Supposedly, Haverhill values its history.
But it's a stretch to believe that with even a casual look at the Whittier building on Winter Street.
The brick structure, which had been home to the Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce until two years ago, has stood empty since then. And the large sign the chamber posted in front with the words, "WE'RE RENOVATING" is now an ironic joke.
There is no renovation going on. The weeds have grown, unmowed, all summer. There is a chain-link fence between the property and the sidewalk. It looks abandoned.
And so far, there isn't much of a plan to change that. There ought to be. This building was the high school that poet John Greenleaf Whittier attended in the early 1800s.
Chamber President James Jajuga said last week that while the organization's original intent was to return to the building, it found that it could not afford the necessary renovations.
There also isn't much coming from the city, which owns the structure, or from Historic Haverhill Inc., the nonprofit that the city gave control of the building back in 1970.
Jajuga said a potential tenant has been negotiating both with the chamber and the city for most of the year — a tenant he said he hoped would be revealed in a month or so — but Mayor James Fiorentini isn't confirming even that much.
"Talk to Jim (Jajuga)," he told reporter Paul Tennant.
This is not acceptable. To the chamber's credit, some renovations have been done, including new windows, roof repairs and a new furnace, so the building is not sliding into dereliction.
But ignoring a structure this old could make other repairs more costly.
Civic and business leaders regularly say they want to work together to better the city. This is a chance to demonstrate that. Surely the city, the chamber and Historic Haverhill can come up with a way to make the sign in front of the Whittier building reflect reality instead of wishful thinking.
