Dr. John Davis to Discuss Historic Deerfield at Williamstown Lecture

03:21PM / Wednesday, April 23, 2025Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Dr. John Davis, President of Historic Deerfield, will present a lecture titled "Historic Deerfield: Local Legacy, National Relevance" on Saturday, April 26, at 11:00 a.m.

The event will be held in the auditorium at Sweetwood, located at 1611 Cold Spring Road (Route 7) in Williamstown. The Williamstown Historical Museum (WHM) is presenting this free lecture.

Dr. Davis’ presentation will address the connection between Williamstown and Deerfield through individuals and artifacts, the current state of Historic Deerfield, and its summer exhibitions: "Envisioning America: Deerfield Academy’s Collection of Paintings and Drawings" and "Body by Design: Fashionable Silhouettes from the Ideal to the Real."

John Davis holds a PhD from Columbia University and is a graduate of Cornell University. His previous roles include Provost and Under Secretary for Museums, Education, and Research at the Smithsonian Institution, Executive Director of the Terra Foundation for American Art Europe (Paris), and Alice Pratt Brown Professor of Art at Smith College. He has authored, co-authored, or edited seven books, and his research interests encompass landscape painting, religion and visual culture, music and art, African-American representation during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, the history of artists’ organizations, archival and documentary histories of American art, and 19th-century architecture and urbanism. Davis is an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society.

Historic Deerfield, Inc., was founded in 1952 by Henry and Helen Geier Flynt, parents of Henry N. "Hank" Flynt, Jr. (Williams ‘44), a longtime Williamstown resident and supporter of the WHM. In 1936, the Flynts enrolled their son at Deerfield Academy and subsequently began purchasing and restoring historic houses along "The Street."

Today, Historic Deerfield comprises twelve preserved antique houses dating from 1730 to 1850, featuring collections of regional furniture, silver, textiles, and decorative arts displayed within the period houses. The site also includes the Flynt Center of Early New England Life, a museum facility with exhibitions and visible storage, and the Henry N. Flynt Library, which contains over 21,000 volumes on the history and material culture of the region.

Additional information is available at www.williamstownhistoricalmuseum.org. The Williamstown Historical Museum can also be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/williamstownhistoricalmuseum and on Instagram at @WilliamstownHistoricalMuseum.

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Mount Greylock School Committee Hears Budget Requests, Pressures

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:32AM / Wednesday, February 18, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee Thursday heard the final rounds of fiscal year 2027 budget requests and heard why those — or any — discretionary increases in spending will be difficult in the year that begins July 1.

Williamstown Elementary Principal Benjamin Torres and middle-high school Principal Jake Schutz each presented the spending priorities formulated by their respective school councils. The requests followed a presentation by Lanesborough Elementary Principal Nolan Pratt at the January meeting.

Superintendent Joseph Bergeron then told the School Committee that state and federal aid to the district is going to be slightly lower than FY26 and reminded the panel that the district spent the last two years spending down its reserve accounts, as requested by the member towns, to the point where those reserves — School Choice, tuition and excess and deficiency — cannot be applied to the operating budget.

"Spending the exact same amount of money from this year to next year — that alone will mean a 4 percent increase [in appropriations] to each of our towns," Bergeron said. "That's the baseline on top of which everything else will happen.

"We know we're seeing an 8.75 percent increase in health insurance, but we also have an increasing number of employees who are taking our health insurance, so that health insurance line is increasing substantially. When it comes to out-of-district tuition as well as transportation, both of those are seeing marked increases as well."

District staff and the School Committee will further refine its FY27 budget over the next five weeks, with a budget workshop scheduled for Tuesday, March 3, and a public hearing and final budget vote on March 19.

The district's appropriations to Williamstown and Lanesborough, which each pay a proportional share of the prekindergarten-Grade 12 district's operating expenses, will face an up-or-down vote at each town's annual meeting, in May and June, respectively.

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