NORTH ADAMS — The former railroad yard-turned-history museum on Furnace Street is slowly on its way to a makeover.

Leaky roofs and mold in its 19th-century buildings forced the closure of Heritage State Park in 2022. Since then, the complex has largely sat empty, with the exception of Freight Yard Pub and the Berkshire Academy of Advanced Musical Studies.

With the help of grant funding, the city is searching for an architecture firm to chart a path forward for the six buildings. Many locals have lamented the closure as the loss of a piece of the city’s history.

In October 2025, the city was awarded $250,000 from the Massachusetts Community One Stop for Growth program to hire an architecture firm to create "architectural and engineering documents." That step is needed to secure construction funding to repair the park's old buildings, according to a city press release.

Requests for qualifications were due Tuesday, Mayor Jennifer Macksey said. The project has generated “a lot” of interest, she said — about 20 firms submitted inquiries.

The chosen firm will develop exterior design plans on buildings 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 with a focus on roofing and siding systems for each structure, Macksey said.

Buildings 1 and 2 at Heritage State Park, on the far left red building is Freight Yard Pub. City officials say they are in the design process of bringing the space back to life. “It’s going to tell us what we need to do in each building," Mayor Jennifer Macksey said.

Buildings 1, 2 and 3 surround Freight Yard Pub. Macksey described Building 5 as “the ugly yellow one with paint chipping.” Building 6 houses the Berkshire Academy for Advanced Musical Studies.

Building 4 is not included in the design work because it houses the state Hoosac Tunnel museum run by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, she said.

Building 5 at Heritage State Park, which used to house the North Adams Museum of History and Science. The city is using grant funding to figure out how to repair five of the six buildings.

“Once we get the analysis, our hope is we can go [apply] to another One Stop and say, ‘Hey, this is what we'd like to do with these buildings and can you give [us] the construction money?’” Macksey said.

Macksey said that once the city awards a firm, it will have a clearer timeline for the work. After the design work, the park will also get $50,000 to prepare the property for "redevelopment and public use."

Heritage State Park buildings, 5, left, 4, middle, and Freight Yard Pub, right.

“Again, this is just pre-design work,” she said. “It’s going to tell us what we need to do in each building.”

According to the DCR, the former freight storage yard, built in the mid-to-late 1800s, served the Boston and Albany rail line after the Hoosac Tunnel opened, ushering in an economic boom in North Adams.

According to articles in the North Adams Transcript, the surviving buildings were preserved and adapted into multi-use spaces for a state park in the mid 1980s. They included restaurants, businesses and a museum dedicated to the dangerous construction of the 5-mile Hoosac Tunnel, which killed an estimated 200 people. The Mohawk Trail Association spent $40,000 on promotion of the opening, according to an Oct. 10, 1985, article.