Author Julie Dobrow to Speak at Arrowhead

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Author, biographer and Tufts University professor Julie Dobrow's new book, "Love and Loss After Wounded Knee: A Biography of an Extraordinary Interracial Marriage,: tells the story of the lives and marriage of Elaine Goodale and Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman. 
 
On June 3 at 5:30 pm, the Berkshire County Historical Society hosts Dubrow for a presentation about her book and the fascinating way in which she first discovered this story. 
 
Tickets are $5 for BCHS members, $10 for non-members and can be purchased by using the BOOK NOW button at berkshirehistory.org. This event is sponsored by Massachusetts Cultural Council and Housatonic Heritage.
 
According to a press release: 
 
As is the case for many star-crossed lovers, it was amazing that Elaine Goodale and Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman (Ohíye S'a), ever met in the first place. She was a white woman from Mount Washington, Massachusetts, who earned early fame as a childhood poet and was frequently mentioned as a “childhood poetic prodigy of the Berkshires.” Elaine travelled west in 1884 to teach Native American children. Charles was a Santee Dakota who had gone to Dartmouth College and the Boston University School of Medicine. Somehow, they both ended up at the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota in December of 1890 and fell in love at first sight. Three weeks later, they announced their engagement. Then the Wounded Knee Massacre changed everything.
 
Julie Dobrow is a writer, professor and researcher whose work focuses both on biography and history, and also on children and media. She teaches at Tufts University. Much of her writing and teaching focuses on telling untold and under-told stories and shining new light on them.
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State Housing Secretary Tours Downtown Pittsfield Developments

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The state's new secretary of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities on Monday saw how local developers are transforming historic buildings into downtown housing units. 

Secretary Juana Matias, appointed to the role in February, toured the former St. Joseph's High School on Maplewood Avenue and the near-complete Wright Building Block on North Street.   

Matias observed local leaders working collaboratively to dismantle bottlenecks in housing production, something she said the administration wants to see across all 351 municipalities.  

"This is a perfect model of the partnerships we want to see, and we love coming to the ground and seeing how people are leveraging public taxpayer dollars to help address the issue of our time, which is housing production," she said after the tours. 

Developer David Carver, of Scarafoni Associates & CT Management Group, is seeking support from the state Housing Development Incentive Program to transform St. Joe's into apartments, and Allegrone Companies has secured millions from the program towards the Wright Building renovation

They first visited the shuttered school that functioned as a shelter during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, greeted by broken windows and leaving with Carver's vision. 

The plan is to transform the school with good bones into 19 apartments, 20 percent designated affordable, and 30 percent of the building for commercial use.  Units are expected to cost between $1,700 and $1,900 per month; 14 one-bedroom units and five two-bedroom units are planned. 

The project team is in talks with the nearby Berkshire Family YMCA to expand their childcare activities to the building's lower level.  Residents and the daycare would use different entrances. 

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