image description — Mount Greylock, the state's highest peak, is site of a wizarding school in famed J.K. Rowling's wizard series.

Rowling Picks Mount Greylock as Site of Fictional Wizarding School

Staff Reports02:33PM / Tuesday, June 28, 2016Print Story | Email Story

ADAMS, Mass. — The state's highest peak was revealed on Tuesday to be the location of a school of wizardry.

J.K. Rowling, author of the immensely popular "Harry Potter" series, released a short story on Tuesday on the history of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at Pottermore.com.

"It stands at the highest peak of Mount Greylock, where it is concealed from non-magic gaze by a variety of powerful enchantments, which sometimes manifest in a wreath of misty cloud," she writes of the hidden granite castle.

The North American version of Hogwarts was founded by Isolt Sayre, an Irish woman of wizarding heritage, who fled to the New World on the Mayflower disguised as Muggle boy to escape her wicked aunt.

She fled the Pilgrims, who had little truck with witchcraft, and later saved two boys whose wizard parents had died. Her journey crossed with that of James Steward, a "no magic," who also had left the Pilgrims behind. The two married, and raised the boys and their own children, creating a school for witchcraft in Massachusetts.

"Isolt and James both lived to be over 100. They had seen the cottage of Ilvermorny become a granite castle, and they died in the knowledge that their school was now so famous that magical families all over North America were clamouring to educate their children there," Rowling writes.

Four wooden carvings at the school represent the houses, via the magical creatures Isolt encountered in the New World: the Horned Serpent, the panther Wampus, the Thunderbird and the Pukwudgie. (No Wizard Gruulach, however, who made his appearance as the protector of Mount Greylock at this past weekend's Berkshire Mountains Faerie Festival.)

This chapter is latest in Rowling's "History of Magic in North America" that's being released piece by piece this week. No word if Mount Greylock will make it into the current trilogy of films based in the United States, which begins with "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" this fall.

The story doesn't give the secret entrance to Ilvermorny — perhaps via the Berkshire Scenic Railway?

Tags: books, fantasy, fun stuff, wizard, witchcraft,

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Notre Dame Church Closed Indefinitely as Diocese Assesses Structural Damage

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
05:43AM / Wednesday, September 30, 2026

ADAMS, Mass. — What began as concerns over peeling paint inside Notre Dame Church turned out to be a much larger issue, as the church is now closed indefinitely after inspections revealed structural damage, particularly in the steeple.

Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs Catholic Church, located at 21 Maple St., has been taped off and closed since last week as the Diocese of Springfield assesses water damage affecting several areas of the building.

"There are multiple issues ... but the long and short of it is that there's been a water breach in a number of locations at the church, [compromising] some of the structures. The steeple clearly has been negatively impacted by this water breach, and so they're looking at the steeple as one potential major issue," said Mark Dupont, Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield's director of communications.

"A lot of the other ones are not to that level, but taken as a whole, they might be problematic in the long run. This church is well over 100 years old and has served that community with great distinction over the years, but unfortunately, sometimes our past history with these churches is that they quickly become very costly when they start having issues."

The church was built around 1882 to serve the area's French-speaking residents and is one of the two churches part of the St. John Paul II Parish and St. Stanislaus in Adams, Dupont said. The Catholic Parishes of Adams and Cheshire includes St. Mary of the Assumption in Cheshire

Parish staff were concerned about possible water intrusion and hired a structural mason to inspect the steeple and possibly do some repairs. The hired mason found broken beams.

However, the inspection revealed more extensive damage to the steeple than initially anticipated, prompting parish staff to immediately contact the Diocese of Springfield and close the church, Dupont said.

A more comprehensive inspection is now underway to determine the full extent of the damage and what it could mean for the future of the church, he said.

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