![\"Entering](\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/hist371-16s\/files\/2016\/05\/Entering-NA3-e1463063260435-300x240.jpg\")
North Adams lives in the imagination of people \u2014 it\u2019s future, present and past. Many people assessed the tension between North Adams\u2019 previous identity as an industrial center and it’s new and changing identity as a home for the arts. What became clear through the interviews was North Adams\u2019 enduring sense of place. Sprague might have left North Adams, but the loyalty and persistence of its residents hasn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n
Linda Saharczewski, former Sprague employee, describes MASS MoCA’s success after Sprague\u2019s closing and the way that progression has impacted the local community.<\/p>\n
The closing of Sprague really left a gap, but I think that North Adams is starting to get on the right track. They went full-force into putting all their eggs into MASS MoCA and while a lot of people didn\u2019t think or didn\u2019t feel confident that that was ever going to do much for the city, I think it\u2019s slowly starting to show that it is helping. They have a lot of events that go on there that bring thousands of people \u00a0into that city. And it\u2019s still kept its\u2026 it\u2019s still a small city, you know- and that\u2019s kind of what is nice about it, you know. It is a city, there\u2019s a lot going on, there\u2019s a lot of things happening there now because of MASS MoCA – things are starting to build up little by little, but it\u2019s still small enough that you don\u2019t get lost in it, you know, you really don\u2019t get lost in it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Steve Melito, who grew up in\u00a0North Adams and currently lives in Adams, reflects on the future of manufacturing. \u00a0Melito remarks that North Adams\u2019 identity is still deeply tied to industry, and he points out the ways in which he sees Sprague\u2019s legacy living on in North Adams and Adams.<\/p>\n
As much as people in northern Berkshire would like there to be another big employer, there really isn\u2019t. I\u2019m sure some people went to the hospital maybe to work as custodians or got jobs in the school as custodians, but for the type of low skilled manufacturing labor, those jobs are gone and they\u2019re not just gone in North Adams, they\u2019re gone across the Northeast and the Midwest and they\u2019re not coming back. So that\u2019s been hard with that. I can tell you a couple interesting successor stories that came out of Sprague. There are two companies in Adams right now that have their roots in Sprague. One is Shinewire, they\u2019re in the industrial park and the current owner\u2019s father had worked for Sprague for many years and when Sprague imploded in the eighties he went off and started his own company and kept some people working, but not on the order of magnitude that Sprague itself did. Then there\u2019s another company in the Adam\u2019s industrial park, MRA Technologies and its run by a man whose dad was a Sprague scientist and they do ceramics or maybe even ceramic capacitors, so there are a couple of offshoots that survive but on a much smaller scale and they\u2019re more highly skilled than Sprague itself probably was.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Otto Wied, former Sprague employee, brought out another perspective when asked what he saw for the future in North Adams. As Wied explains, it is hard to think about the future in North Adams. Many who were closely involved with Sprague continue to have difficulty seeing beyond it.<\/p>\n
Well, it\u2019s never going to be a manufacturing center. Location\u2019s just not good. It\u2019s difficult to envision it as becoming a tourist center. It\u2019s a little too far\u2026out. And really all it\u2019s got going for it is MASS MoCA. And the Clark. I would hope\u2026that it could grow from MASS MoCA as\u2026an arts community. I can\u2019t imagine it growing it into much, but at least it\u2019s being sustained, as an arts community, and as a low cost pleasant place to live. I really, it\u2019s hard to think of what the future could be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
While others who have rich memories from Sprague see a lot for a future. Lorraine Maloney, lifelong North Adams resident is an example of this.<\/p>\n