USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Berkshire, two hundred years in pictures, 1761-1961 > Part 3
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Steam navigation came to Onota Lake in 1893. Alex Melrose's steam launch was probably the first self-propelled craft on that body of water. It was safe, slow and steady in the water. Mrs. F. C. Lindley
Septuagenarian Dinner.
REPORT
SPEECHES. POEM AND OTHER PROCEEDINGS
DINNER GIVEN JUNE 30, 1870.
CITIZENS OF PITTSFIELD, MLASS.,
TOM X-MEN WHO HAD HPACHTED THE AGE OF TO YLAEN
(Official Report.
JOEL MIXSKI.L. 1870.
Pittsfield feted its male citizens of 70 and over in June 1870 at the American House. The banquet was attended by 101 septuagenarians.
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Between chores, an old farmer of West Stockbridge in 1892 sits down to read the newspaper. Roger Johnson Collection
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EVILION HOLSE
HAASELIFTS DEL
In 1867 the deluxe Wilson Hotel in North Adams was opened to the public. The builder was A. B. Wilson, who invented the Wheeler & Wilson sewing machine. Hotel cost $140,000.
Resembling candidates for Simon Legree in an "Uncle Tom" show, these men drove the North Adams stage over Hoosac Mountain to connect with the Boston trains.
Colt 44 pistol used on the stagecoach that ran between Pittsfield and New Lebanon as late as 1880. The gun has two notches. M. S. Wojtkowski
Street scene, 1885: Williamstown-North Adams stage coach waits in the rain at corner drugstore, and men keep dry under the awning. North Adams Library
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Charlie Atwater was man-about-town and happy bachelor in 1886. He holds Larry quiet for picture. Miss Mary G. Stevenson
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Natty-looking Williams College baseball team takes time out from prac- tice to pose for this group picture in 1881. Williams College Library
Wellington Smith and his fine team, Fleet and Commissioner, halt at the Lee park around 1878 for their picture. Lee Library
Nature boy and girls, boarders at Mt. Washington farmhouse in 1870s, equip- ped to go out on a hike. Elizabeth Spurr
Croquet was the craze in the 1870. Stockbridge players pause between tilts at the wickets. Mrs. George W. Bartini
After a stiff climb, Oliver, Dwight and Charles Miner and their companions rest at what is believed the first Mt. Greylock cabin. Trabold: North Adams Transcript
Miss Frances D. Robbins of Pittsfield was pretty proud of the elegant new bicycle she received in 1892. Mrs. Deland de Beaumont
SUMNER HALL, GREAT BARRINGTON, Thursday Evening, April 2, 1874.
CASTLE STREET
VARIETIES!
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.
Loot: at the Array of Talent : Mr. JAMES DUNN, Mr. CHAS. ROYCE. Mr JOHNNY BLEOO, Mr. FRANK LAWTON Mr GEO BARRY. Mr. BILLY FLYNN.
Mr. JAS KELLEY. Mr FRANK DURANT Mr FRED BRISTOL MY ORVILLE BRUSIE
PROGRAMME. KAART HIRT.
Elves and other fairyland figures participated in child- ren's musical productions at the old Academy of Music.
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In the 1880s, kermises were popular as fund-raising entertainments that included ethnic dances. In Pitts- field they usually were staged at the Academy of Music. This company included Mrs. H. L. Dawes Jr., Theodore Pomeroy, Frederick T. West. Athenaeum
The Academy of Music was built in 1878, was for 40 years the entertainment center of Pittsfield.
SOCIAL PARTY !
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Tour Lurspans, with Latire, are resprefiatle tailed af « oral Parti 10
TOWN HALL, : MT. WASHINGTON,
Friday Evening. Feb, 15th. 1884.
LADIES FURNISH REFRESHMENTS.E
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Whooping it up: cast of an 1888 Cap and Bells show at Williams College gets into the spirit of it. Williams College Library
In 1874, Lanesboro had a band led by Walter F. Farnam. It survived for only three years. Nelson C. Burlingham
ANESBORO
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CORNET
BAND.
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Mrs. James W. Hull and children of her 1872 Sunday- school class of Pittsfield's First Church. Miss Mary Stevenson
The Berkshire Athenaeum was an archi- tectural gem when built in 1876. Edifice included Great Barrington blue limestone.
Hudson Maxim was one of the three inventing Maxims. He created smokeless powder. In the 1880s Maxim ran a book- publishing firm successfully in Pittsfield. Clifton Johnson
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East Lee was wrecked in April, 1886, when the dam at Mud Pond went out. Seven persons died and property damage was more than $100,000.
Sheffield's main street after the Blizzard of '88. Sheffield Library
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Levi Beebe was a South Lee farmer, miller and amateur meteorologist who forecast precisely the Blizzard of '88. R. E. Andrews
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City kids of 1895 vacation at St. Helen's Hostel, Interlaken, a fresh-air home set up by John E. Parsons. Mary J. Belford
A new building was completed in 1868 at North and West Streets in Pittsfield for the 17-year- old, fast-growing Berkshire Life Insurance Co.
Charles Hibbard (above) was first Pittsfield mayor as town became city in 1890. First Council (right) was: front. F. F. Reed Jr., A. H. Rice, William F. Petherbridge, John Bastion, J. H. May and John Churchill. Back row, John R. Feelsey. James H. Butler, Thomas Martin, A. K. Albro, N. N. Richardson, John A. Langdon, D. Norton, George T. Denny, E. B. Wilson. Berkshire Athenaeum
BRIDGES
LIVERY.
Dr. Oscar S. Roberts was a busy Pittsfield physician in the 1890s and made calls in a Bridges Livery rig. Mrs. Hannah Kilfeather
Wash day in West Stockbridge. No automatic laundries for the harried housewife of the 1890s. Roger Johnson Collection
Fashion plates: five Williams men of the Class of 1867 pose on the campus. Left to right: Rushmore, Nelson, Schauffler, LeRoy and Ingersoll. Williams College Library
Abraham Burbank, hard-headed businessman, contractor and hotel keeper, gave city Bur- bank Park. He died in 1885.
Also hard-headed was Abe the Bunter, Williams campus charac- ter of the 1880s who smashed hard substances with his head
Earliest picture of an England Brothers store, 1878, shows founder Moses England (center), brother Louis (on the right), employes J. P. Beauchemin (on left), Mrs. Carrie Brosse and Moses England's son, Benjamin M. England.
PATTERNS
M.ENGLAND.
Visitors in the '80s found Balance Rock in open field. The forest since has closed in on the 165-ton giant, poised on a three-foot point; the area has become a little-used state park. Trabold: North Adams Transcript
Youngsters coming home from school cast anxious eyes on exam papers, and swing lunch pails that once contained lard, a switch that was common practice in the 1890s when the picture was taken. Roger Johnson
Pastoral symphony, Hoosic Valley, 1892. Rich meadow near Williamstown yields a bumper crop. Roger Johnson Collection
The Church-on-the-Hill, Lenox, pic- tured here by Clifton Johnson of Hadley, long has been a target of artists and photographers. Johnson, here in the '80s and '90s, also had an eye for workers. Roger Johnson
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Primitive equipment, earnest teachers, attentive pupils stand out in 1892 pictures, above and at right. Roger Johnson Collection
Driver Albert Champlin pulls up in the stagecoach in front of Tryon's Hotel at Monterey in 1876. Nina Tryon
Pittsfield's first high-school building started out as the Berkshire Medical Institution, built in 1850. The medical school failed in 1869, and the city bought and remodeled the building.
Starting for market in New Ashford when horsepower had four feet. In background: community church, its horse sheds, and tavern in whose taproom money was raised to build the church. Johnson
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Pupils of Mrs. Chaffee's Pittsfield private school on East Housatonic Street, photographed in 1897. Mrs. A. B. Reese
Small boy, big slate go to the head of the class in country school of the 1890s. Roger Johnson Collection
Shakers pioneered in education of children when public schools were of poor quality. Shaker classes such as this were typical in Hancock and elsewhere.
The "last stroke" applies to both the old lady (above) and the college lads (right). The woman is stroking a churn, the students rushing to beat the last stroke of Williams College Chapel bell.
The social eyes of the East turned to Lenox each September as the "Berkshire season" closed with the annual Tub Parade, featuring a procession of carriages decorated with flowers grown on the socialites' estates. Artist Henry Sandham drew this version for a Harper's Weekly engraver in September 1886 to go with a special article. Lenox Library
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Lenox Cricket Club gathered at Elm Court in 1906. In front, seated, are: William Cameron, Count Carlos deHeredia Sr., Sir Mortimer Durand (British ambassador), James Whitten- ham and W.D.Sloane. In back: William Sales, Patrick Devan- ney, Mr. Elliott, Alfred Peters, Edwin Jenkins, Fred Heremans, George Milton, W.B.O. Field.
Elegant ($21/2 million) Bellefontaine in Lenox was two years old when this picture was taken at the side entrance of the French-palace residence in 1898. Lenox Library Collections
The Gilded Age
AS MORE AND MORE millionaires were created by the nation's soaring economy, the question of where to spend their untaxed incomes arose. They sought to gain status, and perhaps have a little fun doing it. Fashionable Newport discouraged upstart newcomers, however rich, so the fresh crop of the well-heeled hit on Lenox for their resort playground. It was nicknamed the Inland Newport. From about 1880 to World War I, Lenox was one of the richest little towns in the nation, with castles and palaces springing up on once-humble farm land. These establishments were called cottages by the owners, who themselves were known as cottagers. This was a term of distinction, stemming from the early years when the wealthy visitors occupied cottages attached to the resort hotels. By 1880 there had been built 35 mansions, and by 1900 the number was 75. Biggest of all - and said to be the largest private home in the country when built in 1894 - was Shadowbrook, owned by the Stokes banking family and containing 100 rooms. Almost as big were Bellefontaine, which Giraud Foster created in the likeness of the Petit Trianon in France, and spacious Elm Court, which grew by additions from a huge mansion to a sprawling castle. Many of the servants who manned these estates were imported from Europe, and the staffs numbered from a dozen up to more than 100. In their country life, the "cottagers" took their cue from the English nobility; they followed the hounds and formed the Berkshire Hunt Club, staged annual horse shows, usually at High Lawn, had horse races at the Lee track, and even formed a cricket team. Garden parties were fashionable, and Tub Parades for a time closed the season, with dozens of carriages decorated with thousands of flowers grown on the estates. The decline of the Gilded Age began with World War I, the income tax, and the end of cheap domestic help. Great houses stood empty for years, then came to life again as schools, inns and religious institutions.
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Stretching 410 feet along the hillside above Stockbridge Bowl, Shadowbrook was built (1892-94) by Anson Phelps Stokes at a cost variously reported as one to three millions. The house had 100 rooms, and the estate sprawled over 900 acres.
Mr. and Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes play a quiet game of chess at home. Mrs. John Davis Hatch
Artisans and domestics from both sides of the Atlantic came to Lenox to work on and in the big "cottages" during the gilded days. Here, with Shadowbrook nearly completed, European crafts- men are shown with local workers. Lenox Library
Skating on Stockbridge Bowl was one of the win- ter pastimes of the Stokes family and their guests at Shadowbrook. In front, Miss Katharine Story; at left, Caroline Stokes. Mrs. John Davis Hatch
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The Berkshire social set turned out in full fig for a Stokes lawn party in the autumn of 1889. It was at the Homestead, occupied by the Stokeses before they built Shadowbrook. Mrs. John D. Hatch
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New York banker Henry Cook built Wheatleigh in 1894 and furnished it lavishly, the drawing room offering a gilded example. Estate covered 250 acres; house had 33 rooms, 10 baths. Mrs. Carlos deHeredia, Cook's daugh- ter, lived there for many years after her father's death. From Lenox Library
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Edith Wharton was the only socialite- author to live in Lenox, from the 1890s to 1910. This impressive photograph was made in 1905. From Lenox Library
Double-ripper sliding was a Lenox winter sport in the 1890s. An accident near this spot led Edith Wharton to write her famous 1911 novel, "Ethan Frome." Lenox Library
Andrew Carnegie in 1916 pur- chased Shadowbrook for more than $400,000. He occupied it summers, and died there at 84 in 1919. Lenox Library
Elm Court dates from 1887, built by W.D.Sloane, rug manufacturer. The house has 50 rooms, and the property covers 300 acres, includ. ing 25 acres in lawns. Sloane's daughter, Mrs. Henry White, lived there until she died in 1946. This aerial view was taken after the place had become a summer resort in the 1950s. William H. Tague
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John E. Parsons, corporation lawyer and socialite, built Stonover, Lenox. In 1900 he posed with a granddaughter and donkey. From Mrs. Mary J. Belford
Fishing attire was somewhat formal in 1904 at the Mahkeenac Boat Club on Stockbridge Bowl for Miss Anna Alex- andre (left) and her sister, Miss Maidie.
Joseph H. Choate, lawyer, no- ted wit, as King of the Twelfth Night Revels. He built Naum- keag in Stockbridge in 1885.
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Choate in July 1915 in their gardens at Naumkeag, now open to the public in summer. Stockbridge Library
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Guests dance on lawn at Stonover, Lenox, at fashionable wedding of Miss Edith Parsons and D. Percy Morgan Sr. in 1886. Lenox Library
The Curtis Hotel, Lenox, expanded in 1883 with a 4-story extension at the rear, built by new owner, William O. Curtis. It formerly was called the Berkshire Coffee House.
Railroad air-brake inventor George Westinghouse built Erskine Park in Lenox as his summer home in 1890. It be- came Foxhollow School later.
Several of the Emmet girls of Stockbridge studied abroad and became noted painters. Lydia Field Emmet was known for her por- traits of children, such as Beatrice and Hope Procter (above), daughters of the Rodney Procters of Stockbridge. Rosamond Sherwood
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Millionaires, political leaders and social climbers flocked each summer to the luxurious Aspinwall Hotel in Lenox, whose 400 rooms had a wooded hilltop setting of 550 acres. After its 1902 opening, there were many gatherings like this.
Tennis games and parties were popular with the socialites in the early 1900s. This was at Wheatleigh. Lenox Library
Built in 1887, the Searles mansion in Great Barrington was designed as a French chateau. Architect and owner was Edward F. Searles, who married the wealthy widow of railroad tycoon Mark Hopkins. The building has 48 rooms.
Newbold Morris Sr. snacks during the 1901 Berkshire Hunt races. Alexandre
Bull-cart with dummies, tended by Albert E. Gallatin, was a feature of the 1901 gymkhana at the Richard C. Dixey estate, Tanglewood. Anna Alexandre
Ducks and piglets were raced at the 1901 gymkhana. Among those standing: the Misses Juliana Cutting, Evelyn Sloane, Helen Alexandre, Georgette Collier. From Anna Alexandre
Modishly attired spectators crowd the sidelines at the 1901 Tangle- wood gymkhana, which brought out leaders of the Berkshire sum- mer colony in force. Alexandre
Wealthy cottagers gathered once a year at High Lawn estate for the Lenox Horse Show. In 1908 the weather was excep- tional; gleaming trappings, equippages, and pedigreed horses were displayed to the finest advantage. Anna Alexandre
Carey Hayward of Pittsfield (in bowler hat) reported society news for New York papers, and had entree to exclusive events. Here he was covering the Lee races. Alexandre
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Frank Crowninshield, who became famous as editor of Van- ity Fair, was a long-time summer resident of Stockbridge and leader of the art-minded set. He is shown at the Berk- shire Hunt Club 1901 races in Lee with Miss Anne Webb, Mrs. J. Woodward Haven and Miss Mary Parsons. Alexandre
Riders and hounds and fans of the Berkshire Hunt meet in Richmond in 1908. Riding to hounds English- style was fashionable. Alexandre
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Stanley Electric Manufacturing Co. built a plant in Pitts- field in 1890 to make the alternating-current transformers invented by William Stanley. GE bought the firm in 1903.
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J. T. Roketi,
23] Tyler St.
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Dr. to PITTSFIELD ELECTRIC CO. COR COTTAGE ROW AND RENNE AVE
Pittsfield, Mass.
April,vy ., 1908.
FOR ELECTRIC LIGHT SERVICE.
Meter Reading 115
Consumption
A newart of 15% for payment atrice ' , 150 last.
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PITTSFIELD ELGLACE PER ://7
Generating electricity also generates bills. It cost J. T. Hogan, 231 Tyler St., 85 cents for a month's current in 1908. Peter J. Masino
History was made at Niagara Falls in 1895 when a water-powered generator produced by the Stanley Electric Manufacturing Co. in Pittsfield was installed. GE Library
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Frank J. Sprague, who grew up in North Adams, held patents on elevators and trolley cars. Sprague Electric
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In 1890 the Pittsfield Electric Co. was formed. This plant generated power on Renne Avenue until 1905, then was moved to Silver Lake. The company became a Western Massachusetts Electric Co. unit in 1943.
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Main Street in Great Barrington as it looked in 1886 when William Stanley employed alternating current for the first time for lighting. About 25 homes, stores, hotels and offices were lit up. GE Library
William Stanley's original transformer built at Great Barrington and demon- strated in 1886. Berkshire Museum
Transformer inventor William Stanley was born in Brooklyn in 1858. He moved to Great Barrington in 1885.
Technology
FLOURISHING IN Berkshire even while the area was a playground for the rich was an energetic development of applied science. Contact be- tween the two worlds was rare, but in at least one instance they collaborated happily. William Stan- ley demonstrated the use of alternating current for lighting in Great Barrington in 1886, drawing elec- tricity from the plant at the new Searles castle. Stanley built an electric manufacturing plant in Pittsfield, later bought by General Electric. In 1880, Stephen Dudley Field built and ran the first trolley car in the United States at his Stockbridge home. Frank J. Sprague, who grew up in North Adams, also held many trolley patents, and in 1887 built in Virginia the first successful trolley line in the world; his son Robert founded the Sprague Electric Co. Automobile building had a brief life here in the early 1900s. From 1904 to 1909 the Berkshire car was made in Pittsfield, the Stilson Six from 1907 to 1911, and the successful Sampson trucks from 1905 to 1911. For two years, 1917 to 1919, Oscar Hutchinson of Lenox assembled a truck called the Lenox. The gilded age tarnished and disappeared, but technology brought more wealth to Berkshire than the rich ever squandered in their most prodigal heydays.
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Stephen Dudley Field invented the trolley, and first operated a car on his front lawn in Stockbridge in August, 1880. Stockbridge Library
Trolley tracks first appeared at Pittsfield's Park Square in 1901, ten years after building of the first trolley line, from the Depot to Pontoosuc Lake.
In Adams the first electric car was an open-platform model opera- ted by the Hoosac Valley Street Railway about 1905. Smith Studio
Parlor car Berkshire Hills started running be- tween Canaan, Conn., and Bennington, Vt., in 1903. Pittsfield photo at Park Square included Motorman Gallup, Conductor Vincent, in caps.
Trolley companies ran excursions to popular spots. Lines of cars such as these at Dalton were common Sundays and holidays. K. M. Goodrich
I MUST. AL CO.
Berkshire Park in Cheshire was built and run by the trolley company, whose cars pro- vided transportation to and from the grounds. Many diversions were offered. William Nesbit
Wrecks often were serious for riders of the old trolleys. Bessie Ryan, a passenger, was killed in this crash in 1910 at the underpass between Dalton and Hinsdale. Kinsley M. Goodrich
This spectacular smash-up occurred at Lee on Jan. 19, 1903. Ice on the rails caused many accidents. Mrs. Rasmus Kristensen
Pittsfield's Wahconah Street bridge was too much for this trolley, which nose-dived. William Nesbit
The Lee-Huntington trolley line was nick- named the Huckleberry Line because of the mass of bushes along part of its 24 miles. During waits at sidings, passengers could pick berries. The road, costing more than two million dollars, was opened in 1911.
Winter tried the metal of Berkshire trolley cars, forcing plow No. 999 into duty as an icebreaker against floes left on the tracks by high water at Booth's Bridge, Housatonic. Kinsley M. Goodrich
Brennan's Cut, Lanesboro, was the terror of trolley men. Drifts like these were not rare in winter, but this 1916 picture was taken in the "springtime," April 12.
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AUTOMOBILE ~ STATION.
Self-playing Tel-Electric pianos were built in Pittsfield from 1912 until metal shortages of World War I brought shutdown. Key ac- tion was by electromagnets. Domnall F. Kelly
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Pittsfield's first garage was called an auto station. It was a shed near the corner of North and Eagle streets bought by Dr. Oscar S. Roberts for the housing of his "horseless carriage."
Eli Terry founded his Terry Clock Co. in 1880 at Pittsfield. The clocks were world-famous, but in 1888 he failed and his big factory went to a predecessor of Eaton Paper Corp. Mrs. Harvey Fadden
Boat trailers were not unknown in 1903. A Locomobile with face- to-face seating hauls a light craft down Main Street in Sheffield, with the Taconic Inn in the background. Sheffield Library
Lenox got the first fire pumper built by American LaFrance. In 1909 Fire Chief Hutchinson took firemen Eugene Mackey, Howard Joyner and James Too- lan for a test spin down Walker Street. From Oscar Hutchinson
Heavy-duty trucks were built in Pittsfield by Alden Sampson from 1905 to 1911. Many gave 20 years' service, hauling loads of 10 and 12 tons.
MACHINIST
Develops Triumph Voting Machine and Becomes General Manager
C. C. ABBOTT. Gen. Mgr. TRIUMPH VOTING MACHINE CO. PITTSFIELD 4.455.
"I was a Machinist at the bench when I enrolled for Mechanical Engineering in the I. C. S. I have since designed special machinery for the Stanley Elec- tric Co., of Pittsfield, and have recently secured 25 patents on the Triumph Voting Machine. I am General Man- ager of the Company at seven times my salary at enrolment."
YOU Can "Make Good' 6
Charles Abbott of Pittsfield developed an automatic voting machine in 1906. He started Triumph Voting Machine Co. with a plant on Columbus Avenue, and was featured in a correspondence- school ad. The firm moved to James- town, N. Y., in 1916. Kenneth Abbott
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Dr. John Hassett of Lee, shown driving past the Lee Library with his chauffeur, in 1905 had one of the first autos built by the Berkshire Automobile Co. of Pittsfield. Ella J. Casey
Carl Wurtzbach of Lee was a prominent businessman. He was an of- ficer of the Lee Electric Co. and had an electric auto. He and Mrs. Wurtzbach were photographed in it May 3, 1908. Mrs. Tracy Ambler
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The assassination of President Mc- Kinley in 1901 brought this headline and story in The Berkshire Eagle.
President William McKinley and his hosts, the W. B. Plunketts of Adams, gather on the Plunkett porch for a picture in 1899. The President came to lay the cornerstone of Plunkett's Berkshire Mill No. 4. Seated are William B. Plunkett, Mrs. Mckinley, Presi- dent Mckinley and Mrs. W. B. Plunkett. Standing; C. T. Plunkett, two nieces of Mrs. Mckinley, Alfred Mole, and Arthur Lowe, Mayor of Fitchburg. Mrs. Theodore Plunkett
President William Howard Taft and his close friend, Richard Watson Gilder of Tyringham, go fishing in a Berkshire pond around 1901.
Presidents
SEVERAL PRESIDENTS of the United States visited Berkshire around the turn of the 20th century. The most sensational visit was that of Theodore Roosevelt in 1902, when his carriage was wrecked by a trolley at the Country Club of Pitts- field. A Secret Service man was killed, Roosevelt painfully injured. The President shook his fist and exploded, "This is a damnable outrage!" Less spectacular were visits by William Mckinley, friend of the Plunkett family of Adams; by William Howard Taft, who spoke at Pittsfield's sesqui- centennial in 1911; Chester Arthur, who was guest of his secretary of state, F. T. Frelinghuysen, in Lenox; James Garfield, Williams College alumnus, and Grover Cleveland, friend of Richard Watson Gilder, editor of the Century magazine, who lived in Tyringham where Cleveland often visited.
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