Larry Rosenblum
Title: Plymouth Redevelopment Authority Planning Director, 1820 Courthouse Project
Age: 71
Experience:45 years
After three years of wrangling between town departments, residents and other stakeholders, Plymouth officials are ready to officially begin the search for a developer to redevelop the 1820 courthouse and the commissioners building on Russell Street in the heart of the town’s commercial district. The town currently controls a few acres of land adjacent to historic Burial Hill, where familiar personages like William Bradford, Pilgrim governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, lay at their eternal rest. So a whole array of redevelopment possibilities are possible in the area of the courthouse, and interested parties will have a hand in truly transforming the area. The planning for the project is being led by Larry Rosenblum, a veteran architect and planning professional. The Brooklyn, N.Y. native bought a former fishing camp in Plymouth with his wife in 1987 and has lived in the town ever since.
Q: What happened that pushed the courthouse into obscurity?
A: The nature of a courthouse has changed dramatically in the last 50 years for many reasons, not the least of which is security. If you are a courthouse architect today, the spatial requirements, the ability to bring certain elements into the courthouse from one section … there are a ton of requirements to make a modern courthouse. This building was not only not large enough to sustain modern state courthouse needs, it also didn’t meet any of the requirements.
Q: What is the community’s view on the redevelopment of the property?
A: The image of the façade is what people want to preserve in this building. Most people have not had much interaction with the building. It’s an extreme case of how people can get attached to an image. Most people have never even been inside them unless they were involved in the legal process in some way. It’s a historic artifact that doesn’t have necessarily tactile connections for residents.
Q: What piqued your interest in this project?
A: My interest in the courthouse derives from a conviction that places and buildings like these offer special opportunities for a community, particularly ones like Boston and the Faneuil Hall markets, where history and a great architectural legacy come together. It is fitting that I should be working for and with the Plymouth Redevelopment Authority on this project. While I hadn’t thought of it before, this is not unlike the work I did on the Faneuil Hall markets as Boston was struggling to breathe life into those old buildings. That’s exactly what we are attempting to do here in Plymouth.
Q: What is unique about this redevelopment opportunity compared to other courthouse projects, like potential redevelopment of similar properties in Cambridge and Worcester?
A: The elements don’t come together as beautifully in most places as they do here. Here you have buildings that have fallen into disuse at the same time that there are other town-owned properties nearby. It happens to be at the head of the major connector street that takes you down to the waterfront. It also happens to be next to one of the most historically significant cemeteries in America. Those elements don’t come together very often. This is a rare confluence of development opportunities from a commercial and a cultural point of view. In the year 2020, this building will be 200 years old; the same year, the town turns 400 years old.
