Author Archives: Bill Fornaciari - Independent Correspondent

Have you ever had your plans for the day suddenly changed? Well, that happened to me not long ago when, just as I was walking into the gym, I received an email from Conor Anderson, Plymouth’s historic resources coordinator, who had just discovered a mislabeled file at Town Hall. Originally labeled as documents from the […]

A recent Plymouth real estate listing hit the trifecta for this architect. One of my favorite architectural styles? Check. Notable architect? Check. Prominent Plymouth resident involved? Check. The property in question is 100 Court St., home of the Belsito real estate offices. It’s on the market for $1.25 million. Given the building’s style, architect, and […]

Confession. I’m a big Jimmy Buffet fan, a true Parrothead. One of my favorite Buffet songs is “Fruitcakes.” It’s a hilarious look at everything from politics to relationships to religion, placing blame for our human condition on the cosmic bakers that took humanity out of the oven too early. Essentially, we are half baked. When […]

There’s no doubt that my love of history came from three Plymouth public school teachers. Warren Valente and Charles Hussey taught me history, and Robert Bradley awoke in me what it meant to be from Plymouth. It’s nowonder that when I made the painful decision to abandon my dream of earning a degree to teach […]

I despise this time of the year but not for the reasons you think. As August heads towards September, it heralds the exodus of college students and some of my favorite people are leaving to return to school. That means the “kids” that make my morning latte, the waitstaff at the wedding venue where I […]

My grandmother, Lena Ruffini Fornaciari, was born in Italy. She was fluent in Italian, of course, but also spoke English without an accent, and like so many of her generation growing up in North Plymouth, she was proficient in Portuguese as well. When Lena and my grandfather married, they built a house in 1942 on […]

I recently received an inquiry about a project in Plymouth. I recognized the address immediately because the house has piqued my curiosity for years. The home is clearly the poster child from the Sesame Street song that goes: “One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn’t belong.” It’s […]

Becoming an architect is an arduous process, so with a crop of soon-to-be high school graduates headed off to pursue college degrees, I thought it would be a great time to look at the challenges, and the stiff licensing requirements to practice. (And, not so incidentally, to offer a little peek into my practice, my […]