image description — A depiction of a screened fence that will obscure Williamstown's 1753 House that was reviewed by the Sign Commission on Tuesday.

Display Will Obscure Williamstown's 1753 House to Make a Point

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
12:24AM / Wednesday, October 06, 2021Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Sign Commission on Tuesday OK'd an art installation on Field Park that will draw attention to the region's heritage as the homeland of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians.

A group of Williams College employees and members of the community have asked the town's permission to install a four-sided black fence around the 1753 House, a 20th-century replica built using 18th-century tools and techniques.

If all goes according to plan, the fence will be installed on Monday in time for Indigenous Peoples Day and stay up for the two-week period approved by the Sign Commission by a unanimous vote on Tuesday afternoon.

"The idea of the project is to imagine what the green would look like symbolically if the 1753 House wasn't there," Randal Fippinger told the commission in introducing the proposal. "The 1753 House is obviously a representation of colonial Williamstown.

"The idea is to surround the 1753 House with a fence, a freestanding fence from Berkshire Fencing. … GVH Printing in Bennington will create a black mesh that goes around each side of it. On each side of the mesh are symbols from the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. Each image represents cardinal points on the compass."

Fippinger, who serves on the town's Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Equity Advisory Committee, said the concept was created by a local artist who wishes to remain anonymous. The concept grew out of conversations between himself, former DIRE Committee member Bilal Ansari and Williams College Museum of Art Deputy Director for Engagement Christina Yang.

In addition to the fencing designed to obscure the view of the replica structure, the petitioner plans to display a reimagined version of the town flag, adopted in 2015, that erases the structure.

"We had a conversation with Bonnie Hartley from the Stockbridge-Munsee Community," Fippinger said. "They like the idea."

So did the chair of the 1753 House Committee when Fippinger pitched the idea to the group responsible for maintaining the historic replica, Fippinger said.

The Sign Commission, which is responsible, among other things, for making sure that public displays do not create unreasonable distractions to motorists, considered whether the thought-provoking temporary display would pose a hazard on the rotary at the junction of Routes 2 and 7.

Community Development Director Andrew Groff, who staffs the commission, said neither he nor interim Town Manager Charlie Blanchard have an exception to the installation.

"If you look at the broader issue of signage as it relates to vehicular safety, generally what your commission is concerned with is readability in an area where the speed limit is 20 mph," Groff said. "This [fence] is set back from the road, there's vegetation there. … I have not raised this to [interim Police Chief Mike] Ziemba, but I don't think they'd have a problem with that."

Sign Commission member Kathy Thompson, who identified herself as a past chair of the board of the Williamstown Historical Museum, pointed out that the museum directs its visitors to the 1753 House and that visitors to the replica spike during fall foliage season. Thompson asked whether it would be possible to create a break in the planned 20-by-20 fence that would allow visitors to the house while the installation is in place.

"I'm really interested that the 1753 House Committee isn't more concerned," Thompson said. "I totally like the concept. I'm not against that at all. I'm pro indigenous people. I just think cutting it off from people who might want to visit in fall foliage time … ."

Sign Commission Chair Anne Singleton pointed out that the question of whether the house could be accessed for two weeks is not part of the commission's purview.

And a resident who spoke from the "floor" of the virtual meeting pointed out that the installation's timing is both intentional and appropriate.

"This town should be so proud of our Mohican-Stockbridge-Munsee heritage, and any way we can amplify it is wonderful," Arlene Kirsch told the commission. "What better time than Indigenous Peoples Day? It's a great project to educate people, a visual statement that educates people and amplifies our history."

Tags: historical building, signage,

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Doing this "to make a point" is absolutely absurd. Having art and celebrating people is one thing, but to do it out of misguided spite is petty. My grandfather worked on the 1753 House to demonstrate what it was like to build a house in that era with original tools, as survival in this climate was difficult. The only point this anonymous artist is making is ignorance.
from: Christopher	on: 10-09-2021 11:56AM I Agree (0) - I Disagree (0)

OBSCURING WILLIAMSTOWN’s 1753 HOUSE TO MAKE A POINT The article by Stephen Dravis in IBerkshires (October 6, 2021) left me hoping for more detail. According to the article, the idea was conceived with considerable discussion among DIRE Committee members (present and former), a “group of Williams College employees and [other?] members of the [Williamstown?] community.” The proposed temporary structure was approved by all requisite town boards as an “art installation.” The “four-sided black fence” with symbols from the Stockbridge-Munsee Community is designed “to imagine what the green would look like symbolically if the 1753 House was not there.” Interesting idea. I had hoped that more information about the “art installation” would be forthcoming. And perhaps it will be once the structure is installed. Below are some questions that I hope will be answered: • I understand that the artist wishes to remain anonymous, but is the artist Native American; in particular, a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians? • If this is an “art installation,” is there a message the artist hopes to convey in addition to visually “cancelling” the 1753 house and the colonial Williamstown that it represents? • If there is an additional message, does it rely on Mohican symbolism? For example, why is the structure rectangular not circular, as are many creations in Native American art? (The photo in IBerkshires makes the structure look more like the Kaaba, and I strongly suspect that is not the intention.) Was black chosen for a particular reason grounded in local Native American culture? Do the images of the cardinal points on a compass suggest a story? Others will have additional questions. This is an excellent opportunity to begin educating Williamstown residents about the indigenous people of this area. I hope more detail is forthcoming. Donna Wied Williamstown
from: Donna	on: 10-10-2021 03:25PM I Agree (0) - I Disagree (0)

Town, Residents Concerned About Forest Service Plan to Use Williamstown Road

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:31AM / Thursday, November 12, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A timber manager with the U.S. Forest Service told the Select Board on Monday that his office was willing to work with the town to address concerns raised by residents over a plan to haul timber out of the Green Mountain National Forest across the state line in Vermont.

An overflow crowd of residents from both Williamstown and Pownal, Vt., attended Monday's meeting at Town Hall, where Stacy Stratton and other officials from the Forest Service laid out plans to cut and remove 1 million board feet of wood — about 2,000 cords — from the woodland just north of town.

The sticking point is how officials expect that wood to be removed from the forest: down White Oaks Road, a narrow, twisting residential street that town's director of public works says is ill-suited for the operation.

DPW Director Craig Clough was joined at the microphone Monday by nearly a dozen residents of Williamstown and Pownal to question elements of what the Forest Service is calling the "South of Route 9 Integrated Resource Project."

Most of those concerns centered on White Oaks Road.

Stratton told the board that somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 log truck trips will be required to remove the wood that the service plans to remove from the forest, but that number does not include all the heavy equipment that will need to be taken to the cutting site or the daily traffic from loggers traveling to and from the site.

The project itself could take anywhere from one to five years, Stratton said. That number won't be known until the Forest Service puts the job out to bid.

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