NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The state Land Court in February finalized the city's tax taking of four properties including the brick Church Street mansions.

 

The prestigious pair of Queen Anne mansions had been owned by Franklin E. Perras Jr., who died in 2017 at age 79. 

 

The properties had been in court for four years as attempts were made repeatedly to find Perras' heirs, including a son, Christopher. According to court filings, Christopher reportedly died in 2013 but his place of death is unknown, as is the location (or existence) of two grandchildren listed in Perras' obituary. 

 

Mayor Jennifer Macksey said the next steps will be to develop requests for proposals for the properties to sell them off. 

 

She credited Governor's Councillor Tara Jacobs for bringing the lingering tax takings to the Land Court's attention. Jacobs said she'd asked about the status of the properties and a few days later they were signed off. 

 

It wasn't just the four North Adams properties — the cases for three Perras holdings in Lanesborough that also had been in the court for years were closed, including Keeler Island. Another property on Holmes Road in Hinsdale is still in the court.  

 

The buildings at 116, 124 and 130 Church St., and a vacant lot on Arnold Place had been in tax title since 2017 when the city placed $12,000 in liens. 

 

The building at 34-40 Arnold Place was declared a public nuisance in 2008 and ordered demolished. The crumbling apartment house had been empty for some time by that point.

 

The Queen Annes had started out as single-family homes but later broken up into apartments. The past eight years have not been kind, as the porches on one of the buildings has collapsed, their copper piping was stolen, and windows were broken. The city secured the windows and open doors with plywood to keep out squatters. 

 

The two structures were designed by Marcus F. Cummings of Troy, N.Y., the architect of what is now the North Adams Public Library. Also known as the A. W. Hodge House (116 Church) and the Walker House (124 Church) they were both built in 1882 by bricklayers and contractors brought from Boston. 

 

They were nominated for the National Register of Historic Places and, along with the vacant 130 Church, sit in the Church Street-Cady Hill Historic District.

 

They were condemned a few months after Perras died and have frequently been pointed out as historic structures worth saving, but any attempts were stymied by their court status.

 

Perras had gone on a buying spree in North Adams and Lanesborough in the late 1990s and early aughts, purchasing 124 Church in 1994, Arnold Place in 1998 and then 116 Church and 130 Church in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

 

A mortgage of $258,000 taken out on 124 Church in 2008 (used to purchase 116 Church) was declared "satisfied" by TrustCo Bank in 2021 along with a mortgage on 130 Church.