143 Fearing Street in Amherst Massachusetts sounds like an ideal place to live, a hundred year old home, on a wooded lot, in a small New England college town. From this lovely house one can walk a few blocks to the town center, browse at a bookstore, sit in coffee shop, and buy a few things at the market before strolling home on tree lined streets on a warm summer evening. This is the experience that I imaged when I purchased my home in Amherst in the summer of 1989. I purchased the house as a place to live while I attended the University and I planned to live there until I retired.
When I purchased 143 Fearing Street I truly loved living there. I remember sitting in the front room and reading by the window looking out over my yard. I remember preparing dinner in my kitchen with the wide board floor, the fireplace, and my kitchen table covered with floral tablecloth that my girlfriend had chosen. And I remember my bedroom, up in the peak of the house, with the skylight that allowed me to look up into the Hemlock tree, or out at the Dogwood that bloomed in the spring like a framed Japanese print outside of my window.
What I did not understand was that the town of Amherst was deteriorating. Western Massachusetts would become an economically depressed area, the taxes would increase on the property, while at the same time the town services would decrease. Eventually, the stress of living at 143 Fearing Street became so intolerable that I finally had to move. During the time that I lived there, the number of students at the University increased and so did the level of violence in Amherst, affecting every part of the experience of living in that house.
By the time I sold 143 Fearing Street I knew all of the neighbors, and I understood how each of them uniquely made living in that house an unpleasant experience. I also came to know the town officials and learned that they were incompetent, petty, and quick to hand out fines. Finally, I saw the reasons that I moved to Amherst go away. The grocery store, the hardware store, and my favorite bicycle shop all closed, not to be replaced. By the time I left there was not one friend to say goodbye to. I was the last to leave.
I will share with you the quality of Amherst at the time that I left, the disappointments that I felt from the schools, the lack of jobs, and the fear that I felt from the police. At the time that I purchased 143 Fearing Street, it was a wonderful place to live, but by the time that I sold it, it was one of the most expensive mistakes I had made in my life. Since I have moved I have watched the house from afar, and even at a distance it is clear that it has cost the current owner money, and I have no doubt aggravation.