An historical walk in Great Barrington

By Kate AbbottPrint Story | Email Story
Joy Lyon, Manager of the Chamber of Commerce of South Berkshire Information Center, recently conducted an armchair tour of Great Barrington’s history. Main Street and Railroad Street are two of the oldest streets in the country. Walking down Main Street is a historical experience in itself, she said. It was the first street in the country, and possibly in the world, to have electric light. The lamps burned courtesy of inventor William Stanley. In in 1886, he set up a transformer experiment with alternating current electricity in an abandoned factory building where the Housatonic River Walk lies now. Railroad Street, on the other hand, became a red light district, with a number of bars. Not too long ago, Lyon said, a lady could not walk down Railroad Street unchaperoned. But ‘Dodge City’ has recently become ‘Little Soho.’ The red lights have given way to bakeries, the Triplex Cinema, sushi and Bizen pottery, and the Railroad Street Youth Project. Two monuments outside the Town Hall mark historic events. The first armed resistance against the British scrummed around this site in 1774. Lyon said 700 to 1000 rabble-rousing farmers got fed up with the British Tribuna that sat at the Town Hall and ran local affairs. The farmers gathered with muskets, sticks and whatever lay handy, and met the 10 or 12 members of the British Tribunal as they walked down the street to the Town Hall. The farmers blocked their way to the building and refused to let them enter the building. They never came back. Here also, the first slave won her freedom under due process of law. Mum Betts, a woman enslaved to Col. John Ashley, won her freedom in the 1700’s and turned Massachusetts into a free state from that day. She changed her name to Elizabeth Freeman, Lyon said. William Cullen Bryant, the Victorian law clerk and poet, lived in Great Barrington. He married a lady from Alford; her relatives lived at the William Cullen Bryant House up the road. He practiced law in the brown house just past the Days Inn, Lyon said, and wrote a poem about Monument Mountain Reservation. Every year, local people reenact the Monument Mountain Poet’s Hike: the famous hike that introduced Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. Lyon said at the time of the firt hike, in the mid 1800’s, travellers could drive a buggy up the mountain. Both authors joined a picnic party heading up the hill. They had never met, but during a sudden storm, they happened to shelter together and get talking. The meeting began a close friendship that lasted through many years and letters; Melville later dedicated Moby Dick to Hawthorne. The Berkshire Athenaeum exhibits some of his letters to Hawthorne in the Melville room. Another Great Barrington marker on Church Street, at Cavanaugh’s Plumbing, shows the ground site of the childhood home of Civil Rights activist W.E.B. DuBois, the author of TheSouls of Black Folk. The town has put together a complete walking tour of sites connected with DuBois, as he grew, went to school and worked in Great Barrington, Lyon said. This year, the River Walk planted a garden in his memory. Just across from the South Berkshire Chamber building, Lyon pointed out the John Dewey Academy, a therapeutic school— crenellations and all. The building is also called Searles Castle. Visitors can tour it in the summer, during the day, and in the evening at the Stockbridge Chamber Concerts. It also holds a book fair every year. Searles Castle was the original residence of Mrs. Mark Hopkins, a widow from San Fransisco, Lyon said. Mrs. Hopkins had aunts in the Berkshires. She came here in 1881 and built herself a château out of local stone from the East Mountain Quarry. It cost $2.2 million all together. Stanford White architects designed it. At more than 60 of age, Mrs. Hopkins fell in love with the interior designer, who was some 20 years younger than she was— and she asked him to marry her. His name was Searles. The Searles built the outer wall when the trolley cars came down Main Street, because they did not like to see the trolley cars. The South Berkshire Chamber once had its office in a windowed turret on the wall, Lyon said. The last President of the Republic of Texas, who fought in the Alamo and had the honor of ceding the Republic of Texas to the United tates, also lived here. Lyon said she hoped some day Great Barrington would have a museum; it had seen so many firsts and so many unique historical personalities. The library did keep some historical items. Mason Library, by the way, was the site of the second home of Laura Secord, a famous Canadian heroine of the French and Indian War.
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North Adams Unveils Hometown Heroes Banners

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff

Carol Ethier-Kipp holds up the first aid kit her father used as an Army medic in World War II. See more photos here. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City of North Adams honored its own on Friday afternoon, unveiling 50 downtown street banners representing local veterans who served — and continue to serve — the community and the country.
 
More than 300 residents packed the front lawn of City Hall as the community took a moment to reflect on its "Hometown Heroes" during the morning unveiling ceremony.
 
"In a city like North Adams, service is personal. The men and women we honor today are not strangers to us. They are our neighbors, our classmates, our parents, our grandparents," Mayor Jennifer Macksey told the crowd. "... These banners are far more than names and pictures hanging along our streets. They are visible reminders of the values that define North Adams: courage, sacrifice, humility, duty, resilience, and the love of country. They remind every person who passes by that this community remembers our veterans."
 
The banner program launched exactly a year ago. Veterans Services Agent Kurtis Durocher opened applications in October and spent the next six months working with families to bring the project to Main Street and over the Hadley Overpass. 
 
"We gather to recognize the brave men and women from our community who have served or who are currently serving in the United States armed forces," Durocher said. "These banners are more than images. They bear a tribute to service, sacrifice, courage, and pride, and they remind us that the freedoms we enjoy every day have been protected by our neighbors, family members, friends, and Hometown Heroes."
 
Each banner features a portrait of a veteran alongside their military branch and dates of service.
 
Durocher noted that the program was something residents clearly wanted, pointing to how fast applications flooded his desk. He praised the volunteers who stepped up to get the banners made and displayed — including city firefighters and Mitchell Meranti of Wire & Alarm Department, who were installing them as late as Thursday night.
 
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