USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1916-1955 > Part 31
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The congregation originally worshipped in a wooden chapel built near the corner of West and Onota streets. Still standing, the chapel has been used as a parish hall since 1932 when a new St. Mark's was built on West Street. Gothic in line and constructed of granite, it is a large church, seating 700 or more people, being the center of religious life for Catholics living in the "West Part." A house on Onota Street, bought in 1913, serves as the rectory. On May 17, 1938, St. Mark's celebrated its Silver Jubilee, with more than 1,000 members attending a solemn high mass.
St. Mary of the Morning Star
The rapid growth of the Catholic Church in Pittsfield in the early 1900s necessitated the creation of another parish-that of St. Mary of the Morning Star, established in 1915 with the
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Reverend Jeremiah A. Riordan as pastor. The congregation celebrated its first mass in the Tyler Theatre on Easter that year.
Construction soon began on a combination church and school building on Plunkett Street, which was dedicated in 1919. The first floor served as a church. The upper floor, designed to be used as a school, was not employed for that purpose until later. A frame building on Tyler Street was purchased for use as a rectory.
Father Riordan was transferred to St. Mary's at Westfield in 1925, being succeeded by the Reverend James P. Curran, who in turn was succeeded by the Reverend Matthew L. Boyne in 1931. The depression years that followed down to Father Boyne's death in 1940 were trying ones both for the church and its parishioners.
The next pastorate was that of the Reverend John C. Mc- Mahon, the only Pittsfield native to head the parish. In 1941, he established St. Mary's Parochial School on the second floor of the combination church-school building. His plans for a new St. Mary's Church were scarcely under way when he was trans- ferred in 1942 to the Holy Rosary Church at Holyoke, being succeeded by the now Right Reverend Monsignor Eugene F. Marshall. The latter was no stranger to Pittsfield, having served for fifteen years as assistant to Father Bernard S. Conaty at St. Joseph's.
Though he found the parish deeply in debt, Father Marshall pushed ahead with plans to complete the new St. Mary's on Tyler Street, one of the more beautiful churches in the city. It was dedicated in 1943 by Bishop Thomas M. O'Leary of Springfield. The first floor of the old church-school building was remodeled to provide classrooms for four more grades.
In 1954, St. Mary's completed a new $130,000 rectory next to the church on Tyler Street. A two-storied brick structure, it was designed by Wendell Phillips of Milford. The old rectory at the corner of Tyler and Plunkett streets was torn down and replaced in 1955 with a new convent for teaching nuns. The two-storied brick building matches the style of the new rectory and accommodates twelve nuns.
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Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart Church was established on December 18, 1919, with the Reverend George W. Welch, assistant at St. Joseph's, as the first pastor. The congregation met in a large house at the corner of Elm Street and Meadow Lane. All partitions on the lower floor were removed to provide room for what was known as the Chapel. The upper floor was used as a rectory. By 1923, the parish had some 800 members, was free of debt, and began a drive to collect funds to build a new church.
Father Welch died in 1931 and was succeeded by the Rev- erend Patrick F. Dowd. Born in Ireland and educated at Holy Cross, he had been an assistant at St. Charles' for nine years and pastor at St. Patrick's in Hinsdale for two. Under Father Dowd, the parish built a new church and rectory. Spanish mission in design, built of rose-colored stucco with cast-stone trimmings and a Spanish tile roof, the church seats 700 and was dedicated with impressive ceremony in 1933.
In 1946, upon his transfer to St. Mary's at Westfield, Father Dowd was succeeded by the Reverend John P. Donahue, who had been ministering to the Sacred Heart Church in Hopedale. His successor was the present pastor, the Reverend Henry M. Burke, a graduate of Holy Cross and of the Grand Seminary in Montreal. Before coming to Pittsfield, he had been pastor at St. Patrick's in Monson.
On Christmas Day, 1954, the church celebrated its 35th an- niversary with a High Mass and special music by the men's choir, the program being broadcast over local Station WBEC.
St. Teresa's
Another Catholic parish, St. Teresa's, was established in 1926, with the Reverend William J. Foran as pastor. Previously, the Catholic diocese had bought for $30,000 the Redfield house and estate on lower South Street, opposite Memorial Park. Built about 1860 by Dr. Timothy Childs 2nd, the house was trans- formed into a chapel and rectory. Here the congregation wor- shipped for almost thirty years.
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The first mass in the chapel, which seated 300 or more, was celebrated on September 6, 1926, by the Right Reverend Mon- signor Bernard S. Conaty of St. Joseph's, who gave St. Teresa's an altar dedicated to the memory of his brother, the Most Rev- erend Thomas L. Conaty, who had been Bishop of Monterey and Los Angeles in California.
Father Foran was succeeded as pastor by the Reverend James P. Lynes in 1931, by which time St. Teresa's had more than 1,000 parishioners. Upon Father Lynes' death in 1948, he was succeeded by the present pastor, the Reverend P. Henry Sul- livan.
As post-war problems eased, a drive for a new church began in 1949, energetically led by Father Sullivan. He reported that there was almost $100,000 in the parish treasury, but that far more than that would be required to start a contemplated building program estimated to cost $400,000. A "Vigil Brick" project was organized to provide an opportunity for friends outside the parish and throughout the country to contribute to the building of the new church-a project that brought in $7,655 of contributions from people in every state of the Union. A fund was also started to erect an altar in memory of Father Lynes, who had labored so long and so well in the parish.
As the campaign for funds progressed, plans for the new parish buildings took shape. It was decided to build on the lower South Street site. The old chapel-rectory would be torn down and the ground levelled for a new church to seat 500 to 600 people, and an adjoining rectory. A recreation hall at the rear of the church was also planned. Designs were drawn by a well-known church architect, Wendell Phillips. Ground was broken in March 1953.
The first mass in the handsome new brick church, simple and modern in line, was celebrated on Trinity Sunday, June 13, 1954. The structure was dedicated on the Feast of St. Teresa on October 3, 1954, by Bishop Christopher J. Weldon of the Springfield Diocese.
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Holy Family
Holy Family Church had its origin in the growing number of people from Poland who came to Pittsfield in the early 1900s to make it their new home. They first worshipped at St. Charles'. Soon they requested, and it was arranged, that a Polish-speaking priest come to preach and to teach them twice a year-Christmas and Easter. Then a committee was formed to appeal to Bishop Beaven of the Springfield Diocese to send a Polish-speaking priest to reside in Pittsfield. The request was granted, the Reverend Victor H. Zarek being named to the post.
In 1913, Father Zarek bought property on Linden Street, which became the home of the Immaculate Conception congre- gation, as it was first known. Leaving to join the Polish army fighting in France during World War I, Father Zarek was suc- ceeded by the Reverend Waclaw Mieleniewski, who remained until 1921, when the Reverend Joseph Stanczyk became pastor.
Realizing that the Linden Street church was inadequate and there was no room for expansion there, Father Stanczyk ar- ranged to buy on Seymour Street the abandoned powerhouse of the Berkshire Street Railway, with a boiler house attached and a large tract of land around the buildings. Under the direction of architect George E. Haynes, the buildings were remodeled to provide a church, a parish house, and an auditorium, and were dedicated as Holy Family Church late in 1921 by Bishop O'Leary of the Springfield diocese. The cost of the buildings and land, and of the remodeling, exceeded $70,000, which left the parish deeply in debt.
Father Stanczyk was succeeded in 1929 by the Reverend Valentine S. Teclaw, who ministered to the parish for more than twenty-five years. Two classrooms were added in 1934. Three new murals in the church were painted in 1938.
Then came World War II. The first Pittsfield fatality in the conflict was a member of the congregation, Roman W. Sadlow- ski, who was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The first Pittsfield woman to die in service also belonged to the con- gregation-Regina T. Barscz, a WAC. Many of Holy Family served in the armed forces, and a number lost their lives. To
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commemorate them, the parish built beside the church in 1945 a Blessed Virgin Grotto.
Chimes were installed in the church in 1950. The next year, with rejoicing and great relief, the parish burned the last of its mortgages. In April 1955, after a long illness, Father Teclaw died and was succeeded by the Reverend Ladislaus A. Rys. Father Rys soon bought a house that will be converted to serve as a convent for Felician nuns and eventually as a parochial school in which, besides the usual subjects, the Polish language will be taught.
St. John's
Forwarded by a small committee appointed in 1916 and act- ing for a congregation of some forty members, St. John's Ukrainian Catholic Church was built on Greylock Terrace and dedicated in 1921. Ukrainians had first started settling in the city in 1904. Unlike people of other nationalities arriving at this time, they found no fellow-countrymen in a position to give them a helping hand. They had largely to make their own way.
Composed of working people, mostly employed in the local textile mills and the GE plant, the St. John's congregation held weekly services for many years under "commuting" pastors brought in from Ukrainian parishes in Cohoes, Watervliet, Hudson, and other communities close by in New York state.
In 1944, a rectory was bought on Watson Street, near the church, and in 1945 the parish had its first resident pastor, the Reverend Michael J. Skorodinsky, who was succeeded by the Reverend Antonin Ulanitsky.
Various benefit and cultural societies have been organized by the parish, which has employed the choir and the stage to cement the bond between the Old Country and the adopted land of its members. The church's choir and dance groups have often appeared locally in presenting traditional Ukrainian songs and folk dances. Most of the Ukrainian-born in the congrega- tion have become American citizens. More than seventy of the younger men and women in the parish served in the armed
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forces during World War II. In 1955, about sixty Ukrainian families were members of St. John's under the pastorate of the Reverend Elias Hawrylyshyn.
Jewish
Anshe Amonim
The oldest Jewish congregation is Temple Anshe Amonim, organized in 1869 as the Society Anshe Amonim ("Men of Faith"). Among the founders of what soon developed into a Jewish reformed congregation were Joseph R. Newman and two brothers, Moses and Louis England, who were joined by the heads of about twenty families, largely from Germany.
The congregation met for many years in the homes of its members and then in rented quarters. It occupied rooms in the Melville building on North Street from 1900 to 1922, when it moved to the former Pythian Hall in the City Savings Bank building. In 1926, the congregation purchased the Advent Church at the corner of Fenn and Willis streets, reconstructed it, and dedicated it as Temple Anshe Amonim early in 1927.
The dedicatory sermon was preached by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise. He conducted the initial service with the congregation's first resident rabbi, Harry Kaplan, who remained until 1935 when he joined the Hillel Foundation at Ohio State University. His successor was Rabbi Saul Habas, who resigned in 1943.
After a series of short rabbinates, Rabbi Solomon E. Cherniak came to the Temple in 1947 and led special services as the con- gregation celebrated its 80th anniversary in 1949. A $50,000 addition including religious school classrooms, a social hall and a library was built in 1951, during the pastorate of Rabbi Perry E. Nussbaum. The present congregation consists of 160 fam- ilies, with Rabbi Harold I. Salzmann as its leader.
Knesses Israel
Congregation Knesses Israel ("Gathering of Israel") is the largest Jewish congregation in the city, having more than 300 members. Formally organized in 1893, the congregation built and dedicated a synagogue on Linden Street in 1906, the
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first such building constructed in Pittsfield. Many Christian friends in the city and surrounding towns contributed to the project. The mortgage was paid off and ceremoniously burned in 1935.
At this time, the congregation was orthodox and was served by an orthodox Rabbi, Morris Fuhrman. In 1949, Knesses Israel voted to affiliate with the conservative movement, associating itself with the United Synagogue of America and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. The congregation's first con- servative rabbi was a young seminary graduate, Nathan H. Reisner, who assumed office in 1949, remaining until 1952, when he was succeeded by Rabbi Jacob Freedman.
Under Rabbis Reisner and Freedman, many new members joined the congregation. The Sisterhood, organized in 1949, became increasingly active. The Men's Club was reorganized with more than forty new members. A Senior League for young unmarried men and women was established, as well as an adult choir of mixed voices. The Children's Congregation continued to meet on Saturday mornings and holidays under the direction of Jacob H. Pecker and Izak Herman.
Permission was received to rent the main auditorium of the Jewish Community House on East Street for Friday night, Sab- bath (Saturday morning), Festival, and High Holyday services, though the Festival and regular Sabbath services continued to be held at the old Linden Street synagogue for a time.
Knesses Israel celebrated its 60th anniversary in 1953. In 1954, the congregation bought the Unitarian Church building on Wendell Avenue, just off East Street, and began converting it into a synagogue. Almost 200 attended the rededication of the building late in 1954.
Other Religious Institutions
Other congregations and religious institutions in the city include Ahavath Sholom ("Love of Peace," Jewish orthodox), Assemblea Christiana Pentecostal Church, Assembly of the Brethren, Berkshire Full Gospel Church, Calvary Bible Church, Church of the Gospel, Crusade for Christ, First English Pente-
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costal Mission, Jehovah's Witnesses, Salvation Army Chapel, St. George's Greek Orthodox Church, and St. Nicholas' Russian Orthodox Church.
Related Activities
Council of Churches
The urge for cooperative action among Pittsfield churches resulted in 1910 in the founding of the Federation of Churches at the suggestion of the Reverend William V. W. Davis of the First Congregational Church. Miss Phila M. Whipple was ap- pointed as a delegate to learn what the churches of Portland, Maine, had accomplished in this regard, and her report was enthusiastic.
Miss Whipple acted as director of the Federation while it was in the process of formation and served as its secretary for many years. She continued to be the inspiration of the organiza- tion for the rest of her life. The first president was the Rev- erend Charles P. MacGregor of the First Baptist Church, who was succeeded by the Reverend James E. Gregg of the First Congregational Church.
The Federation gave way in 1940 to the present Pittsfield Area Council of Churches. In addition to 19 churches, the Sal- vation Army and the YMCA, two synagogues also cooperate in many aspects of the Council's program.
The Council aims "to promote among the religious bodies of the Pittsfield area opportunities for cooperative achievement in serving our Creator and our fellow men." Benjamin N. Bowers, a member of the First Methodist Church, was president in 1955. The Council presidency alternates between a layman and a clergyman.
The Council has departments for young people's work, min- istry, women's work, men's work, and religious education. Each plans and conducts programs and activities in the interests of all the member churches and the community. Committees in- clude finance, evangelism, radio, community worship, social action, and publicity. The Council cooperates with the Massa- chusetts, the National, and the World Council of Churches.
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Chief among the Council's activities is support and operation of the Christian Center at Robbins Avenue and Linden Street, Pittsfield's only settlement house.
Community Relations Committee
Another agency for greater cooperation and unity among re- ligious and racial groups has been the Community Relations Committee, organized in 1944 after Governor Leverett Salton- stall had recommended the formation of such committees throughout the state. The first local chairman was Superin- tendent of Schools Edward J. Russell. The committee, with members representing various religions and races, has made im- portant progress in improving employment opportunities for all in the community.
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XVI
Literature and the Arts
PITTSFIELD HAS A PLACE in the history of letters, music and art. One of the great American novels, long a world classic, was written in Pittsfield more than a century ago-Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, published in 1851. It was certainly not the placid shallow waters of the narrow Housatonic, then a clear and sparkling stream, which inspired Melville to his titanic epic on Captain Ahab's obsessive hunt across the tempestuous high seas for his arch enemy, the White Whale. Still, his genius came to flower here. Melville was as distinguished a resident as Pittsfield ever had. As will appear, a room has been dedicated to him in the public library, the Berkshire Athenaeum.
The first Melville to come to Pittsfield was Major Thomas Melville, who was in command of the Encampment on North Street during the War of 1812. Deciding to settle in Pittsfield, he bought the old Van Schaack mansion and estate on lower South Street, later known as Broadhall, now the Country Club of Pittsfield. Young Herman Melville came to visit his uncle, Major Thomas, in the 1830s and worked a summer or two on his farm. For a term in 1837, he taught at the Sikes district school.
In 1850, after his marriage, Herman Melville came with his family and established himself at the Arrowhead farm, buying this property which adjoined the Robert Melville farm. Here he produced his masterpiece, Moby-Dick, and wrote other works,
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including I and My Chimney and Piazza Tales. Often in his writings he extolled the beauties of Pittsfield and the Berk- shires, being especially fond of the views from his home of October Mountain to the east and of Greylock to the north.
During his stay, Melville became a friend of another Ameri- can genius, Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was living in Lenox, at Tanglewood, near where the famous Tanglewood Music Shed now stands, the site every summer of one of the world's great philharmonic festivals. In 1863, the Melvilles left Pittsfield. "Arrowhead," their large and attractive house, still stands.
Berkshire Athenaeum
One of the centers of intellectual life in the city is its public library, the Berkshire Athenaeum, incorporated in 1872. On Bank Row facing Park Square, the Athenaeum occupies the odd pseudo-Gothic stone structure built for it by the gift of $50,000 from Thomas Allen and dedicated in 1876. At that time, it had 8,000 books on its shelves for a population of less than 12,000. In 1955, it had more than 115,000 volumes for a population of 55,000.
The building was designed to be not only a library but a museum. It served as such down to 1903 when Zenas Crane, of Dalton, built and donated to the city the Berkshire Museum on South Street. Most of the Athenaeum's art and other museum collections were moved there. But the two institutions remained closely linked until 1932. During that period, the librarian of the Athenaeum, Harlan H. Ballard, was also curator of the Museum.
In its long history, the Athenaeum has had just four librarians -Edgar G. Hubbel (1873-1888), Harlan H. Ballard (1888- 1934), Francis H. Henshaw (1934-1945), and Robert G. Newman, the present librarian, who took office in 1946.
As administrator of the Athenaeum for almost a half century, Ballard steadily improved and expanded its facilities and services. In 1897, the original building was enlarged with the construction of a $50,000 addition at the rear. In 1898, Ballard initiated publication of the Athenaeum Quarterly, a printed
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bulletin containing book lists and annual reports. Publication continued through 1934.
One of the first librarians to act upon an obvious need, Bal- lard instituted a library class to train staff members, establishing a course attended by six local girls in 1899. A man of wit and humor and considerable literary skill, Ballard no doubt startled his board members in 1911 when he delivered his annual re- port entirely in verse, opening with these lines:
I have the honor of presenting here
The report of the library for the year.
Books on hand when the year begun,
55,391.
Born in Athens, Ohio, a graduate of Williams College, Bal- lard had been principal of Lenox High School and of Lenox Academy before being called to the Athenaeum. He was a man of many interests-literature (especially the classics), science, and local history, as well as chess, amateur magic, puzzles, Masonry, and puns. (He liked to refer to the room housing bound magazines and Poole's Index to Periodical Literature as "the poolroom").
He organized the National Agassiz Association for Nature Study in 1875 and for years edited the Agassiz Association's department in the old St. Nicholas Magazine. He published many works, the best known being his verse translation of Ver- gil's Aeneid. His Adventures of a Librarian grew out of his Athenaeum experience.
During his regime, the library collected more than 8,000 books, pamphlets, and manuscripts on New England history and genealogy, especially on Pittsfield and Berkshire County. These form the basis of the Athenaeum's present Ballard Collection, which includes more than 600 Shaker items, one of the largest such collections.
Ballard had a consuming interest in "good books," and par- ticularly in his early years was apt to be a rather strict arbiter of what was "good." As his tastes were conservative and ran: toward the classic, readers were not always too happy with the- choice offered them. Ballard also believed in economy. As he:
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put it, why buy an ordinary book published at $5 when it could be purchased two years later "for $3 or less."
Ballard's paternalistic attitude softened with the years. By 1916 he was ready to admit that "the average citizen, and even the average child, will make a better selection of books, if left to his own impulses and judgment, than anyone else would venture to make for him." Among the "surest guides to a judg- ment of what the people ought to read is a knowledge of what the people want to read and will read, and a large proportion of our purchases is the direct result of particular requests ... "
During World War I years, the Athenaeum suffered the strains and stresses of the time. Circulation declined as many departed to join the armed forces and those at home busied themselves with war activities. The library joined in Red Cross, Liberty Loan, and other war drives. It sponsored under the aus- pices of the American Library Association a local drive which raised more than $2,000 for the Soldiers' War Library Fund. It collected books and magazines for distribution among those in uniform, and arranged exhibits to forward the food conserva- tion and victory garden programs.
Many improvements were made in the 1920s. An electric sign reading "Public Library" was placed over the main en- trance. The leaky roof was repaired, and the Children's Room enlarged. With a special city appropriation of $12,000, a second floor was added to the stack room, giving space to shelve 40,000 volumes. Additional space was secured by discarding 2,000 out- worn books.
The practice was started of publishing in the Eagle each week a list of new books acquired, with annotations. In 1930, a fire- proof storage vault was installed in the basement. All of the basement floor was leveled and covered with cement, which provided more storage and working space.
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