Thornes Marketplace ‘Nearing the Finish Line’ on Capital Improvements
Roughly $500,000 in renovations creates additional handicapped accessible bathrooms, opens Herrell’s up to customers from within Thornes and accentuates historic features
NORTHAMPTON—As part of a multi-year capital improvement project, Thornes Marketplace has spent roughly $500,000 to make the eclectic and historically relevant downtown shopping center more accessible to people with physical disabilities.
“We’re nearing the finish line,” said Thornes owner and property manager, Richard M. Madowitz. “We were interested in updating and modernizing and, where feasible, making the building compliant to the extent physically possible. We’re very pleased with the improvements and the increased opportunities it will afford members of the public.”
Thornes Marketplace has been the cornerstone of downtown Northampton and at the center of the Main Street shopping district for more than a century. Built in 1873, it holds 55,000 square feet of space for merchants and includes features such as pressed tin ceilings, hardwood floors and stained glass windows.
Renovations, completed without harm to the historic highlights, include the remodeling of several bathrooms, which are now fully handicapped accessible; the addition of oak handrails along the walls of the grand staircases. And, in partnership with Herrell’s Ice Cream, Thornes replaced a staircase with a ramp, making the ice cream parlor accessible from within Thornes for the first time in its nearly 40-year history.
“Customers are loving it,” Judy Herrell said of the ramp that opened on May 19, adjacent to a now fully accessible restroom. “We’re accessible, and that’s a very, very positive thing. We are very grateful that Thornes was willing to work with us on this project. They went above and beyond the call to work with us.”
Herrell said that, until now, the ice cream shop has accommodated customers with disabilities that prevented them from entering via Thornes by accepting orders over the phone and delivering them within the building. This often meant making a second trip to and from Herrell’s to process a debit or credit card, she added.
Jody Doele, marketing manager for Thornes, said the increased accessibility and other improvements in the building are creating some buzz on social media, and shoppers are expressing their gratitude.
She said Thornes has always had one accessible bathroom, but access is now greatly improved. “This is one of those things that we’ve done as a management team that has brought us tremendous satisfaction on a personal level,” Doele said. “We have seen daily the effects of the building’s limitations for people with disabilities. For us to have the opportunity to improve their experience of Thornes has made us feel great. We’ve gotten instant feedback.”
Madowitz and a partner, Doug Kohl, bought Thornes 11 years ago. Madowitz said they have wanted to make improvements for accessibility for many years, but the high cost was prohibitive. In 2014, Thornes hired Thomas Douglas Architects of Northampton to create a comprehensive multi-year plan for improving accessibility to bring the building into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“This was optional for us. It was something we wanted to do, something we thought was important to and for our customers,” Madowitz said, noting that once the architectural plans were filed with the appropriate state boards, compliance was mandated, and the complex process was highly regulated.
Where compliance could not be achieved—at the outside entrance to Herrell’s, for instance, where the granite steps and steep slope of the street make the work impossible—Thornes received variances and the pre-existing conditions continue to be allowed.
Renovation work in the project began in 2015 and was overseen by Jon McGee, who has worked with Thornes for 22 years, 16 of them as facilities manager.
McGee said another example of an architectural feature that Thornes was allowed to leave in place is the historical, 150-year-old wooden banisters on the grand staircases leading to upper and lower levels.
“We negotiated with the state to be able to leave them in place and were allowed to add supplementary wooden handrails along the walls where no rail had existed,” McGee said. “Rich made an intentional decision to invest in custom maple rails that match the existing structure rather than using metal rails that are far more inexpensive.”
McGee said renovations to the first floor men’s bathroom were extensive, requiring the removal of a step and considerable structural and architectural labor. Renovations to other bathrooms were less complex and involved rebuilding stalls to meet dimensional standards and ensuring access to fixtures.
Future labor will include remodeling the Main Street entrance, installing additional handrails, renovating a bathroom on the second floor and adjusting a ramp outside Acme Surplus, which is deemed too steep.
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