USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts : a guide to its places and people > Part 35
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R. from Main St. on the Schell Château Rd.
6. The Schell Château (open) (L), an annex of the Northfield Inn, built in 1890 by Robert Schell who originally intended it for an English country house.
Retrace on Schell Château Rd .; R. from Schell Château Rd. on Main St.
7. The Home of the Rev. Dwight L. Moody (open) is at the corner of the first road N. of West Northfield Rd. The son of a widowed mother, Moody lacked educational opportunities, but his driving ambition made him achieve financial success. In 1855, however, he was converted, re- nounced the world, and preached his way to fame. Conscious of his own meager opportunities and keenly sympathetic with those who yearned for an education, he founded Northfield Seminary and the Mount Hermon School.
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Main Street and Village Green
8. Northfield Seminary (open) (R), established in 1879, occupies 1200 acres with 79 buildings accommodating over 500 women students. Its founder had been impressed with the hopelessness of the lot of the girls from the poorer homes after driving past a mountain cottage where a mother and two daughters were braiding palmetto straw hats in an effort to support a family whose father was a paralytic. All the Seminary students help with the housework and receive an education for about half the cost usual in other schools. Northfield Summer Conferences (religious; open to public) are held the first two weeks in August.
East Hall, built in 1880 was the first building on the campus. The Birthplace of D. L. Moody and the house where he lived, as well as his Grave and that of his wife are on the campus grounds and may be visited by making arrangements at Kernarden Hall, the administration building. The beautiful Chapel, in Gothic style, a gift of Mrs. Russell Sage, and Gould Hall, given by Miss Helen Gould are two of the outstanding buildings on the campus. The Auditorium seats three thousand people.
Retrace on Main St. to junction with State 63; straight ahead on State 63. 9. The Lookout, a vantage-point high on the river terrace, offers an excellent view of the Connecticut River country with the towers of the Mount Hermon Boys' School (see Tour 154, Gill) in the foreground.
NORTON . Typical New England
Town: Alt. 104, pop. 2295, sett. 1669, incorp. 1711.
Railroad Station: East Norton for N.Y., N.H. & H. R.R. Accommodations: Inns and private boarding-houses.
NORTON is a pleasant small country town, well wooded and watered, which gives the general impression, no longer strictly correct, of a typical New England farming community. As it occupies a level plain, without hills of note, the landscape is not much diversified and makes no-im- mediate or striking appeal. Norton is the sort of place, however, which grows upon the affections. In every direction there are agreeable walks, running now across open pastures, walled by the loose stones cleared from the fields by the first settlers, now past some small sawmill still in operation, now through pungent pines, and coming suddenly upon a pretty brook or delightful pond. These things the girls at Wheaton College have known for the past hundred years.
For Norton is distinctively a college town, the seat of Wheaton College, one of the pioneer schools for the education of women in this country. It is the only small independent college for women in Massachusetts
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Norton
which is neither co-educational nor affiliated with other institutions, with a limited enrollment of five hundred students in 1937, representing twenty-one States, Puerto Rico, and three foreign countries. The faculty is composed of both men and women. 'That they may have life and have it more abundantly' is the college motto.
Norton, originally a rural and agricultural village, took on its academic character with the founding of Wheaton Female Seminary, established by Judge Laban Wheaton in 1834 as a memorial to his daughter. Mary Lyon was its organizer, but left to found Mount Holyoke College after two years.
Jewelry has been manufactured in Norton since 1871, the first concern being established by W. A. Sturdy. The Barrowsville Bleachery has been in operation for over thirty years. These, along with the Talbot Wool Combing Company, the T. J. Holmes Company, manufacturers of atomizers, and the paper and wooden box factories, represent the in- dustrial activity of the town today.
Norton for its size had an unusual amount of trouble with the powers of darkness. Beside Dora Leonard and Naomi Burt, town witches, old- timers tell a story from Colonial days about one Major George Leonard, a highfalutin fellow who sold himself soul and body to the Devil for gold. In 1716 His Satanic Majesty cashed in on his bargain, they say, whistling the Major's soul out of his body and then carrying his body off through the roof. Anyone who doesn't believe this can see with his own eyes the Devil's footprints on a rock below the eaves where Satan landed when he jumped off with his heavy burden. No one saw the corpse at the funeral, there being nothing but a log of wood in the box, to avert the townsfolks' suspicions.
TOUR - 12 m.
E. from State 140 on State 123 (Main St.)
I. Wheaton College is attractively placed on a campus of over 100 acres. It occupies 40 buildings, 15 of which are modern brick in the Georgian Colonial style of architecture, examples of restraint and usefulness, whose loveliness lies in their lines rather than in any external ornament. The extensive grounds include a beautiful strip of woods to the south, known as College Pines, and a body of water about two acres in extent. They are diversified by gardens, lawns, hedges, trees, and meadows, and contain athletic fields, concrete and clay tennis courts, and other equip- ment for outdoor sports.
Among Wheaton College buildings are three designed by Cram and Ferguson. The Chapel (1917), the Library (1923), and Everett Hall (1926) are modern inter- pretations of Georgian Colonial style, in red New Hampshire brick with trim of limestone and white-painted wood. The architects are known also for their con- temporary work based upon medieval precedent.
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Main Street and Village Green
2. House in the Pines, a preparatory school for girls, was established in 19II, when Wheaton College was emerging from the old Wheaton Sem- inary and discontinuing its preparatory department. The school grounds, covering an area of 80 acres, have a great deal of natural beauty due to a variety of trees with pines predominating. Here are a beautiful out- door theater with two old oaks and a hedge of pines; rose gardens; a lily pool surrounded by iris; Japanese cherry trees; the smoke bush, the lilacs, the lindens; and the arborvitae hedge that forms a screen for the athletic field. The school also has a string of saddle-horses.
R. from Main St. on Leonard St .; L. from Leonard St. on Plain St.
3. King Philip's Cave, near Becker's Farm on Great Rocky Hill, formed by the projection of one very large rock over another, is said to have been a favorite retreat of King Philip, on his fishing excursion to Win- nicunnet Pond.
R. from Plain St. on Bay St .; L. from Bay St. on dirt road opposite Winni- cunnet Pond.
4. Winnicunnet Turkey Farm (open), or the Rundge Turkey Farm, was formerly used for raising horses and was purchased from gypsies. It covers over 400 acres and is situated on Toad Island. Over 100,000 turkeys are raised annually. The flocks consume five tons of grain per day as food and rejoice in open-air roosts, on a triangular skeleton frame six feet high.
PITTSFIELD . Power-Source and Playground
City: Alt. 1038, pop. 47,516, sett. 1752, incorp. town 1761, city 1889. Railroad Stations: Union Station, West St., for B. & A. R.R.
Bus Stations: 48 South St. for Greyhound, New England Transportation Co., Arrow, Interstate Busses Corp., Vermont Transit Lines, Berkshire Motor Coach Lines, Blue Way, Nutmeg Lines, and Peter Pan Bus Lines.
Accommodations: One first-class and three second-class hotels; numerous inns. Information: Chamber of Commerce, 50 South St .; Automobile Club of Berk- shire Co., 26 Bank Row.
IN THE shadow of Mount Greylock, high in the rolling Berkshires, Pittsfield opens the commercial gateway to western Massachusetts. Situated between the upper branches of the Housatonic River more than one thousand feet above sea level, the city is traversed by streams which for a hundred years or more have furnished power to factories
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Pittsfield
producing such varied products as silk thread, mohair braid, tacks, metal goods, textiles, paper, and electrical machinery.
Today the city has a prosperous, tranquil look of general comfort and cultivation which makes it one of the most attractive industrial cities in the State. The homes of the well-to-do line its elm-shaded streets with substantial dignified residences and smooth lawns. From almost any point within the business and residential district there is a broad view of the rolling Berkshires, across the wide meadows and small lakes and elm-bordered streams of the plateau. The altitude of the city gives it a salubrious climate which makes it a favorite winter and summer playground for tourists and sportsmen.
There has been a change, however, in the character of the city's holiday population. In the latter part of the nineteenth century Pittsfield at- tracted a wealthy leisure class who resided solidly on spacious estates. The rambling old Maplewood Hotel, in the heart of the modern city, was a relic such as could not be matched short of Saratoga, with its long verandas and wide and spacious elm-shaded lawns, the latter dotted with seats, fountains, and urns.
But the great estates have been broken up into realty developments for smaller residences or business property, and the few that remain in the environs of Pittsfield have converted their stables into garages. The advent of the automobile has changed everything. The leisurely old- school ladies and gentlemen who once trotted sedately in victorias or runabouts along the city lanes are no more. Their modern successors now whirl in and out again in swift cars, and hotels, old and new, are conduits for a never-ending stream of summer and winter visitors. A great circle of the country round about is a motorists' paradise and Pittsfield is its hub. Nearly every owner of a car on the eastern seaboard and many from the Middle and the Far West at some time or other tour the Berk- shires; and nearly everyone who visits the Berkshires calls at some time on Pittsfield.
The city's development from a small agricultural community to a thriving center of textile, paper, and electrical machinery manufacturing has paralleled the general development throughout the State. Its entire history is bound up with industrial progress.
Although Indian troubles and disputes with New York over the boundary of the State delayed its settlement until 1752, the plantation of Pontoo- suck, as it was called, rapidly achieved agricultural prosperity and be- came a trading center for Berkshire communities. Two years later it had approximately two hundred inhabitants.
Pittsfield joined the eastern settlements in early protesting the domina- tion of England. The town contained many wealthy Tories, but the majority of its citizens followed the Revolutionary leadership of Major John Brown and the Reverend Thomas Allen, the Fighting Parson, who mustered troops for the assault on Fort Ticonderoga led by his cousin, Ethan Allen. Heading the local Committee of Safety, this militant
1
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Main Street and Village Green
pastor organized the Berkshire Militia and led it to the Battle of Ben- nington. More than three months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Pittsfield renounced royal authority.
The little community, still predominantly agricultural, shared in the general depression which followed the Revolution; but while the farmers elsewhere were crushed by poverty, Pittsfield turned to industry. Al- though it seems certain that a majority of the townsfolk were in sym- pathy with the desperate rebellion of their neighbors under Daniel Shays in 1786, and although they treated the forty fellow citizens implicated in the rebellion with lenience, the hope of imminent prosperity deterred them from participating. Their hopes were justified: in 1801 Arthur Schofield, who had invented a wool-carding machine, opened a shop to manufacture his invention, and a few years later undertook the pro- duction of looms. The War of 1812 brought an abnormal demand for clothing and military supplies which definitely established the town as a manufacturing center. The consequent need for raw materials made sheep-raising an important affiliated industry. Later penetration by railroads connecting the town with New York and Boston made it the shipping distribution point for the whole district. Throughout the nine- teenth century paper and shoes were among the most important pro- ducts of its busy factories.
With the turn of the century came a change. The early isolation and independence fostered by Pittsfield's geographical situation were de- stroyed by an invasion of outside capital and a change of direction in its industrial activity. Pittsfield now began to change from a quiet self- insulated community to a unit integrated with the outer world and seething with business. Its population grew faster during the first decade of the new century than that of any Massachusetts city except New Bedford. This increase - no less than forty-seven per cent - created a serious housing problem which in turn attracted other outside capital. This was directed to housing construction and realty developments. The Tillotson Textile Plant; Eaton, Crane and Pike Company, famous manufacturers of stationery; foundries producing machinery for the textile and paper factories - all these and others contributed to make the development of Pittsfield a microcosm of what was going on in the entire country.
FOOT TOUR-2.7 m.
E. from South St. on Bank Row.
I. In City Hall Park, the original village Green, was held in 1810 what is said to be the first cattle show in America. A marker memorializes that event, which was sponsored by Elkanan Watson, a famous patriot, friend of Washington, traveler, canal surveyor, biographer, and breeder of livestock. Watson stimulated the importation of merino sheep for
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Pittsfield
the textile mills of Pittsfield and encouraged agricultural improvement throughout New England.
A sundial marks the Site of the Old Elm beneath whose lofty branches stood such famous men as Holmes, Longfellow, Hawthorne, Melville, and Lafayette. On this spot soldiers of all wars were mustered and honored; old taverns and stores faced it on all sides, and historic houses, too. Here were held the Fourth of July celebrations, the cattle shows, and all the country gala days. Here lovers lingered for precious moments. Travelers celebrated the tree in their books, and poets immortalized it in their verse.
In 1790, when the destruction of the elm was planned to make way for a new meeting-house, Lucretia Williams, wife of a prominent lawyer in Pittsfield, stood guard over the tree, placing herself in front of it when the woodchopper came to cut it down. John Chandler Williams, whose former homestead, the Peace Party House, stands near-by, gave land to the town so that the park might remain an open space forever and the old elm be saved.
Such was the veneration in which the old elm was held by some of the citizens of Pittsfield that when at the age of 265 years, after being struck by lightning several times, it was so damaged that the axe had to be applied, there was actual weeping among those who witnessed its fall.
2. The Berkshire Athenaeum (open weekdays 9-9), 44 Bank Row, a Victorian Gothic structure of gray granite, has been noted as a public library and art repository for many years.
R. from Bank Row on East St.
3. The Peace Party House (private), southeast corner of Wendell Ave., erected in 1776, was the scene of a grand ball and feast, with roast oxen, game birds, and vast pastries - all washed down with plenty of good liquor - in celebration of the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. The Marquis de Lafayette was a guest here while on his tour in 1825. Though considerably altered, this white, three-story house, clap- boarded, and gambrel-roofed, still retains much of its original dignity.
Retrace on East St.
4. St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, next to the Parsonage Lot, is con- structed of red granite in the Gothic manner.
R. from East St. on North St.
5. The Old Cantonment Grounds, opposite Linden St., were used during the War of 1812. The war brought Pittsfield to the fore not only through its possession of a cantonment, but also as a place for making cloth, guns, and drums.
Retrace North St .; R. from North St. on West St.
6. In Crane Memorial Park, in front of the Union Station, is a Marker in memory of the late Zenas Crane, a noted philanthropist.
Retrace West St .; R. from West St. on South St.
PONTOOSUC/
St
St
line
LAKE
22
Hancock
Lee St
Brook
Ave
Nor
St
Ave
St
St
Linden
St
5
19
St
Francis
North
SILVER LAKE
18
Columbus
Ave
First
Second
Fourth
East
West
6
St
East
St
9
02
3
Ave
Elm
St
St
St
7
E Housatonic
Merriam
Housatonic
South
St
Colt Rd
Rd
St
William
St
Crofut
Pomeroy
13
N
14
Ave
15
Whittier
Ave
Cole
Ave
River
Rd
South
Mountain
16
MOREWOOD
LAKE,
PITTSFIELD TOUR
12
St
St
Pomeroy
Dawes
Ave
High
St
Edward Ave
8 Broad
Appleton Ave
St
4
Ridge
Rd 21
th
20
St
Newell
Housatonic
Holmes
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Pittsfield
7. Museum of Natural History and Art (open weekdays 10-5; Sun. and holidays 2-5), 39 South St., is an adaptation of the Italian Renaissance style. The 'mineral room' is one of the most beautiful in the country. Ultra-violet rays are used to bring out the beauties of the collection.
Among the outstanding exhibits are: one of the two sledges used by Admiral Robert E. Peary when he discovered the North Pole, Nathaniel Hawthorne's desk, and (miraculously reconstructed?) the original 'one- hoss shay' which inspired Oliver Wendell Holmes's 'The Deacon's Masterpiece.' The art collection includes fine examples of the works of old masters and some excellent original Greek and Roman sculptures.
L. from South St. on Broad St.
8. The Calvin Martin House (private), 14 Broad St., removed here from its original site to make way for the Berkshire Museum, is a two-story frame building painted yellow with two inner chimneys. It is enriched by fluted Ionic pilasters and an elaborate cornice.
MOTOR TOUR - 32.5 m.
(Note: The Pittsfield Tour Map provides the tourist the means of covering this tour in smaller units )
W. from City Hall Park on West St.
9. Fort Hill, near Lake Onota, is the site of Fort Ashley, one of four early Colonial forts in Pittsfield. During the French and Indian wars there was a considerable settlement around the block-house, including many wigwams of friendly Indians.
The view of Lake Onota and the mountains beyond it, from this high point, is one of the most beautiful to be found in the Berkshire Hills country. The long sweep of the lake to the north draws the eye to the distant majestic height of Mt. Greylock almost 20 miles away.
PITTSFIELD MAP INDEX
I. City Hall Park
2. Berkshire Athenaeum
3. Peace Party House
4. St. Stephen's Episcopal Church
5. Old Cantonment Grounds
6. Crane Memorial Park
7. Museum of Natural History and Art
8. Calvin Martin House
9. Fort Hill
IO. Walton Wild Acres Sanctuary
II. Pittsfield Country Club
12. South Mountain
13. Brattle House
14. Wells's Tavern
15. Grave of Sarah Deming
16. Holmesdale
17. Arrowhead
18. General Electric Plant
19. Canoe Meadows
20. Government Mill
21. Pontoosuc Lake Park
22. Pittsfield State Forest
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Main Street and Village Green
Onota in the Indian language means 'Lake of the White Deer.' Legend relates that a pure albino doe used to come here to drink. No Indian's bow was ever drawn on her, for it was believed that she brought good luck to the valley. Should she be harmed, the pow-wows warned, disaster would befall the tribe. During the French and Indian wars a young French officer, hearing of the superstition, boasted that he would kill the white deer. He bribed an unsuspecting member of the tribe to show him the doe's watering-place, where he hid in ambush and made good his boast. The prophecy also was made good, however: the Frenchman met his death while trying to escape to Canada; the crops of the tribe failed and their prosperity waned, a plague came upon them, and they slowly dwindled away.
Retrace West St .; R. from West St. on Merriam St .; L. from Merriam St. on Woodleigh Ave .; R. from Woodleigh Ave. on West Housatonic St .; L. from West Housatonic St. on Barker Rd .; L. from Barker Rd. on South Mountain Rd.
IO. Walton Wild Acres Sanctuary (open to picnic parties; small fee) is a tract of 83 acres of well-wooded land, established in 1929 as a bird and game sanctuary. The Izaak Walton League made it a semi-public re- creation area, stocked the ponds with trout, built fireplaces and an out- door pavilion, cleared away the underbrush, established trap-shooting ranges, and constructed a dam to enlarge Lake Holman.
R. from South Mountain Rd. on South St.
II. The Pittsfield Country Club (open by invitation), an 18-hole course, occupies a mansion known as Broad Hall, erected by Henry Van Schaack in 1785 and at one time owned by an uncle of Herman Melville. The cellar is said to have been one of the depots for the Underground Rail- road. At the northeast corner of the club is Morewood Lake, sometimes known as Melville Lake, and called by Longfellow 'The Tear of Heaven.'
12. South Mountain (alt. 1870), is the highest point of land in Pittsfield, lying near the Lenox Line at the south end of the city and rising west of US 7 and US 20, just beyond the Pittsfield Country Club. A favorite resort for hikers, the mountain offers a view of the entire city. It is now largely owned by the Coolidge family, a member of which, Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, founder of the South Mountain Music Colony and Temple, sponsors a series of chamber music concerts given every Sunday during the summer months.
Retrace South St .; R. from South St. on East Housatonic St .; R. from East Housatonic St. on Appleton Ave .; L. from Appleton Ave. on Dawes Ave .; R. from Dawes Ave. on High St .; L. from High St. on William St.
13. The Brattle House (open during summer; small fee for benefit of the National Memorial Foundation for army and navy memorial aid), near Elm St., built in 1762, and now owned by a descendant of its builder, is the oldest house in Pittsfield, and is furnished with antiques of its period. It is set on a knoll surrounded by an apple orchard and ancient beech trees. It is a three-story red clapboarded, gambrel-roofed dwelling with an overhanging second story.
Straight ahead from William St. on Elm St.
14. Wells's Tavern (private), 847 Elm St., was one of several such places
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of resort on the old stagecoach route to Springfield. It is a white clap- boarded, two-story, hip-roofed house with a series of additions in the rear. The old woodshed is a copy of the first frame house in Pittsfield. The tavern contains portions of the original house, built by Solomon Deming, the first white settler who came in on horseback through the wilderness from Wethersfield, Connecticut, in the spring of 1752, bring- ing his wife, Sarah, on a pillion behind him.
15. The Grave of Sarah Deming (R), just inside the gate of the Old East Park Cemetery, is indicated by a neat marble obelisk erected by the city to its pioneer housewife.
Retrace Elm St .; L. from Elm St. on Holmes Rd.
16. Holmesdale (private), just beyond junction with Pomeroy Ave., is the former residence of Oliver Wendell Holmes. Here the physician and poet spent seven seasons and wrote 'The Deacon's Masterpiece,' 'The New Eden,' and 'The Ploughman' on local themes. His favorite refuge was the arbor formed by the low-hanging branches of a white pine tree on a small knoll on the lawn. Only a glimpse of the house and the famous Holmes Pine can be had from the road. Holmes did some of his work in a little house on the hill across the road, now occupied by Miss Hall's School for Girls.
17. Arrowhead (private), a mile farther on Holmes Rd. at the top of the hill, was the home of Herman Melville, where he wrote 'Moby Dick,' 'My Chimney and I,' 'Piazza Tales,' and 'October Mountain.
Retrace Holmes Rd .; L. from Holmes Rd. on Dawes Ave .; R. from Dawes Ave. on Appleton Ave .; R. from Appleton Ave. on East St.
18. The General Electric Plant (open to visitors scientifically interested; guide) is fascinating to visit. The alternating current transformer in- vented by the late William Stanley was developed at the Pittsfield Works of the General Electric Company. Recently, huge transformers for Boulder Dam were constructed here.
Important electrical research is done here, requiring the services of inter- nationally distinguished technicians and scientists. The most picturesque feature of this research for the general public is the occasional display of 'artificial lightning,' a series of huge blinding flashes occasioned by testing the ability of electrical current to jump a long distance through the air from two or more high steel towers unconnected by wire.
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