Eagle Street Beach Returns for 20th Year on July 14

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Saturday, July 14, will mark the 20th year of artist Eric Rudd's annual "Eagle Street Beach" community beach celebration.

In celebration of the anniversary, an illustrated children's book by Rudd will be given as prizes and distributed to schools, libraries and to the city of North Adams.

The beach event, originated by Rudd in 1999, has become a summer staple for creative fun in the sand. The party, sponsored by the Berkshire Art Museum, fills the street with 500,000 pounds of sand, donated by Specialty Minerals and delivered and cleaned up by the City of North Adams Department of Public Works. A team of volunteers spreads it, curb to curb, filling the entire length of downtown Eagle Street.

Mildred Elley has donated 300 sand-pails and shovels – free for all participants to use and keep. Beach attire is recommended; smoking is prohibited. The First Baptist Church will be giving away free ice cream cones and the SteepleCats will be giving away 250 tickets to children 12 and under. Several not-for-profit groups will also be on hand with a variety of other giveaways.

Eagle Street merchants and businesses have contributed sand toys, as well as special prizes for the most creative sand castles or sand sculptures, for the event, which runs from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Food color dye is acceptable, but no spray paint. Prizes will be awarded primarily to children, but prizes to groups of children as well as families with adults and individual adults will also be awarded. For example, Jack's has donated gift certificates good for one hot dog. Other merchants have given gifts and certificates to their stores

Freight Yard Pub Serving the Community for Decades

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:26PM / Saturday, December 06, 2025

One of the eatery's menu mainstays is the popular French onion soup. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Freight Yard Pub has been serving the community for decades with a welcoming atmosphere and homemade food.

 

Siblings Sean and Colleen Taylor are the owners Freight Yard Pub. They took it over with their brother Kevin and Colleen's first husband in 1992. The two came from Connecticut and Boston to establish a restaurant and said they immediately felt welcomed in their new home.

 

"The reception that the community gave us in the beginning was so warm and so welcoming that we knew we found home," Colleen Taylors said. "We've made this area our homes since then, as a matter of fact, all of our friends and relationships came out of Freight Yard Pub."

 

The pub is located in Western Gateway Heritage State Park, and its decor is appropriately train-themed, as the building it's in used to be part of the freight yard, but it also has an Irish pub feel. It is the only original tenant still operating in the largely vacant park. The Taylors purchased the business after it had several years of instability and closures; they have run it successfully for more than three decades.

 

Colleen and Sean have been working together since they were teenagers. They have operated a few restaurants, including the former Taylor's on Holden Street, and currently operate takeout restaurant Craft Food Barn, Trail House Kitchen & Bar and Berkshire Catering Co. 

 

"Sean and I've been working together. Gosh, I think since we were 16, and we have a wonderful business relationship, where I know what I cover, he knows what he covers," she said. "We chat every single day, literally every day we have a morning phone call to say, OK, checking in."

 

The two enjoy being a part of the community and making sure to lend a hand to those who made them feel so welcome in the first place.