Two centuries of women's history in Williamstown is topic of project

12:00AM / Thursday, March 16, 2000Print Story | Email Story

When Fannie Tash was 11 years old, she started working as assistant in her father, John Tashâ€™s, grocery store on Water Street. That was in 1922, and she ran the store for more than 50 years, its candy counter serving as a magnet for generations of Williamstown children. And women in the family of Roxana Freeman Duncett were among the first African-American women to travel to Liberia as teachers in the 19th century, subsequently returning to Troy, N.Y., to work in the first school there for African-American children. These and other women in the work force in Williamstown, through 1953, are the focus of a research project sponsored by the House of Local History and underwritten with a $2,500 grant from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. The collaborative grant program is in conjunction with the Bay State Historical Society. Titled â€œBecoming Visible: Two Centuries of Womenâ€™s History in Williamstown,â€ the project will be presented at the HLH Sunday, March 26, at 2 p.m. Scholar-in-residence Marla Miller, with the assistance of Jill Mudgett, collaborating scholar, examined the lives of women in Williamstown as revealed in records through 1953, focusing on women and work. Miller is assistant professor of history at the UMass-Amherst; Mudgett is a graduate student in the history department. Miller, whose specialties include U.S. womenâ€™s history and the social history of Colonial America, completed a comprehensive inventory of the historical assets in the village center, a project in 1997-98 initiated by the Historical Commission and funded by the Mass. Historical Commission. In the course of that research, she noted that she found evidence of extensive entrepreneurial activity by women at the turn of the century â€” references to women who were shopkeepers, dressmakers, store managers, peddlers. She worked on a similar project at Historic Deerfield, where she developed a guide to womenâ€™s history that had been hidden within the manuscript collection because it was overlooked by traditional finding aids. Miller earned her Ph.D. in U.S. history in 1997 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where her dissertation was titled My Daily Bread Depends Upon my Labor: Craftswomen, Community and the Marketplace in Rural New England, 1740-1820. Miller also received her M.A. from UNC, and her B.A. in the History of Culture from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1988. Mudgett, a Ph.D. candidate at UMass, holds an M.S. in American and New England studies from the University of Southern Maine, and a B.A. in historic preservation and womenâ€™s studies from Goucher College. In her scholarâ€™s statement, Miller said that in her research, she â€œfound colonial gentlewomen who managed the townâ€™s most privileged households, freedwomen who migrated to Williamstown in the years following the Civil War, cotton (millworkers) who gambled on upward mobility by abandoning factory work to open their own dressmaking shops, and businesswomen who oversaw the day-to-day operations of stores owned â€” and so known in the historical records â€” by their husbands.â€ Miller wrote that the materials could potentially â€œcontinue dismantling longstanding myths about womenâ€™s participation in the public world of work. Calling Williamstown â€œan extraordinarily well-documented small-town community,â€ Miller wrote that the town â€œaffords an unusual opportunity to investigate not only the ways in which women in rural Massachusetts have entered the work force from the Colonial era to the mid-20th century, but also the means by which that activity has been obscured in the documentary record.â€ â€œPulling together and investigating further the clues and fragments ... yield[s] a picture of womenâ€™s labor history that will unsettle longstanding beliefs about women, work and business in rural Massachusetts communities,â€ she wrote. HLH curator Nancy Burstein, in the project description, wrote that the scholar-in-residence grant enables the organization â€œto begin the systematic documentation and interpretation of the role of minorities and other under-documented groups in the history of our community. â€œDespite the commonly held belief that married women did not enter the work force until the second half of the 20th century, documentary records from Williamstown â€” including newspaper clippings, census records, business directories, organizational records, and oral histories â€” indicate women in the work force far earlier, unsettling longstanding beliefs about the roles of women in rural Massachusetts communities.â€ â€œOne of the most significant changes in the current approach to history has been an attempt to make it more inclusive. In the past, the lives and contributions of minorities, whether African-American, Native American, immigrant groups or women, have been neglected, giving the appearance of a past inhabited solely by white, protestant males,â€ she wrote. And while academic institutions and large museums have tried to shift their focus to include formerly excluded groups, and to alter the way history is taught, that shift is â€œharder for small, local historical societies without resources. â€œIn order to present an accurate picture of a townâ€™s past, and to be meaningful and relevant to its entire audience, it is incumbent upon local historical societies to preserve and present history that is inclusive of all elements of the town.â€ This week, Burstein said the research is a matter of â€œfinding them and pulling them out.â€ â€œIâ€™m really excited by it. As a feminist myself, Iâ€™m delighted to learn what we have in the collection about the accomplishments of women in Williamstown at a time when we thought women were just sitting home.â€

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Friday Front Porch Feature: A Charming House Like New

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
06:57PM / Friday, December 19, 2025

The home prior to renovations.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Are you looking for a newly renovated home with great space? Then this might be the perfect fit for you!

Our Friday Front Porch is a weekly feature spotlighting attractive homes for sale in Berkshire County. This week, we are showcasing 100 Autumn Drive.

This three-bedroom, two-bathroom split level was built in 1965 and is 1,396 square feet on 0.32 acres.

The house was completely renovated recently. It includes a one-car garage, and comes with appliances including a dishwasher and stove/oven, and other major appliances.

The house is listed for $359,500.

We spoke with owners Michael Zeppieri and Chris Andrews, who did the renovations. Zeppieri is an agent with Alton and Westall Real Estate Agency.

What was your first impression when you walked into the home?

Zeppieri: I purchased this home to do a full renovation flip and saw tremendous potential in this mid-century split level home that had not been updated since it was built in the 1960s, in a great North Adams neighborhood.

Andrews: The house was a much different house when we first purchased it in 2022 (photo attached is from about 2010.) The interior was painted all in dark colors and we brightened it up with neutral colors. The transformation makes you feel like you are in a totally different house.

What were the recent renovations, any standout design features?

Zeppieri: The house has had a complete reconfiguration including new kitchen with high-end appliances, ceramic tiled baths, hardwood floors, new windows and roof ... just to name a few. All a buyer has to do is move in and enjoy.

Andrews: Yes, we renovated the entire house. New windows, new roof, all new custom black gutter system, new blacktop driveway, hardwood floors were installed through out the house. New kitchen and bathrooms as well as painting the exterior and interior of the house. New paver patio in the back yard.

What kind of buyer would this home be ideal for?

Zeppieri: The buyer for this home could be a first-time homebuyer or a retiree ... the location is close to attractions in North Adams ... and the property is located in Autumn Heights, which is a very small residential development with several long-term owners.

Andrews: This home is truly ideal for a variety of buyers. Whether a first-time homebuyer, a small family or even someone looking to downsize from a larger home.

What do you think makes this property stand out in the current market?

Zeppieri: The location, price and move-in condition of this home make it a true market leader in the North Adams Market.

Andrews: This house is completely renovated and in a desirable location of North Adams. The natural light in the home really makes the interior pop. And with all the upgrades the home stays quite cool in the summer months.

Do you know any unique stories about the home or its history?

Zeppieri: This home was built for the Gould family in 1969 and they lived there till 2010. It was always a family home during that time in which the Goulds had two children ... and Virgina Gould managed Mohawk Forest Apartments and was a very active resident of North Adams.

Andrews: Built in about 1965.

What do the current owners love about this home?

Zeppieri: As the current owner it was a fun project to transform this home and get it ready for its next adventure with a new family to enjoy for many years.

Andrews: No one has lived in the house since we purchased the home. The new owners would be the first to live in the house since the renovations have been completed.

What would you say to a buyer trying to imagine their life in this space?

Andrews: I would suggest seeing the house either on a sunny day or at twilight to really get a vision of how special the home feels.

You can find out more about this house on its listing here.

*Front Porch Feature brings you an exclusive to some of the houses listed on our real estate page every week. Here we take a bit of a deeper dive into a certain house for sale and ask questions so you don't have to.

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