Editorial: Monday mix on Adams Jewelry; downtown Florence; Mount Pollux tree - GazetteNET
Downtown Northampton lost a long-standing independent business, whose history had ties to the Holocaust, when Adams Jewelry closed on Feb. 24.
Andrew Adams made and sold jewelry at his shop for nearly four decades, starting at Thornes Marketplace in 1979, before moving to 183 Main St. Adams was a fixture there, working by himself since 1991. Adams says he preferred to work alone.
Adams’ father also was a jeweler. Emery Abrahamowicz was born in 1908 in Hungary, and eventually escaped the Holocaust with two diamonds hidden in his teeth. His mother, wife and daughter were imprisoned at the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944, and perished during the Holocaust.
Abrahamowicz gave a dentist the two diamonds and asked that they be secreted in his teeth. He was not certain that the dentist has followed his instructions — rather than keeping the diamonds for himself — until he immigrated to the United State two years after World War II ended. Once Abrahamowicz knew that he had his nest egg, he sold one of the diamonds and started a watch and jewelry business, shortened his name to Adams, remarried and had two children, including Andrew.
Andrew carried on his father’s craft and decided that Northampton would be a good place for his shop after a chance visit to the city in 1975. “It seemed like an interesting town,” he says. The family relocated from Queens, New York, and Adams went to work on Main Street.
Adams employed only two other people during his years in business. One was Liz Spencer, who worked at the jewelry store for six years and apprenticed with Adams. “I learned a lot. He was very patient,” says Spencer, who now lives in Montague and works as a mental health clinician.
She remembers the jewelry store as among the independent businesses selling one-of-a-kind items that helped define the revitalization of Northampton’s downtown during the 1970s and ‘80s.
We wish Adams well and admire his craftsmanship and dedication that for so many years added to the character of Main Street.
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The Northampton mayor’s office has produced the first economic indicators measuring the health of downtown Florence, and the report is positive.
According to the report released last week, there are 67 storefronts in the downtown district, and all but five are occupied. That 7.5 percent vacancy rate is only slightly higher than the 6 percent rate reported in downtown Northampton at the end of 2017.
Positive signs for Florence include a new retail building at 100 Main St., formerly the site of a gasoline station, that is fully leased.
When the Cup and Top Cafe closed last July after 11 years at 1 North Main St., it was soon replaced by the Freckled Fox Cafe. Owner Kitty Johndrow said she and her husband decided to open their first restaurant in Florence after also considering sites in Amherst and Ludlow.
Business owners in Florence say that while they would like more foot traffic, they appreciate the free parking that is attractive to shoppers.
“Florence is the new Northampton,” says Sarah Hurley, who owns On Point Salon next to the Freckled Fox. “It’s little hard to get your business up and running, but once you do, the people of Florence are very loyal.”
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We are sorry that one of the two maple trees at the Mount Pollux Conservation Area’s summit in South Amherst will soon be cut down because of ill health.
The more mature of the two landmark maples repeatedly has been struck by lightning, has a cavity in its trunk and is a hazard because of concern about its limbs falling. “It’s lived a great life and brought joy to many people up there,” says Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek, who told the Friends of Mount Pollux that it will be removed in the coming weeks.
Ziomek adds that benches made from some of the tree’s wood will be installed near the summit, and people who use the conservation area will be allowed to take home small pieces of the tree as a memento.
That’s a fitting way to honor a tree that has brought so much joy to picnickers, hikers and others who visit the site off South East Street.
