USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from the year 1876 to the year 1916 > Part 17
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The artistic rarities and the exhibits having to do with natural history, which were originally placed in the Museum in 1903, were most of them provided by the donor of the building, although there were generous contributions from other sources. Visitors were impressed not only by the high merit of the indi- vidual objects displayed, but also by the breadth and wisdom of their selection. To the thoughtful, this may have betokened the carefully laid scheme of one man, whose plans had a wider
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scope than was yet completely revealed. Few, nevertheless, fore- saw the great significance of Zenas Crane's continuing and artis- tic interest in the institution which he had given to the thankful people of Berkshire County.
In September, 1904, the trustees of the Athenaeum and Mu- seum informed the public that Mr. Crane was ready to erect and equip an addition to the south of the South Street building. This was finished in the following year. At the same time the announcement was published, by the trustees, of Mr. Crane's willingness to provide for the future maintenance of the Museum. In 1909 he built and furnished a wing to the north of the original edifice, and in 1915 he completed the quadrilateral by the erection of a large addition connecting the two wings. No intimation was made at any time by the donor as to the cost either of the land utilized, or of the main building and the various additions, or of their contents.
It was apprehended, however, that the mission successfully accomplished in the community by the Museum could not have been initiated and carried on solely by the expenditure of money. As the institution expanded, it clearly seemed to be enjoying al- most daily the benefit of its founder's attentive thought; nor is it too fanciful to say that the Museum early developed a personal quality, of which its enlargements did not altogether deprive it. Soon the Athenaeum's collections of art, of science, and of local history were transferred to the Museum, which began to be the recipient of many interesting and valuable gifts from its friends throughout the county. But nevertheless it remained essentially the expression of the taste and artistic aspiration, as it was of the munificence, of the one man who founded it, supported it, and unostentatiously and constantly enriched its collections. Reso- lutions of the trustees, voted at their annual meeting on June sixteenth, 1915, read as follows:
"Whereas Mr. Zenas Crane is now making a large addition to the Art Museum, which, when finished, will complete the quad- rilateral of the building, and give a floor space, exclusive of the basement, of about 25,000 square feet; and has given this build- ing, with all its fittings, and the land upon which it stands and its appurtenances to us, as Trustees of the Berkshire Athenaeum and Museum, to be held by us and our successors in trust for the
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use and benefit of this and future generations free of charge and subject only to such reasonable rules and regulations as shall from time to time be made by us and by our successors; and
"Whereas, Mr. Crane has placed in the building and also given upon the same trusts a priceless collection of works of art, and science, and nature, for the cultivation, cducation, and de- light of the people, to which collection additions are constantly being made by him; and
"Whereas, for the last fifteen years Mr. Crane has given much time and thought, with the work of expert assistants, to the creating and development of this museum, making of it an institution which evokes the increasing interest of the Trustees and its numerous visitors; therefore be it
"Resolved, that we do hereby assure to Mr. Zenas Crane our gratitude, and the gratitude of the people for whose use we ac- cept this gift, the cost of which he has never disclosed; and our appreciation of the long and devoted service he has given to the public welfare, as well as of the good taste and refinement shown in the building, the works of art, and the other exhibits; and the Trustees also appreciate the consideration shown for the comfort of visitors to the museum, and the entire freedom from care for the cost, maintenance, and management which has been assured to the Trustees; and the modesty of the giver who, doing his perfect work. presents his gift and keeps himself unseen, is by the Trustees fully realized and appreciated".
The Museum, in 1915, contained on its ground floor five spacious exhibition rooms devoted to natural history, in which were shown collections of minerals, of botanical reproductions, of insects and shells, of mounted animals and birds, and in a sixth room was displayed a collection illustrative of American Indian life. On the second floor was a hall of statuary, three rooms wherein were collections of oriental art, of antiquities, and of Americana, and four rooms of paintings, which included the best types of modern art as well as many classical masterpieces, of great beauty and of extraordinary value, for among them were originals by Van Dyck, Rubens, Murillo, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Daubigny, Millais, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Bouguereau. In a basement room was assembled a large collec- tion of local antiquarian interest. Elsewhere in the building were to be seen an admirable exhibit of coins and medals, pre- sented to the Museum by Mrs. Richard Lathers, and a number
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of objects of rare historical interest, such as one of the original Wright aeroplanes, and part of the sledging outfit which went to the North Pole with the Peary expedition.
The removal to the South Street building of the contents of the Athenaeum's art gallery and museum permitted the dedica- tion to library purposes of the second floor of the original edifice of the Athenaeum, which was practically accomplished about 1912.
The presidents of the institution, with the dates of their first election to office, have been Thomas Allen, 1872, William R. Plunkett, 1882, W. Russell Allen, 1904, James M. Barker, 1905, Walter F. Hawkins, 1906, Dr. J. F. A. Adams, 1908, and Dr. Henry Colt, 1914. The vice-presidents have been Gen. William F. Bartlett, 1872, William R. Plunkett, 1876, W. Russell Allen, 1882, James M. Barker, 1904, Walter F. Hawkins, 1905, Dr. Henry Colt, 1906, and William H. Swift, 1914. James M. Barker, Edward S. Francis, William R. Plunkett, Erwin H. Kennedy and George H. Tucker successively served as treasurer while the clerks of the corporation have been James M. Barker, Henry W. Taft, George Y. Learned, and Harlan H. Ballard.
Thomas Allen died at Washington, D. C., April eighth, 1882. At the time of his death he was a congressman, representing Missouri in the House. A vivid sketch of Mr. Allen's remarkable career is to be found in the second volume of Smith's "History of Pittsfield". The later years of his life were conspicuous for honorable public achievement in the national capital and in St. Louis, the city of his adoption. His summer residence was at Pittsfield, the town which he loved, where he had built his graceful, elm-shaded mansion on the site of his famous grand- father's parsonage. To Mr. Allen the Athenaeum owes its ex- istence. "In all his active, busy life," it was written of him, after his death, "conducting great enterprises and involved in hazardous business undertakings, he never forgot nor laid aside his love for literature, culture, and art." Nor, it may be added, did he ever lay aside his affection for the home of his forefathers. His grave, marked by a stately obelisk, is in the Pittsfield ceme- tery. Nobody can rightly estimate, even now, the benefits which Mr. Allen's generosity conferred upon his birthplace.
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Though to Thomas Allen is due the existence of the Athe- naeum, its development is to be ascribed in greater measure to William R. Plunkett than to any other of its officers. Oppor- tunities of service to Pittsfield were allotted to no man of his generation in so great a profusion as they were to Mr. Plunkett, who was born in North Chester, Massachusetts, April twenty- third, 1831. His father, Thomas F. Plunkett, became a resident of Pittsfield in 1836. William R. Plunkett was educated at An- dover, at Yale College, and at the Harvard Law School; and he commenced the practice of law in Pittsfield in 1855, having in that year been admitted to the Berkshire bar. He was mar- ried twice, to Miss Elizabeth Campbell Kellogg, daughter of Ensign H. Kellogg, and to her sister, Miss May Kellogg. He died December seventh, 1903.
Soon after Mr. Plunkett's admission to the bar, his profes- sional duties began to be not so often those of an advocate in the courts as those of an adviser, and not always of an adviser in matters solely legal, to financial and industrial enterprise, whether corporate or individual. The number was extraordi- narily large of local business corporations with which he came to be thus connected. A few conspicuous instances will here suffice. At the time of his death, he was and had been for twenty-five years president of the Berkshire Life Insurance Company, president for eleven years of the Pontoosuc Woolen Manufacturing Company, a director for thirty years, and vice- president for five, of the Agricultural National Bank, and treasur- er and practically manager for forty-seven years of the Pittsfield Coal Gas Company; he participated importantly in the guidance, from their beginnings, of the affairs of the Pittsfield Electric Company and of the Pittsfield Electric Street Railway Company; and his efforts were a factor of extreme and essential value in es- tablishing the city's most vital industry, that is to say, the manu- facture of electrical apparatus, through the organization and maintenance of the Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company.
As a public servant, he was prominent for more than twenty- five years in the management of the Ashley waterworks. Under the town and fire district governments, his service on committees was perennial; the improvement of the Park for the reception
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of the Soldiers' Monument in 1872 was a notable municipal work forwarded by his endeavors. He represented the town in the General Court, and for four successive years, beginning in 1876, he was nominated by the Democrats of the Commonwealth for the office of lieutenant governor.
Of the spirit which animated Mr. Plunkett's civic and pro- fessional career, no more accurate estimate can be offered to the reader than that published in the Springfield Republican after his death:
"The better, the larger, the more prosperous and beautiful Pittsfield he labored for with increasing diligence and large per- suasiveness. In things written and said about Mr. Plunkett there is a note of wonderment, too closely akin to apology, that he did not seek some larger field for his activities. There is no true perspective in that. This man grew in congenial soil and spread his roots, was open to the sun and rain for nourishment and not for rust upon his finer powers-an elm for beauty and outstretching shade. Not selfish and hard, like an iron post on the side of the roadway to hold up great business interests as typified by the street railway traffic, was he-a mere pillar for commercialism. In the breadth of his sympathies he was a remarkable citizen. The vigorous youth of his outlook never changed. The older generation faded away, and his own came into its directing responsibilities, yet he was the adviser and the friend of the young men to the last. There was no more reliable quantity in the city than Mr. Plunkett. With a quiet force that never flagged, he did things and inspired the doing of them. And all was brightened by his sparkling humor and geniality that was never boisterous, but ever infectious. Men leaned on him to a degree that they can only now measure, so long had he been a fixed quantity."
Men leaned on him, indeed-all sorts of men in all sorts of perplexities. He had a genius for compromise and for making smooth the rough places in the pathway of men's lives. People trusted his ability to see to it, as the saying goes, that things were right. Countless were the burdens, large and small, of others which he helped to carry; and this he did without ap- parent effort and without ostentation.
Mr. Plunkett, as a stalwart and mettlesome youth, was an officer of the village fire department and the village baseball nine. To the end of his days, the spectacle or the story of an
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athletic contest seldom failed to interest him, and never so failed if the contest chanced to be one wherein the name of Pittsfield was concerned. His temperament was strongly companionable; and the jocose, familiar, masculine intercourse of clubs and social gatherings was very much to his liking. He loved to play with children, and they with him. Not many men had an apprecia- tion at once so keen and so kindly for amusing character and incident, while from taking himself too seriously he seemed al- ways to be prevented by the same philosophical, Irish sense of humor. He was a leading figure in the affairs of the First Congrega- tional parish, doing duty often as one of its financial officers and for more than twenty-five years as librarian of the church's Sunday school. Many of the charitable organizations of the town and city regularly came to him for counsel, and this was true conspicuously in the cases of the House of Mercy and the Bishop Memorial Training School for Nurses.
But of the scores of institutions and undertakings which en- gaged Mr. Plunkett's active support, the one to which he was most fondly devoted was the Berkshire Athenaeum. The im- pulse which resulted in its incorporation was guided by him, he was a member of the original board of trustees, he was in 1882 chosen president, and in that office he served for twenty-one years, until the day of his death. His service was not casual or perfunctory. "We generally met", said one of the officers, "simple to record and adopt what with infinite labor and pro- longed thought he had devised for the Athenaeum-it was the pride and joy of his heart."
The controlling principle of this labor and thought was that the library should be conducted not for the benefit in chief of a scholarly and cultured few, but for the benefit of the average man and woman and their children. His earnest desire was so to develop the library that the use of its books might become an everyday part of the everyday lives of all the everyday people in the city of Pittsfield. With this purpose, he was minded to permit no obstacle to block its growth; and in behalf of its in- terests, as he saw them, he was never unready to plan, to act, and to contend, nor was he willing to spare himself. In testimony of this, another excerpt from the record book of the corporation may fittingly close this chapter:
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"There were not wanting, in the years during which Mr. Plunkett's constant care and thought were so given, instances in which were needed high courage, the utmost clearness of appre- ciation and great wisdom in matters of vital importance. Among them was the erection of the new library building, which involved the taking of additional land and the necessity of relying for current support upon the inhabitants of Pittsfield in their cor- porate capacity; also the amalgamation under the present charter of the old Athenaeum with the noble institution founded by Mr. Zenas Crane. In large matters, as well as in those of every day, Mr. Plunkett's service has been both constant and fine. It brought the Athenaeum through the period of transition from town to city life, kept it even with the needs of the community, and transmuted it from an institution dependent upon the liber- ality of individuals into an agency of the city to afford to all its people what is best and most effective in giving the highest training and the most refined and uplifting knowledge."
CHAPTER XIII
YOUNG PEOPLE'S ASSOCIATIONS
I N the organized work of helping the young men and the boys of Pittsfield to become worthy citizens, the direct in- fluence of the churches and the public schools has been re- inforced through the substantial aid given by friends to three local institutions-the Young Men's Christian Association, the Father Mathew Total Abstinence Society, and the Boys' Club. Especially after 1900, all these developed marked usefulness, and for each of them, between the years 1906 and 1913, a com- modious and suitable building was erected. Of the three, the total membership in 1915 was about 4,000, or one-tenth of the city's population. The cost of the three new buildings was ap- proximately $290,000.
Attempts were not infrequent during the last century to es- tablish in the village of Pittsfield associations of young men with the serious purpose of moral and intellectual improvement. They took usually the somewhat forbidding aspect of debating clubs. The earliest attempt of considerable service was in 1831, when was organized the Young Men's Society. Among the leaders were Henry Colt and Theodore Pomeroy. The associa- tion collected a library of 300 volumes and occupied a small hall in "Dr. Clough's new building" on North Street near Park Square, for which it paid an annual rental of $50, and which it sublet occasionally for "preaching to the Blacks", according to its surviving record book. The members were regaled by weekly lectures and debates; the expenses were defrayed by the pro- ceeds of a subscription paper, circulated annually among the townspeople, by whom the society was much esteemed. Not by all the inhabitants, however, for on January thirteenth, 1835, it was voted "to refer the subject of disturbances by Boys to the Board of Directors," and the next debate was on the appropriate
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question: "Are Knowledge and Civilization conducive to Human Happiness?" In 1850 the society disbanded.
A far more ambitious and elaborate organization was the Young Men's Association which began to flourish in 1865, and became extinct in 1873. This society had its home in the Dun- ham block on North Street, where it offered to its members many attractions, ranging from billiards to a cabinet of scientific curi- osities. The president, during the greater part of the existence of the association, was Thomas Colt, who was accustomed to make good the annual and apparently inevitable financial de- ficit. When Mr. Colt retired from office, the deficiency became troublesome, and the organization soon collapsed.
This experience discouraged further attempts on like lines for several years, during which no place of general association was provided for the young men of the town. They had, of course, numerous informal and literary clubs, while the various churches, and notably St. Joseph's, possessed young men's so- cieties, of which the function was not solely religious. The Business Men's Association, founded in 1881, began almost immediately to be a club rather than a board of trade. Pitts- field's volunteer fire companies maintained clubrooms customari- ly well-ordered, and the advantages of secret and fraternal socie- ties were enjoyed by the favored. But nothing of this sort was available distinctively for the town's young men, as a class. The need was obvious.
The national Young Men's Christian Association was seen first in Western Massachusetts at Springfield, where a branch of it was established by employees of the railroad. The Pittsfield Young Men's Christian Association was formed on April twenty- third, 1885. The first president was Alexander Kennedy. In October, 1885, headquarters were opened on the third floor of the block next north of the building of the Berkshire Life Insur- ance Company. The rooms were cramped, hard to reach, and unattractive; but it was possible to maintain, in addition to the religious meetings, some educational classes, a bureau of em- ployment, and a boarding house register, and thus to fill a space theretofore vacant in the town's life. The association was incorporated in 1886, and a building fund was started under the
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD
presidency of George Shipton in 1887, by an unknown donor who left ten dollars for that purpose on the treasurer's desk; to this nucleus a women's faithful auxiliary society, organized with thirty-five members in 1885, was able to make some contribu- tions.
On April twelfth, 1888, the Pittsfield Y. M. C. A., with 170 members, dedicated rooms in the Wollison brick block on North Street. These consisted of a good sized assembly hall, a boys' room, and an elementary gymnasium. The association began to regard itself with satisfaction, and to be aware that the com- munity at large was responsive to its efforts.
The membership so increased that 279 names were on the list in 1891. William A. Whittlesey was in that year the presi- dent. He was a man of contagious enthusiasm, and under his leadership an endeavor was first actually made to obtain for the association a home of its own. In 1890, a Thanksgiving Day gift from William H. Chamberlin, who was a stanch friend of the Y. M. C. A., had added $1,000 to the little building fund, and a bequest from Mrs. Almiron D. Francis raised the total amount to more than $6,000 in 1892. In the latter year a canvass of the citizens produced funds sufficient to warrant the purchase of a wooden building on the east side of North Street, which occupied the present site of the Majestic Theater, between Fenn Street and the railroad. In order to raise money for the equipment of the upper part of the building, which the association purposed to utilize, a pretentious and then novel entertainment was presented at the Academy of Music in August, 1893. This attracted the public every day for a week, and, having nearly 300 participants, served to arouse much general interest in the association.
In 1894 the Y. M. C. A. was in settled possession of its newly acquired property and of most of the facilities, albeit on a modest scale, which it required-assembly and recreation rooms, class- rooms, and a small, but well-equipped, gymnasium, with lockers and shower baths. The population of the city, however, was growing rapidly, and growing in such a way that many of the new residents were young men of the sort naturally attracted to the Y. M. C. A. It was not long before the Pittsfield association again felt the disadvantage of inadequate quarters. Mr.
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Whittlesey continued to be an energetic president until 1900, when he was succeeded by William H. Chamberlin. In 1902 the work of the association was greatly invigorated by the en- gagement, as general secretary, of Edward N. Huntress; and in 1903, soon after Mr. Chamberlin had been followed in the presidency by Samuel G. Colt, plans to provide for the pur- chase of another site and the erection of a new building assumed more or less definite shape.
By this time the association had enlisted the support of a large number of business and professional men, among whom was John P. Merrill. To him fell the privilege of announcing, in the fall of 1905, the gift to the association of seven acres of land adjacent to Pontoosuc Lake. The donors were Miss Hannah Merrill and some of her relatives; and the property, including a grove of lordly pines, afforded to the association a desirable summer camping ground. To this the association added by purchase a tract of fourteen acres bordered by the lake; and in 1914 James D. Shipton gave to the association a tract of forty-five acres to the east of its holdings.
The selection for the site of a new building was made public in the summer of 1906. The land chosen was on the south corner of North and Melville Streets, the frontage on North Street being about one hundred feet. Part of it, where stood the Number Three fire engine house, was purchased from the city, and the price paid for the entire plot by the association was $50,000. A public campaign to raise money wherewith to increase the building fund was organized in December of 1908, and was the most systematic, thorough, and spirited which Pittsfield had witnessed up to that time in behalf of any philanthropic object. The collectors, arrayed in competitive squads, met daily to hear inspiring speeches, and to advance the hand of a huge dial, which was displayed on North Street to indicate the progress of the subscription. $44,000 was raised in six days. Over 2,000 people contributed. The Women's Auxiliary, now numbering 300 members, raised $5,000; a bcquest from Franklin W. Rus- sell increased the general fund by nearly $100,000; and a gift from the heirs of William E. Tillotson added $25,000 to the building fund.
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The corner stone of the new building was laid August first, 1909. The architects were Messrs. Harding and Seaver of Pittsfield. Their plans were for a four-story structure of brick, On the third and fourth floors were arranged seventy-four sleep- ing rooms. The design provided a spacious auditorium, a Women's Auxiliary room, executive offiees, classrooms, a res- taurant, reading and reereation rooms, bowling alleys, and a gymnasium, having a floor space of 3,000 square feet and equip- ped with shower baths and loekers, and, in the basement, a swimming pool. These plans having been executed, the build- ing was formally opened on September fifteenth, 1910. The eost was approximately $185,000. In completeness of equip- ment and adaptability to its purposes, the building was the equal of any Y. M. C. A. headquarters in the state. Viewed as a mat- ter of poliey, the ereetion of the new building appears to have been almost immediately justified. The membership was 730 in January, 1910, and at the elose of the year it had more than doubled. In 1915 the membership was about 1,500.
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