Demolition--Finally!

This building being torn down is the former Honda dealership on King Street near the center of Northampton. It has been a vacant eyesore for nearly ten years. Good riddance!

View it large to better see the mass of debris being lifted. On the left you'll also see the letters PREOWNED (partly obscured), the last intact bit of the building remaining (for the non-Americans, that referred to the used cars ("previously owned") which the Honda dealers offered. The fellow in the left foreground is simply enjoying the spectacle in his mobile wheelchair.

After this shot I drove around to the other side for a few others. I parked near a fellow who told me he had bought his first car in that building in 1955. He said it was a Ford dealership then, but the car he bought was a used Studebaker. When we were looking in 2002 for the Honda we now own we went here, but we got a better deal in Greenfield, twenty miles further north--I still go there to have it serviced. We recommend the brand :) I think Honda closed here 3-4 years later, moving north on King Street. Stories of a small town.