Jane Jacobs in the Woo presents the 2020-2021 Jane Award to
Stearns Tavern
as a model of creative, adaptive reuse offering space for community-based programming contributing to the revitalization of the City of Worcester
Stearns Tavern Restored. Behind the building is a fully accessible new playground for the neighborhood and city on the banks of Coes Pond.
What is not to love about this development?
An historic tavern is saved from demolition in 2016, moved to its third Worcester site at an underutilized former industrial lot on Mill Street. The building is restored to its former glory to become a space for community meetings and a café used as a job training site for clients of the Seven Hills Foundation. Adjacent to the newly placed historic tavern is built a new accessible playground on the banks of Coes Pond. Children from the neighborhood can play outside on the swings and slides and refuel with snacks and drinks from the café.
Jane Jacobs in the Woo is bestowing this award to its three main development partners: Preservation Worcester, the City of Worcester and the Seven Hills Foundation. The Stearns Tavern project is a stellar example of the kind of development that works to create thriving neighborhoods and city for the following reasons:
· Reuse of historic buildings is key: “Cities need old buildings so badly, it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them,” Jane Jacobs wrote pointing to the small and creative uses that are made fiscally possible with the reuse of historic properties. Stearns Tavern is a perfect example of the myriad of potential uses that can be housed in one property over time. Built originally as a tavern in 1812, the building became home to an assortment of residential and business tenants including a furniture store, house of carpets, a bank in its last location on Park Avenue and now a café and community meeting space on Mill Street.
· Small is beautiful: The success of Stearns Tavern reminds us that it is often the smaller projects, not the large and flashy developments, that make the greatest contribution to a vibrant Worcester. Several funding streams were tapped to support its completion—City of Worcester ($900,000), Mass Works ($400,000) and Federal Community Development Block Grant ($150,000). The total capital cost is minimal in comparison to other publicly funded mega development projects currently being driven by the city. At the same time, the impact is great in creating a community centered space that serves as a locus of connection for the surrounding neighborhood and city.
· The power of collaboration: There is nothing more inspiring than witnessing people reaching out to each other to build something together. The saving of Stearns Tavern tells the story of what can happen when there is united purpose and a will to work collaboratively. Although Preservation Worcester, the City of Worcester and Seven Hills Foundation were the key drivers of this work, Worcester residents and over 120 organizations including unions, private businesses and non-profits donated in-kind time, labor and materials to make this project happen.
· The importance of fully accessible community spaces: Healthy cities host a plethora of inclusive public places where anyone can gather. A public library, a downtown commons, a playground on the shoulder of a pond are open to all, not just to those who can afford to purchase an entry ticket at, for example, a ball park. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg referred to the importance of “third places”’, those spaces that are not “home” or “work” but serve as a spot to meet, converse and build face-to-face connections.
In the late 1990s, sociologist Robert Putnam documented a national decline in our willingness to associate and connect with one another. Decline in participation in churches, PTA and other voluntary associations are just some examples of the fall-off in social capital, the social bonds that grease the workings of our democracy and civic life. According to Putnam, we used to bowl together in leagues but now we bowl alone. This toxic individualism has only been ramped up to dangerous levels in the past four years of deep political polarization and division, systemic violence and racism, false narratives from those in highest power as well as runaway greed and insatiable craving. In the past year, we sit in our homes on our own, fearful of the real danger of disease. The pandemic has heightened our learned fear of others. The message is that gathering with people outside of one’s safe pod could kill us.
“Post pandemic, we will need to re-socialize ourselves to lean into community face-to-face. Someday soon, the immediate physical danger will pass and we will be required to reframe gathering in person as a life enhancing prerequisite for effective city building. From the safety of our homes, we will search out once again those places in Worcester where we can talk, laugh, cry and dream – favorite coffee shops, library, parks, bookstores, streets, beer gardens, bike trails, community gardens, city hall. Stearns Tavern and its adjacent playground will also be beckoning.”
We will need even more than these important physical public places. We will also need to figure out ways to move forward as a community when there are deep disagreements among us over funding priorities and when only a few set the development agenda for all of us. Robust community building as a skill and art form calls on us to be brave, to learn how to speak our minds in strong, loud and kind voices while at the same time, to listen and not demonize our neighbors who disagree with us. Worcester then becomes our learning laboratory of how to foster respectful, healthy and inclusive community. There is always bound to be human conflict and division. And so then what? How do we move forward from this? The oft-used phrase, “Think globally. Act locally” has true merit. Building a country and a world where we want to live really starts in our own homes, streets, neighborhood and city.
Now, reader, it is your turn! In the comment section below, you can give the gift of naming what you appreciate about the Stearns Tavern project. We will be posting these wishes and thoughts on hearts in a video gallery on May 4, 2021.