritage.
I'm not saying we need to tear the old thing down, though. I have a better idea. Let's paint it white, stick a gigantic lamp and rotating mirror on top and brace ourselves for the inevitable onslaught of tourists coming to see New England's most unusual attraction: The Landlocked Lighthouse.
On second thought, let's just tear it down and put in a Pizza Hut.
Here are some nice pictures from before and after (lots of great photography at this site).
