Amherst hopes to display Civil War tablets outside of Town Hall.
AMHERST – Amherst is moving closer to displaying its six Civil War tablets with a bid award to a Northampton-based company that will develop a design and display for them.
The town awarded the $45,000 bid to HAI Architecture and officials hope to have the design the end of February, said Ron Bohonowicz, director of facilities for the town and schools.
The town has been working to display the marble tablets for many years.
The town had hired a consultant to look at the feasibility of displaying them inside Town Hall but it would have been too costly to make the necessary structural improvements.
So the town then turned to consultants specializing in the field of historic preservation to submit a proposal to develop a site and display enclosure for the tablets in a memorial to be located outside Town Hall on Boltwood Walk.
During World War II, a wooden "Roll of Honor" structure occupied that space, Planning Director Jonathan Tucker had said.
The E.M. Stanton Post 147 of the Grand Army of the Republic donated the tablets in 1893. They bear the names of more than 300 residents, including 21 African-American soldiers. Seven of those soldiers served in the 54th Regiment, the first all-black regiment to serve.
Five of the plaques bear the names of men who served, and one the names of those who died.
The tablets had been displayed in Town Hall until the building was renovated in 1962. They were then moved to the basement before being placed in storage in 1997.
In 2000, the late Dudley J. Bridges wanted them properly displayed and began working to see they were restored and installed. He couldn't begin raising money, though, until the town established a site for them.
In 2009, Town Meeting approved spending $65,000 from preservation money to begin the restoration. In 2010, restoration was finished. Officials hope to be able to display them during the Civil War's sesquicentennial. The war ended in the spring of 1865.
HAI Architecture worked on the Town Hall masonry project, renovations to the children’s room at the Forbes Library in Northampton and the new fire station in Deerfield.