Berkshire Bank Becoming Beacon Bank

11:41AM / Thursday, August 07, 2025Print Story | Email Story

BOSTON — Berkshire Bank's changing its name once its merger with Brookline Bancorp Inc. of Boston is finalized this year.

The combined financial institutions will be known as Beacon Bank & Trust under parent company Beacon Financial Corp. The merger removes the "Berkshire" name from the bank after 179 years.

It was founded in 1846 as Berkshire County Savings Bank and changed it to Berkshire Bank in 1997 after acquiring Great Barrington Savings Bank. A host of mergers and acquisitions followed and Berkshire's corporate offices left for Boston in 2017.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp made the announcement on Wednesday. The Berkshires-founded banking company expects to complete the "merger of equals" is the third quarter of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals and normal closing conditions.

Brookline Bancorp is the parent company of Brookline Bank, Bank Rhode Island, and PCSB Bank. Paul A. Perrault, chairman and CEO of Brookline, will become CEO of the combined company.

"Our merger of equals will create a powerful financial institution with deep local roots, a broad, complementary footprint and a strong commitment to its employees, clients, stockholders and communities," Perrault said in the statement. "The Beacon Bank name reflects our desire to be a reliable guide in financial decision-making, helping clients reach their goals with clarity, confidence, and trust."

The merger agreement was signed last December to create a financial holding company with $24 billion in assets, $18 billion in total deposits, $19 billion in total loans and more than 140 branches across five states.

Berkshire Bank and Brookline have "complementary geographic footprints with limited branch overlap." Officials say customers will have access to more financial products and services and increased lending capacity but it will maintain local decision making.

According to a press statement from Berkshire Bank, the name "Beacon" was chosen to "reflect the shared vision of the combined organization." The name, logo and colors of blue and goals were approved by the boards of each corporation.

"A beacon represents guidance, strength, and a promise of stability — core principles that the legacy institutions have upheld for generations," according to bank officials.

The logo combines the two B-starting names with a stylized B.

Berkshire Bank's logo had added a gold "X" with a dot (for "exciting") in 2015 and switched its colors from green and gold to navy after it moved to Boston upon acquiring Commerce Bancshares Corp. The Brookline and Rhode Island banks used blue and gray and PCSB Bank blue and green, with stylized tree.

Berkshire Hills Chair David M. Brunelle will continue to serve as board chair for the combined company.

"Our new name honors the legacy of Berkshire and Brookline while looking toward a bright and ambitious future," he said in a statement. "While the name is changing, we remain dedicated to offering trusted financial solutions and local expertise. We look forward to our new company delivering the enhanced capabilities that come from the combined institution’s scale and operational strength."

Tags: Berkshire Bank,

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

Save & Earn with Greylock

3.30% APY 6-month certificate. Click to learn more! Insured by NCUA.

www.greylock.org

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Pittsfield's This and That Sports Celebrating Six Years

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
12:34PM / Friday, October 23, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — This and That Sports is celebrating its sixth birthday with a party.

Owner Reggie Davis opened the collectables and card store at 128 Fenn St., pursuing a hobby he has had since he was a teenager.

He started with small card shows and later collected a broad range of items, including sports memorabilia, autographs, Beanie Babies, and Matchbox cars.

"It's been a long time, and it's not just cards. I mean, I collect everything. I love sports memorabilia, autographs," he said.

Originally from Great Barrington, he moved to Connecticut and operated a collectibles store there from 2004 to 2014 before moving back to Berkshire County. He worked for FedEx before opening the new store in 2020.

For the first six months, he balanced the store with his career with FedEx, with help from his wife, Crystal, who worked around her own overnight hospital shifts. He left FedEx to focus on the store full time and works with his son, Bret.

He said it is more than a job and he is happy to open his doors to the collecting community.

"It's like something that I looked at as a pleasure business. It wasn't about the money. It was more like bringing the collecting part of the hobby to Berkshire County," he said.

Davis said he misses live baseball in Pittsfield, recalling Pittsfield Mets games. He said collecting brings him closer to that feeling of watching a local team when he was younger.

"I've always remembered growing up as a kid of the Pittsfield Mets and then the Pittsfield Suns and baseball being here and I was a big sports person, I played a lot of sports, and it's kind of sad and I think I want to continue the sports collecting part, the hobby. You can't go to a baseball game here unless it's like a high school game. So it's kind of continuing the collecting part of the hobby without the actual sports being here," he said.

Davis said the store's customers have become friends. He added that he likes to see the younger generation open packs of cards.

"The amazing part about it is not just the kids, but the customers. Like, I have customers that've been coming in for four, five, six [years] even new ones that just started coming in like a month ago," he said. "We've been out to dinner with these people. We travel. Customers have become friends, even close friends, which is nice."

He said one of the most challenging parts of the business has been to keep everything in stock especially with the surge in popularity of Pokemon cards.

"We have people that stop in all the time, and they're like wow you got a great selection of Pokemon, you have a big selection, and I think that's you know we have distribution for sports and Pokemon, but it sells so quick," he said. "I think the hardest thing is to be able to keep product on the shelf."

Not only does he sell collectibles, but he also purchased a card grading company called Revolutionary Card Grading that he opened next door. The company, based in Georgia, produces specialized color-matched designs but card grading and customer submissions are now handled locally since taking full ownership of the company last year.

View Full Story