Pittsfield Boards OK Permanent Mural Honoring 54th Regiment
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — City boards and commissions have approved a permanent mural in Durant Park honoring the Black residents who fought in the Civil War.
During its Jan. 20 meeting, the Community Development Board approved a floodplain site review for "Pride of the Westside," an approximately 25 x 12-foot mural of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. The project was brought forward by the Westside Legends and unveiled during the 2025 Juneteenth celebrations.
Parks, Open Space, and Natural Resources Manager James McGrath has been working closely with the neighborhood revitalization nonprofit to permanently mount the mural in Durant Park, located at 30 Columbus Ave.
"It's a very handsome mural, and I think it really tells an important story about Pittsfield's role in the Civil War and particularly around the African American experience," he said, adding that the regiment’s story needs to be told.
The 54th Mass was the second Black regiment raised during the Civil War (the 1st Kansas was formed two months earlier) and a priority of Gov. John Andrew and abolitionist supporters. These soldiers would prove their bravery not only in battle but against the discrimination and bigotry they faced, and harsh treatment or execution if captured.
By the end of the Civil War, nearly 180,000 Black soldiers had seen service in the Union army.
The regiment's establishment in 1863 and its heroic actions at Fort Wagner in South Carolina were dramatized in the film "Glory" starring Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, and Matthew Broderick as Col. Robert Gould Shaw. Shaw and his troops are memorialized across from the State House in a bronze relief by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
Frederick Douglass' two sons were among its recruits, and Pittsfield's the Rev. Samuel Harrison of Second Congregational Church was its chaplain.
The Parks Commission and Conservation Commission have voted in favor of the artwork's installation. It was made on canvas that can be affixed to plywood.
"This mural is proposed to be sited along the fence line of the West Branch of the Housatonic River within Durant Park, and of course, Durant Park, being alongside the river, is entirely within the floodplain of the river, and that's why this application is before you tonight for site plan review," McGrath explained.
"Generally, what the project hopes to do is, working with some donated material and labor from Eversource, the electric utility, there will be four utility poles that will be sited parallel to the fence line, and attached to those four posts will be the plywood backing for this mural."
The mural is situated so that it can be seen from both Columbus Avenue and John Street, he added.
Tags: civil war, historic event, murals,
