Author: John Dickson

 

Roads from four directions converged in the center of Pittsfield.  The town’s first meeting house was built here in 1762, and in 1790 a neighbor, John Chandler Williams, donated the land for a public park known as “Meeting House Common,” now called Park Square. Originally the park was triangular, although today it has assumed an oval shape.

Park Square has been the central focus of meetings, fairs, parades and protests ever since.  Here, the townspeople convened to send off their sons and daughters to fight in the nation’s wars and celebrated them on their return.  The Marquis de Lafayette stopped here on his tour of the United States, in 1825.   Home to a Civil War memorial, the square is filled with U.S. flags each November to honor the nation’s veterans.

 

60. Site of the 1st Agricultural Fair & famous elm tree, Park Square

In the 1820s, a young Pittsfield physician, Henry Halsey Childs, persuaded two colleagues to help him petition the Massachusetts Legislature for a charter and an endowment to open a medical school in his home town. On January 4, 1823, Governor Brooks signed the act, but did not approve an endowment. That same year, the Berkshire Medical Institute took over the old Pittsfield Hotel which stood to the east of St. Stephen’s Church, and twenty-two students joined five faculty members in the study of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, physic (medicine), pharmacology, surgery, midwifery, and medical law. In 1830 the institution graduated twenty-four medical students, but because the institution never received financial support from the state, it was constantly in debt. On February 5, 1850, some of the facilities burned down and the institution was forced to close. With a $10,000 grant from the state and an additional $5,000 donated by Berkshire citizens, the school was able to move to South Street until 1867 when lack of enrollment closed it permanently. In its 30-plus years of operation, the institution produced 1,138 graduates.  (Nonextant)

 

59. Pittsfield Center, Park Square

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church was rebuilt in 1889 on the church’s original site in order to open access up to Allen Street. To hold services, after the first church was razed and before the new one was completed, a wooden chapel was built on the rear lot. The new church was designed by Peabody and Stearns of Boston, and the contractors were Hascall Dodge & D.C. Bedell. The English-style architecture utilized Longmeadow brown sandstone with a 72-foot-tall bell tower prominently standing out on Park Square.  Five of the windows were designed by famed female stained-glass artist Mary Elizabeth Tillinghast, and the other six were made by the well-known Louis Comfort Tiffany (son of Tiffany & Co.). All the debt of the church was paid off by November 12, 1892. On November 19, 1892 the Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks, then the Bishop of Massachusetts, came to Pittsfield to consecrate the church.  In 1999, a grant from Massachusetts Historical Commission and a capital fund drive helped the church perform badly needed repairs on the more than a century-old building.

 

57. Thomas Allen House, corner of East and Allen Streets

On June 25, 1830, Edward A. Newton, a former missionary, organized a meeting to start an Episcopal Church in Pittsfield.  The attendees selected Major Thomas Melville, Jr. as chairman of the new church, and Daniel D. Bush was appointed clerk. The name St. Stephen’s was selected to honor the Rev. Stephen Higginson Tyng, a clergyman and friend of Newton and the author of several volumes of sermons and other books.  The St. Stephen’s organization decided they wanted the church to be built right on Park Square, and Lemuel Pomeroy, a neighbor and prominent businessman donated $500 for the plot where the church now stands.  At the time, the property was occupied by the town hall.  At first, the town refused this first offer, but Pomeroy then proposed to build the town a new hall on adjacent property at his own expense.  It was an offer too good to refuse, and construction began in 1832. 

Predominantly of dark-toned limestone from Pittsfield, the new church stood sixty-seven feet long and forty-three feet wide, and had an eighty foot wooden tower.  Another neighbor, Lucretia Williams, donated $569 for an organ built by Goodrich of Boston.  The church was consecrated on December 7, 1832, by Rt. Rev. Alexander V. Griswold who was the bishop of Eastern Diocese at the time. During the renovations from 1851-52 the church’s wooden tower was replaced by one made of stone and the church made bigger. In 1887, the parish decided to build a new church; parishioners initially offered the site of the church back to the city for $25,000.  On second thought, they decided that there was no better place for their church so they chose to rebuild on the same site.   (Nonextant)

 

56. St. Stephen’s Church, 67 East Street

In 1764, a 21-year-old Thomas Allen took up his duties as pastor of the First Congregational Church in Pittsfield.  Just four years later, the town voted to build a new meetinghouse in the center of Pittsfield to serve as both town hall and church.  As the congregation grew in a new country preaching separation of church and state, town leaders decided in 1790 to build two separate structures, side-by-side to serve as the town hall and First Church.  The new town hall also housed a school in the lower level of the building.  (Nonextant)

 

55. St. Stephen’s Church, 67 East Street

The Town Hall was built in 1832 by Lemuel Pomeroy, a wealthy textile manufacturer, who offered to build a new, larger town hall at his own expense if the new Episcopal Church could buy the land where the Old Town Hall used to stand. Pomeroy promised a new building that would be 56 feet long and 42 feet wide, if he could keep the whole basement for his own offices, except for one room in which there would be a fire-proof vault of sufficient size for town records. The town agreed, and the new building was completed in 1832 at 43 East Street.

A beautiful example of late Federal architecture style, the building was a two-story brick building with offices on the second floor and vaults, that contained town records dating back to 1761.   Over the years, the building served many uses including a post office, bank, site of religious services, and the county courthouse before Berkshire County Courthouse opened in 1871. The Berkshire County Agricultural Society also used it to present exhibits, and soldiers were recruited for the Civil War in this building. The major drawback to the building was its 500-person limit in a community of 2,000 registered voters.

When Pittsfield officially became a city in 1891, the Town Hall became City Hall. City Hall was still too small and dangerous, forcing the relocation of many municipal employees into the old police station in 1940. Finally, the building inspector ruled out renovation in 1952, saying the old building would not withstand it. Mayor Remo Del Gallo got the Massachusetts Legislature to support the opening of a new city hall. City Hall opened on Allen Street in 1968. Later, Berkshire County Savings Bank took over the original Town Hall building and restored it.

54. Old Town Hall, 43 East Street

The first meeting house in Pittsfield was both a church and a municipal government building erected in 1770, six years after the 21-year-old Thomas Allen moved here as the town’s first ordained minister.  A plain, two-story colonial building, the first floor had an open space for church meetings, and the second floor had offices for town officials.   It is fair to wonder what local officials did at this time, but perhaps the most famous proclamation ever in Pittsfield came from this meeting house in the form of the “Broken Window Bylaw.” It stated, “Be it ordained by the said Inhabitants that no Person, an Inhabitant of said Town, shall be permitted to play at any Game called Wicket, Cricket, Base ball, Bat ball, Foot ball, Cat, Fives or any other Game or Games with Balls within the Distance of Eighty Yards from said Meeting House…” This stands as the earliest known written mention of the game of baseball anywhere in the United States, enabling Pittsfield to lay claim to the title of birthplace of our nation’s past-time.

As the town grew, so did the need for larger space for local government functions.   (Nonextant)

 

53. Town Hall/Old City Hall, 43 East Street

This original church on this site links Pittsfield to the Capitol building in Washington DC.  When town leaders decided to raze the old Meeting House in 1793, they turned to Charles Bulfinch, one of this nation’s first and most famous architects, to design the new church.  President James Monroe later tapped him to design repairs and improvements to the wings and central portion of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., after it was damaged by the British in 1814.  He also designed the Massachusetts and Maine state house buildings, the University Hall at Harvard, the Bulfinch Building at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Massachusetts State Prison. 

The original structure of Pittsfield’s Bulfinch Church had an open cupola belfry, which was one of the first of its kind in New England. Plans originally called for the Bulfinch Church to serve as a meeting house, but the town instead built on the neighboring John Chandler Williams’ land. The Berkshire Agricultural Society held many exhibits in Bulfinch Church. Soon after the fire it was sold and moved to the Maplewood Girls Institute. In 1939, deemed a fire hazard, the Bullfinch Church was razed.   (Nonextant)

52. First Meeting House, 27 East Street

In 1841, Rev. John Todd took up his duties as the minister of the First Church of Christ (sometimes referred to as First Congregational Church) and served here for 31 years.  After the 18^th century Bulfinch church building was damaged by fire in 1851, Rev. Todd oversaw the construction if its replacement.  Church leaders selected Leopold Eidlitz of New York, as the architect.  He adopted a radically different, but popular design in Gothic revival style.  In order to resemble medieval churches, he selected gray limestone from Pittsfield and added a steep gable roof, an off-center tower, twelve dormers jutting out from the sides, a large parish hall, a tower with Great Barrington bluestone as trim on its lower edges, and a Tiffany memorial window.  The only resemblance to the iconic old church was the boot-scraper that had been preserved and installed in the new building, finished in 1853. 

Rev. Todd invited the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the first foreign mission board in America to hold their annual meeting here.  And, here, over 100 years later, Eleanor Roosevelt addressed the graduating class of Miss Hall’s in 1960 that included her granddaughter Anne.  “There have been many changes in the world,” she noted, and “the ability to accept change and use it to help is most important for Americans.”  

 

 

51. Bulfinch Church, 27 East Street

After 1850, one of the best places in Pittsfield to attend a cultural event was here at a three-story wooden structure known as West Block.  Old maps show that the convenient location right at the center of Pittsfield made it ideal for stores on the ground floor.  There was also enough open meeting space inside to accommodate the many public gatherings that took place here, including concerts, lectures, dances, short dramas, high school examinations and graduation exercises.  One of the rooms even served as a drill room for the Allen Guard which was formed as a local militia in anticipation of an outbreak of hostilities with southern states in 1861.  The Allen Guard was one of the first militias called to head south after fighting began at Ft. Sumter.  West Block was removed in 1894 to make way for the new offices of the Berkshire County Savings Bank.  (Nonextant)

 

 

50. First Church of Christ, Congregational, 27 East Street

When the Berkshire County Savings Bank was chartered in 1846, its list of officers read like a who’s who of the business world in Pittsfield, Dalton and Adams.  In the days before anti-trust laws, founders and owners of the woolen mills were board members, and the bank was even able to draw in leading business names from the Crane paper mills in Dalton, the Blackinton Mill in North Adams and the Phoenix Paper Mill in Lee.

Expanding business meant need for more space, so in 1894 the bank moved to the former site of West Block on the corner of Park Square.  The architect, Francis R. Allen, adopted a Renaissance Revival style in the six-story Indiana limestone and yellow brick building. The contractors were the local firm of Dodge and Devanny.

The bank expanded the building along its North Street side, adding a fourth set of matching vertical windows.   Berkshire County Savings Bank also is responsible for the 1970 renovation and reopening, as a bank, of the old town hall nearby on Park Square. The Great Barrington Savings and Berkshire County Savings banks merged in 1986, and today go by the name Berkshire Bank.

49. West Block, corner of East and North Streets, Park Square

Baptists were among the earliest settlers in Pittsfield when they first organized a church in 1772 with Valentine Wightman Rathbun as their pastor.  Their early years were marked with fluctuating membership as congregants left to join the Shakers, and then, in 1835, shortly after erecting a church on this site, all but three families emigrated west.  But 15 years later, the church had grown to around 300 members, and required a new building.  With two domed towers flanking an imposing arched entrance and a dome steeple in the center of the roof, the new church stood prominently on North Street.  Gradually, it fell into disrepair and the congregation voted to relocate to a new building on South Street in 1921.  The need for more commercial space on North Street gave way to the construction of the Onota Building in 1927 which to this day takes a prominent position on the Pittsfield skyline.   (Nonextant)

 

47. Berkshire Trust Company, 50-54 North Street

When the town and country were consumed by the outbreak of war in 1861, a nearby resident and local businessman, James H. Dunham, decided it was a good time to erect a commercial building on North Street.  Bearing his name, the building stood two stories tall and housed many different retail shops. Following his death, the Dunham Block expanded in 1898 in order to accommodate the growing number of businesses within the building, including New York Store, Root Shoes, Pharmer Jewelry Shop, Hub Restaurant, Kelsey’s Market, and Bossidy Shoe Store. Fire ravaged the building in 1980, and its extensive restoration earned it a preservation award from the Pittsfield Historical Commission.  The alleyway next to the building is known as Dunham Mall.

 

46. First Baptist Church, 60 – 74 North Street

When the First Agricultural Bank opened on April 27, 1818, there were no other banks serving the fledgling manufacturing and farming sectors of Pittsfield.  The first attempt at starting a bank in the town had failed in 1811 with a scandal that sent all the bank directors to jail. 

After three different locations, the First Agricultural Bank built this unique Greek temple-like building in 1908.  High ceilings with elegant wood paneling reassured clients as to the respectability of the institution.  Due to its success, the building had to be expanded in 1928. The First Agricultural Bank was at one point the largest bank in Berkshire County and one of the largest banks in Western Massachusetts.  In 1972 First Agricultural Bank merged with Multi-Bank National and then was purchased by Bank Boston in June 1993. The building was owned by Bank Boston until 1996 when Scarafoni Associates Nominee Trust bought it.

 

45. Dunham Block, 70 -76 North Street

In 1907, City Savings Bank purchased the Read Block at the corner of North and Fenn streets.  The building was constructed in 1860 in the Second Empire style, complete with the mansard roof and dormer windows typical of the style.  The bank engaged Joseph McArthur Vance to redesign the building.  Vance eliminated the mansard roof, creating a full fourth floor.  As with other buildings he designed, this floor has a trim detail at its base that separates it from the floor below and is topped by a heavy cornice supported by heavy brackets.  While the upper floors were faced with stucco, the first floor was of brick laid in distinctive horizontal bands.  The windows on this floor were arched, and the keystone atop each was of limestone.  The bank entrance was located at the center of the North Street façade.  The interior of the bank was quite elaborate with marble columns and walls beneath the tellers’ windows.  Women customers had their own alcove where they could transact business. 

By the 1940s the first floor exterior was redone.  The bank entrance was moved to the corner of North and Fenn streets.  The arched windows were replaced by large square ones.  An adjoining building on Fenn Street was incorporated into the bank, and its façade was brought into harmony with the bank’s.  In 1963, in the building was further altered to give it a 1960s-Modern look.  The upper floors were covered with eighteen-gauge porcelain enameled steel panels.  The first floor of the North Street front was covered with plate glass, and dark brick was used to cover the Fenn Street side.  City Savings Bank became part of Legacy Banks in 2002, and moved across the street to 99 North Street.  116 North Street continues to serve commercial and professional purposes.

 

44. First Agricultural Bank, 100 North Street

On this site stood the first store on North Street.  In 1808, Abner Stevens, a famous colonial drum maker, built a two-story wooden house with two wings where he lived with his family and ran the store. Eventually this location became a boarding house, before more stores took over and then the offices of the American Telegraph Company. 

In 1884, the owners of a department store across the street, Moses and Louis England, purchased the property.   The successful brothers hired Charles T. Rathbun a local architect to design a commercial building. He selected a straightforward Victorian style but added Italianate decorative twists, seen in the front columns and the cornice near the roof.   They named the building after Moses’ wife, Rosa.   

Rosa England’s Block was bought by Isadore Secunda in January 1945. The building had three ground-floor stores at this time: Kahl Jewelry, Franklin’s Clothing, and Callahan’s Fashion Shop.  City Savings Bank owned the building after Secunda until 1996.  The building is now the administrative hub for the Barrington Stage Company.

 

43. City Savings Bank, 116 North Street

On April 23, 1885, the Young Men’s Christian Association opened in Pittsfield, near Park Square, 30 years after the first chapter in the U.S. was established in Boston.  They initially had a small space in the Berkshire Life Insurance Building at the corner of Park Square and moved to a larger space on this site in 1892.  With the ground floor turned over to small retail stores, fitness facilities, a reading room and other social services occupied the upper two floors of this wooden clapboard commercial building.  At their annual banquet with over 500 members in attendance in 1906, the Y announced they had grown enough to merit their own building.  The YMCA leadership hired the local architect firm of Harding and Seaver to design the four-story building that would include 74 bedrooms to rent out.  Over 2000 people donated to their building fund.  When the new YMCA opened just down the street on September 15, 1910, it was one of largest buildings in the downtown.  In 1981, a new swimming pool and fitness facility was attached on the south of the original building.   (Nonextant)

 

42. Rosa England Block, 122 – 130 North Street

From 1892 to 1909, this site was occupied by the YMCA. Before the YMCA, it was part of Abner Stevens’ estate (see 122-130 North Street). In 1909, the Sullivan Brothers, owners of the Colonial Theatre, decided to build a theatre that would feature vaudeville.  As architect, they hired Joseph McArthur Vance, who had worked on the Colonial six years before. Their new venue, the Majestic Theatre, opened on November 23, 1910, with a play called “The Deserters.” In addition to the 1,100-seat ground-floor theatre, on the second floor there was a large assembly hall for dances, fairs and other social functions.  At the front of the building, on the ground floor on each side of the lobby, there were two spacious stores; on the second and third floors there were offices, which were reached by a stairway just in the south side of the theatre entrance.   In 1918, the theatre was extensively renovated inside and out.  A large arched window, which became a landmark of North Street, was added to the façade.  That year, the theatre switched to motion pictures as its main feature presentation.  In 1922, the shops in the front part of the building were badly damaged owing to a fire; the theatre suffered smoke and water damage.  The following year, the Goldstein Brothers, who owned the Colonial Theatre, bought the Majestic and changed its name to the Palace Theatre. The Palace Theatre closed in 1987.  After years of neglect, the building was deemed unsafe and was demolished in 1993. The next year, City Savings Bank constructed the Palace Park on its site.  (Nonextant)

 

41. YMCA, 132 – 144 North Street

The Wollison construction family built this commercial office building in April 1888.  A local architect, H. Neil Wilson, envisioned a large central bay, flanked by two smaller bays, each one with a dormer jutting out from the roof.  He used Philadelphia pressed brick with dark freestone trim and incorporated unique cast iron detailing.  Originally, it had four stores on the ground floor; the Y.M.C.A had space on the second floor, and the two upper floors were offices and photo gallery.  Shipton Realty Co. bought the property in the early 20th century and gave their name to the building. A rear three-story addition was tacked on in 1939, with a tunnel connecting the two structures.  The building stayed in the Shipton family until the 1970s, and subsequent renovations have removed several of its most prominent features. 

 

40. Majestic/Palace Theater, 132 – 144 North Street

On January 28, 1912, a spectacular fire broke out at this location and destroyed the legendary Academy of Music and surrounding buildings.  Pittsfield Mayor and publisher of the Berkshire County Eagle, Kelton B. Miller, owned one of the buildings destroyed.  He purchased the neighboring property and hired architect George E. Haynes to design the longest building on North Street.  Originally boasting a decorative brick cornice at its roofline, with rounded arched windows, the building housed many retail shops. Since the mid-1990s, after many changes to the façade, the Berkshire Juvenile Court has been located here.      (Nonextant)

 

 

39. Wollison-Shipton Building, 146 – 154 North Street

Before 1872, Pittsfield had no performance venue for musical concerts or theater.  The owner of the American Hotel across the street, Cebra Quackenbush, put up the money to bring the arts to the growing town.  With its imposing size and unique mansard roof, the Academy of Music had an 80-foot wide stage in an auditorium that held 1114 seats.  The ground floor had six stores, including a high-end restaurant. 

It wasn’t just opera or theater that Quackenbush brought to the Academy but also animal shows.  He lured Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok to Pittsfield to stage the very first Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show on the street in front of the Academy.  One other memorable performance in 1903 featured two lions that escaped from the theater and had to be hunted down; one was killed, the other was captured. When Pittsfield became a city in 1891, a more solemn ceremony was held in the Academy with its large auditorium.  It continued to be the main location for theatrical performances until 1903 when the Colonial Theatre was built.  The Academy building burned down in 1912.    (Nonextant)

 

 

38. Miller Building, 160 – 196 North Street

It didn’t resemble the game of baseball as we know it today, but, on July 1, 1859, Amherst and Williams Colleges met here to play baseball for the first time at the collegiate level, a full ten years before the first professional game.  The rivalry between the two colleges was intense even before the Civil War.  Amherst had an experienced team, and, while Williams had never fielded a team before, they had many more of their supporters in attendance.  The decision to play on a neutral field led the teams to select Pittsfield and the open park space here, at the Maplewood Young Ladies Institute.  Amherst prevailed by a score of 73 to 32.  Each side had seventeen players, and they each brought their own version of a baseball.

Pittsfield claims a strong connection to the history of baseball.  The first written reference to the game came from a town by-law in 1791 that prohibited the playing of “base ball” in Park Square so as to prevent broken windows in the nearby buildings.  In 1892, Pittsfield baseball fans flocked to watch the first game played in Wahconah Park, one of the oldest wooden parks in the country.     

 

37. Academy of Music, 158 – 198 North Street

A time-lapse video would show a succession of creative uses for this site. During the War of 1812, Pittsfield was selected as a way station for soldiers heading north to fight Great Britain in their provinces of Canada.  With the departure of the soldiers, the empty barracks soon filled up, this time with British and German prisoners of war.  Ten years after the war, the entire 20-acre lot was sold.  The barracks were moved, and three large brick buildings erected for a new venture, a men’s seminary called the Berkshire Gymnasium, incorporated in 1829.  

When that school’s founder moved away, it languished, and a second school opened in 1841, the Maplewood Young Ladies Institute.  For 45 years, families with means sent their daughters here, from as far away as the deep south.  The campus grew, with the addition of the old Bulfinch Church (second Meeting House) that was moved here from Park Square to serve as the school’s gymnasium. 

In 1887, the school closed, and the buildings then housed a resort. Fewer guests during the Depression forced the resort’s demise in 1931, and, after several years of vacancy, most of the buildings were torn down.  The remaining one that still stands was converted into a hotel and then apartments. 

 

36. First Inter-Collegiate Baseball Game in America, 440 North Street

Having outgrown their small music store on West Street, Joseph and Albert Wood spent an unheard of $100,000 to build their new premises on North Street in 1922.  The business had begun in the 1880s selling pianos, organs and sheet music.  They hired a local architect, George Haynes, to design a building whose unique features include a façade made of 40 tons of cast stone.    The tall, arched Gothic windows lit many apartments above the retail space.  The music store remained here until it was sold in 1963.  The store continues to serve musicians throughout the county at its current location in Allendale Shopping Center. 

35. The United States Cantonment, The Berkshire Gymnasium, The Young Ladies Institute, The Second Meeting House, The Maplewood Hotel, 440 North Street

Unity Church, as Pittsfield’s Unitarian meeting house was then called, was built in 1890.  Topping the sanctuary was a steeply pitched roof, whose gable faced the North Street.  A round bell tower with a conical roof flanked the right side of a wide, low-arched entryway.  In 1912, the church moved to another location.  W. T. Butler of the Butler Lumber Company purchased the former church and hired local architect Joseph McArthur Vance to renovate the structure into a moving picture theatre.  Vance designed a brick addition to the front of the wooden structure, which extended to the sidewalk.  This addition housed the theatre lobby with two storefronts on either side.  The exterior of the original building was left largely intact.  The new theatre, initially called The Lyric, opened in 1913 and could seat over 700 patrons.  An interesting innovation at The Lyric was that instead of using a cloth screen, films were projected onto a specially built solid cement wall.   In 1916, Charles Cotter bought and managed the theatre as The Cotter, but by 1918 it was known as The Strand.  That same year, he installed two projectors to allow for continuous running of movies without a pause to change reels, and also added a new radium gold fiber screen, which must have been a state-of-the-art improvement.  The theatre remained in operation until 1952.  The building was torn down in 1960.  (Nonextant)

 

34. Wood Brothers, 417 North Street

After completing a large commercial “block” not far away on North Street, Abraham Burbank set his sights on this plot of land for a second building that became known as “New Burbank Block.”  Spanning 142 feet, the building housed stores with a large public hall on the third floor.  Ten years after Burbank died, his new block was destroyed by fire, and a furniture store owner Cornelius Wright saw an opportunity to expand his business in a prime North Street location. Using the same extended footprint, Wright sold his home furnishings on the first floor and let out the top two floors for offices and related retail space.  In 1911, the storage area on the second floor in the back of the building was converted to a candlepin bowling alley.  With six storefronts on the first floor, Wright soon closed down his own store but continued as a landlord for many small shops, businesses and tenants over the years. 

 

33. Unity Church/Strand Theater, 411 North Street

In 1865, Cebra Quackenbush of Hoosick Falls, New York, came to Pittsfield and purchased the American House, a hotel at the corner of North Street and Columbus Avenue.  Twenty years later, he added a four-story brick annex to the rear of the wood-frame hotel.  After many years of hesitation, Quackenbush finally committed to replacing the original building with a larger, more substantial structure.  In 1898, work commenced on a four-story masonry building containing 122 rooms. 

Although Pittsfield architects Rathbun and Harding were originally consulted, in the end the project went to Joseph McArthur Vance.  His design was very imposing, and the North-Street façade was quite distinctive.  The ground floor was faced with Indiana limestone and contained a number of shops.  The upper floors were of brick with limestone trimming.  At the center of this front, rising up two stories was a recessed porch with Ionic columns – a feature that Vance would repeat five years later at the Colonial Theatre.  The hotel was topped with a rather heavy cornice, which was further emphasized in 1911 when a fifth story, which added twenty-five rooms, was constructed.  The marble-tiled lobby of the hotel was topped by a domed ceiling, encircled by electric lights, which created a brilliant effect.  Its luxurious dining room was two-stories tall, all in white with paneling and a decorated ceiling supported by four highly polished, colored marble columns. 

The New American House was managed for many years by Messrs. Plumb & Clark, who also controlled the Maplewood Hotel; while the latter was known as a resort hotel, the New American catered to business travelers.  Changing times and the Great Depression ultimately doomed the New American, which was demolished in 1937.   (Nonextant)

 

32. The Burbank Block, Wright Building, 239 – 261 North Street

The history of Pittsfield changed on May 4, 1841 when the first locomotive from the Boston and Albany Railroad pulled into town.  Eight years later, a line opened up to New York City leaving Pittsfield at the center of rail traffic in the Berkshires.  In addition, the workers who laid the track were mostly recent immigrants, who ended up staying here to work in the growing number of wool and paper mills. 

To handle the flood of passengers and cargo, an Egyptian-style railroad depot was completed here in 1841 on the west side of the bridge located on North Street.  In 1854 the depot caught fire and was destroyed, replaced by a much grander station in 1867, on a site to the west.

After Union Station was demolished in 1968, the city decided to move the train station back to North Street, naming the new depot after a long-time state representative: the Joseph Selsi Intermodal Transportation Center. (Nonextant)

 

31. The New American House, 211 – 229 North Street

For many years, Alfred Persip Sr. marched in the Pittsfield July 4 parade, right past this park named after him and his family. Commander of American Legion Post 68, Persip had been the first African-American from Berkshire county to enlist to fight in World War I.  His application was rejected in Pittsfield, so the determined young man traveled to Springfield and was assigned to the 372^nd Colored Regiment, led by French officers as Americans refused service with colored troops. The bravery of these troops was rewarded with the highest French honor, the Croix de Guerre Persip’s brothers, John and Charles, soon followed in his footsteps.  The American Legion Post was named after Charles Persip.

The park was originally designed as Liberty Plaza, part of the redevelopment of North Street in 1974.  Ten years later, it was re-launched to honor the memory of the Persip family and their contributions to the city and the nation.

30. Railroad Depot, corner of North Street and Columbus Avenue

 

Abraham Burbank, a young carpenter, moved to Pittsfield in 1832 and married Julia Brown two years later.  After a brief sejour in Michigan, the couple moved back, and Abraham started to re-shape the downtown area as a builder, developer, and landlord.  His first building on this site burned in 1848, and he rebuilt one of the longest buildings on the street that housed various businesses.  A second fire ravaged the complex in 1905, and the site was divided in half to accommodate the Woolworth and Brothership Buildings.  In 1920 Marvin and Sanford Kay opened Kay’s Textile Store in the Brothership Building which served clients for over 50 years.  Rebuilt after a 1935 fire, The Woolworth building housed its namesake discount retail store until 1973.

The property continued to change names.  At first Elgo Mall occupied the old Woolworth building, collectively containing many local businesses.  It then became Crawford Square and was sold to Conrad Decker for over $1 million, the first million-dollar sale on North Street. The Brothership Boutique opened in 1972 in the Woolworth Building, and was so successful it expanded into the Brothership Building in 1977.  Competition from nearby malls forced its closure in November of 1982. Currently the Brothership and Woolworth Buildings are home to many local businesses.

The corner of this site was used by many famous politicians to address urgent matters of the day.  Two of the politicians who spoke here were Franklin Delano Roosevelt who spoke about the Democratic Party, and Carry Nation who spoke about crusades against saloons.

 

29. Persip Park, corner of North Street and Columbus Avenue

In 1857, two German immigrants arrived in Pittsfield, and gave their name to a department store institution admired fondly by residents for over 100 years.  Louis and Moses England initially found rooms at the famous Berkshire Hotel located near Park Square, and later, just a few blocks away, they opened a dry goods store in the Burbank Block.  At first, the store occupied one room on the street level of the building.  The brothers’ flair for business and customer loyalty helped the store expand and forced them to relocate twice before moving to this address in 1891, on the site of the old Goodrich Block.  One of the oldest independent family-run department stores in the United States, it also was the first store in Berkshire County to have a delivery truck, elevator, and escalator.  On February 27, 1988, the last customers exited the store with their familiar blue boxes in hand.  The building was taken over by Legacy Bank and demolished in the 1990s.

The first building here, though, was the Ingersoll tavern, which earned a wider reputation as barracks and a prison during Shays’ Rebellion from 1786 to 1787.   (Nonextant)

 

28. Burbank Block 141-163 North Street

Dating back to the early 1800s, this site on the corner of North and Market Streets has been a prime location for business.  In 1842, a 32-year-old entrepreneur named Abraham Burbank built a large commercial building here to take advantage of the newly laid rail line just steps away.  Burbank’s building burned down in 1881.  Another commercial building, Grand Central Hall, immediately took its place, and its name was shortened to Central Block a few years afterwards.  Designed by local architect Charles Rathbun, it remains today one of the best-preserved buildings on North Street.  A decorative cornice over five bays of rounded-arch windows showcases the building from afar.  There was a large hall on the third floor for community functions, including meetings for the first Unitarian Church in Pittsfield and also the first Charity Ball. When first built, Central Block created quite a stir with plate glass windows on all of its stores on the ground floor.   

Perhaps its most famous tenant was the J.J. Newberry’s store, located here for 54 years, until it closed in 1994.  Now Central Block is home to many local businesses.

 

27. England Bros., 89 – 111 North Street

The Kinnell-Kresge building, which opened in 1918 at 49-59 North Street, replaced an earlier building known as the Burbank Block.  The original owners of the Kinnell-Kresge Building were a veterinarian named Dr. George K. Kinnell and the Kresge Syndicate, a chain of 5-and-10-cent stores, which was a forerunner of Kmart. This building is in the Venetian Gothic Revival style; its most striking feature is the bright white terra cotta façade.  It is quite unlike any other structure designed by its architect, Joseph McArthur Vance, as this building imitates the style of the Kresge headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, designed by Albert Kahn.  At the time of its construction, the S. S. Kresge store here, the 171^st in the chain, was the largest in western Massachusetts.  It remained in operation until 1954.  Afterward, the building housed an assortment of offices and shops.  Currently at this site is the Beacon Cinema which opened in November 2009, after an extensive and award-winning restoration.

 

 

26. Central Block, 65 – 83 North Street

In May 1979, a fire destroyed the Bush Block, the oldest building on North Street, leaving this lot vacant ever since.  Originally built in 1859 by Major Charles Bush, it was an early home to a dry goods store run by Moses and Louis England before they moved to larger premises nearby.  Long before Major Bush bought this property, one of Pittsfield’s earliest newspapers, The Pittsfield Sun, was published here by Phineas Allen.   (Nonextant)

25. Kinnell-Kresge Building, 49 – 59 North Street

One of the earliest commercial buildings on North Street was the Callendar Block built in 1827.  It stood here as the home of a wide variety of small businesses for almost 90 years until it burned down in 1914, leaving a space for construction of the Kennedy Block.  There were many businesses located in Kennedy’s Block, including Mr. Nathan’s Shoes, Beba (a women’s boutique store), Fanny Farmer’s Chocolate, and Sammy Vincent Records. The Kennedy Block was scheduled to be demolished for a proposed shopping mall, that was never built.  It eventually burned down in May 1979 along with its neighbor, Bush Block.  The lot has been vacant since then.  (Nonextant)

 

24. Bush Block, 15 – 23 North St

This building at the corner of Park Square showcases the work of three of the most famous architects in Pittsfield history.  Built in 1868, the Berkshire Life Insurance headquarters immediately stood out for its unique mansard roofline folding over the top floor, using a design by Louis Weissbein, the Boston architect of the county courthouse on the other side of Park Square.  Replacing the Berkshire Hotel on this site, the large structure was able to accommodate a bank, post office, gas company, and other town offices.

In 1911, Joseph McArthur Vance, who had designed the Colonial Theatre, the Majestic Theatre and the Masonic Temple, designed a major expansion of the Berkshire Life Building that saw the removal of the Mansard roof to add two stories.  At the rear of the building, extending down West Street was a 1926 addition designed by the architects Harding & Seaver whose other efforts in the city included the restoration of the Bulfinch Church. In 1959 Berkshire Life moved out of the building. In 1970 there was a gas explosion which resulted in fire and water damage to the interior.

 

 

23. Kennedy Block/Callendar Block, 23 – 35 North Street

Three Presidents slept here.  From 1827-1865, the Berkshire House, later the Berkshire Hotel, welcomed as guests Presidents Martin Van Buren, John Tyler and John Quincy Adams, as well as Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate and the literary figures William Cullen Bryant, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Herman Melville.  Located on this site known as “Berkshire Corner,” parades, and militia formations took place in front of the hotel, including the one pictured here at the onset of the Civil War. 

The central location has made the site ideal for visitors since a large inn stood since the late 1700s.  One owner, Capt. Joseph Merrick, was a devoted Free Mason who famously refused to serve Democrats on July 4, 1808. The slight prompted the Democrats, in retaliation, to erect nearby their own impressive three-story hotel with spacious meeting rooms. This, in turn, caused Merrick to add another story to his hotel. The inn burned down in 1826, and the Berkshire Hotel was erected in its stead.   (Nonextant)

 

22. Berkshire Life Insurance, 7 North Street

The first inn at the corner of South and West streets was built in 1823 by Abner Stevens; it was a three-story brick building called the Great House.  In the 1840s Stevens’ son renamed it the Exchange Hotel. From 1858 on, it was known as the United States Hotel.  In the late 1890s, the property was acquired by Samuel W. Bowerman, Jr.  He engaged local architect H. Neil Wilson to design a new structure.  The 110-room Hotel Wendell, as it was called, was built in 1898.  It was six stories tall and faced with yellow pressed brick and gray limestone over a steel framework.  On West Street a plate-glass door opened onto a vestibule with a marble staircase to the second floor.  A grand 250-seat dining room occupied the entire west side of the structure.

In its earliest days it was managed by Arthur W. Plumb and George W. Clark; they then left to manage the New American House.  A notable manager of the hotel was Luke J. Minahan, who ran it very successfully from 1905 until his death in 1913.  In 1910, Minahan acquired land adjacent to the hotel, which would allow it to expand in later years.  Napoleon Campbell took over management of the Wendell in 1922, and was connected with the establishment for 22 years.  In 1924, Campbell added 65 rooms, a ballroom and five shops at ground level.  A solarium was added the following year, and in 1929 a south wing containing 105 rooms was added. More rooms were added later when an annex on West Street was renovated.  At its largest, the Wendell had 323 rooms and a staff of 125.  

In 1944, the Wendell was sold to the Sheraton Hotel Corporation.  When the company tried to switch the name to the Sheraton brand, local outrage ensured that the Wendell name was retained.  The Wendell closed in 1965, and the building was razed soon afterward.  The Berkshire Common, including the 14-story, 175-room Hilton hotel, was built in its place, opening in 1971.  (Nonextant)

 

21. Berkshire Hotel, 7 North Street

By the 1840s, First Congregational Church on Park Square did not have enough space to accommodate the growing number of worshippers.  They decided to establish a second congregational church, just steps away, on South Street.  In 1850, while the church building was under construction, it caught fire and construction had to start over. The architect, Richard Bond of Boston, designed the building in a Greek Revival Style with its temple-like facade. The church was dedicated on November 4, 1850, with the day’s sermon delivered by then Williams College President Rev. Mark Hopkins.  By the 1950s, the South Congregational Church was the largest congregational church in Berkshire County.  

Two major renovations took place in 1919 and again in 1943, and the parish house was completed in the 1930s.  The towering steeple had to be replaced twice in its history due to high winds, after the second time the church left a short steeple.  The auditorium is named after Robert J. Barrett, who was the treasurer of the Church’s Sunday school in 1939.

 

19. First Baptist Church, 88 South Street

In 1910, the Pittsfield Masonic Association had to find new quarters, because their rooms were on the fourth floor of the Berkshire Life Building, which that year announced plans to add two additional stories to their headquarters.  The Masons developed a number of competing plans for new lodgings at various locations in downtown Pittsfield.  In the end, a site owned by the First Congregational Church was chosen.  Proposals for a free-standing lodge were solicited from architects, and, in September 1911, the design of local architect Joseph McArthur Vance was selected.  The runner-up design was by another local firm, Harding & Seaver.  The cornerstone was laid in October 1912 by a Masonic Grand Master who traveled from Boston; at that time, Vance was presented with ceremonial tools.  Contractors for the building were Foote & Jones.  Though the initial cost estimate was $60,000, the structure’s final cost was about $100,000.  On May 4, 1914, the Masonic Lodge was dedicated – the first ever in Berkshire County.  Over 100 Pittsfield-area Masons were joined by nearly 1200 Masons from around the state.  There was a grand parade up North Street to the Maplewood Hotel and then back to the Temple on South Street.  At the dedicatory exercises, amid numerous speeches, architect Vance formally surrendered his tools. The style of the building is Greek Revival, and it is built of red pressed brick with white sandstone trim. Two Ionic columns flank the entrance.  The building houses a large ballroom on the first level with two smaller lodge rooms on the second floor.

 

18. South Congregational Church, 110 South Street

The Congregational Church Parsonage was built in 1848.  The house design is traditional Greek revival style with an addition of Italianate bracketing at the cornice. The parsonage originally had an ornate Victorian porch which was removed during a restoration in the 20th century. The house was eventually sold to Francis E. Kernochan, who was also part owner of the Bel Air Woolen Mill on Wahconah Street. It is now a doctor’s office. 

The building is commonly referred to as the Red Hen and won a Pittsfield Historic Preservation Award. It is located where very few historical residences remain. Its important visible location makes it an architectural asset to Pittsfield.

 

 

17. Masonic Temple, 116 South Street  

 

This block was originally the site of elegant homes.  One residence was built by William Butler who founded a local lumber company. An adjacent house was the Comfort B. Platt home, also known as a commonly used book exchange. Mr. Platt was vice president of the Berkshire County Savings Bank, incorporated in 1846. Dr. C.D. Mills, another former homeowner on this site, was an attending physician at the House of Mercy on Francis Street, and secretary of the American Bible Society.

From the 1920s forward the site became known as The Butler Block, as the well- to-do neighborhood transitioned to a commercial area.  Employing a vernacular style with geometric motifs composed of yellow tiles and dark red brick, the architect, Joseph MacArthur Vance, designed one of the most well-recognized buildings in the city. Vance also designed many other buildings in the city, including the timeless Wahconah Park Stadium.

16. Congregational Church Parsonage, 120 -124 South Street

In an era of severely restricted opportunities for women professionals, Dr. Alfreda Bosworth Withington graduated from medical school and first came to Pittsfield in 1891.  She moved to a house at this site in 1910, which is now the location of the Rite Aid Pharmacy. Dr. Withington was the first female member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, Berkshire County branch, and the only female medical doctor listed on the chapter roll in 1897. She dedicated herself to treating underserved, vulnerable, rural communities, most notably the immigrant and refugee tuberculosis victims in Europe during WWI. She defied the norms of her time and died in Pittsfield in 1951.  (Nonextant)

Mrs. Florence Sampson, widow of Elijah Sampson, lived in another house on this site. She was one of the original investors in the Aspinwall Hotel in Lenox, and her son, Alden, gained fame in the city as an inventor and builder of automobiles and trucks.  (Nonextant)

Dr. Frank E. West built the six-story South Street Inn in 1917, on the southeast corner of South and East Housatonic Streets. which is adjacent to the Rite Aid corner. At the time this was the tallest building in Western Massachusetts. During the influenza epidemic of 1918 the local Red Cross chapter established an emergency home at the South Street Inn for the children of sick parents. This was made possible through the generosity of Dr. and Mrs. Frank West. In 1920, the building became the South Street Apartments. 

 

15. Butler Block, 120 -124 South Street

The Colonial Theatre opened in 1903 as Pittsfield’s first purpose-built, ground-floor playhouse. Designed by the prolific theatrical architects, J. B. McElfatrick & Sons, it is one of only a handful of their buildings that survive.  The Colonial was built by the Sullivan brothers, businessmen from North Adams, and is a duplicate of the Empire Theatre there, which burned down in 1912.  The Sullivans hired local architect Joseph McArthur Vance to design the façade and lobby. 

Vance’s buff brick façade with its restrained neoclassical columns and arched windows gives no hint of the ornate auditorium within.  Noted for its excellent acoustics and clear sightlines to the stage from every seat, the Colonial hosted many world-class acts from its opening day on September 28, 1903 through 1934, when it closed owing to the Great Depression. Among the many famous entertainers who appeared at the Colonial were Maude Adams (famous as Peter Pan), John and Ethel Barrymore in the early days of their careers, the “divine” Sarah Bernhardt at the end of her career, Eubie Blake and his band, playwright and song-and-danceman George M. Cohan, and humorist Will Rogers. In 1912, the Sullivan Brothers sold the Colonial to the Pittsfield Theatre Co., a group of local businessmen who conducted several seasons of popular attractions.  In 1915, this group in turn sold the theatre to The Goldstein Brothers Amusement Co. of Springfield, MA.  In 1937 the Colonial Theatre was renovated as a motion picture theatre.  Part of the renovation involved an addition to the front of the building, which housed two storefronts and included a marquee for the theatre. 

After World War II, with the rise of television, the theatre lost patronage and finally closed in 1951. In 1952, the building was sold at auction to George Miller, who was looking for a location for his art supply store.  Although Miller was the lowest bidder for the property, he promised to preserve the Colonial and so won the auction. For over 50 years, Miller Supply Co. operated within the old theatre, its ornate architecture hidden away behind false walls and ceilings. In 1998, as part of her Save America’s Treasures tour, Hillary Clinton visited the Colonial Theatre site and declared it a National Historic Treasure. In 2001, after years of lobbying by local citizens, The Colonial Theatre Association purchased the Colonial and began the restoration of the auditorium back to its 1903 appearance.  The Colonial reopened in August 2006 with a performance of the musical Rent.

14. West – Sampson – Withington Residences, 157 – 169 South Street

In 1921, Ralph O’Connell opened one of the first garages in Pittsfield, the Berkshire Auto Company.  The architect of the original garage and salesroom was well-known Pittsfield architect Joseph McArthur Vance, who was also one of the architects for the Colonial Theatre.   The Berkshire Auto building, with its exterior of tapestry brick, is similar to a number of other one-story commercial Vance buildings in Berkshire County.  J. R. Hampson Company, a local contractor, was the builder. In 1930, Berkshire Auto was remodeled and expanded by local architect George E. Haynes, utilizing the then-new battledeck construction, whose roof and floor resemble a ship, but also promoted as being lighter, stronger, safer and more economical.  For many years the building housed storefronts and a warehouse.  In 2006, it was renovated as part of the Colonial Theatre restoration and is used as support space for the theater.

 

13. Colonial Theater, 113 South Street

Throughout early American history, opportunities and rights were limited for women. However, women in Pittsfield and Berkshire County, despite their struggles, were dedicated to building their community while also taking care of their families. As they grew older and were either widowed, retired or alone, they were marginalized and forgotten.

The former Berkshire County Home for Aged Women, now known as Berkshire Place, began with an $18000 bequest from Dalton’s Crane family to be used as a retirement home for “the elderly ladies of Berkshire County.” Zenas Marshall Crane left money and instructed his sons, Zenas and Winthrop, to see this project through. The Berkshire County Home for Aged Women was built in 1888 with 29 units. The architect was H. Neil Wilson, who also designed the Red Lion Inn. In 1925, a third floor was added to accommodate the nurses working here.  Over the years, this Richardsonian Romanesque building has reflected the changes in attitude and ideas about aging. In 1989 the Berkshire Home began to accept male applicants when a report showed that most older retirees had no desire to live in a gender segregated environment, 101 years after its inception!

11. Colt-Pingree House, 101 South St

Captain David Campbell was “a man of strong character and of great enterprise, especially as a dealer in real estate.” For many years he was the owner of the Pittsfield Coffee House, now Patrick’s Pub, and in 1818 was one of the incorporators of The Agricultural Bank. The Campbell House, a hip-roofed Federal-style building, was originally constructed in 1795 by Dr. William Kittredge, a prominent Pittsfield physician. Dr. Kittredge sold the house to Daniel Pepoon, who then sold it to David Campbell.  

This property is also notable as the location of Easton’s Well, the first well ever dug in Pittsfield. All properties at the time were deeded from the center of this well.

David’s son, George, eventually inherited the estate. George Campbell was president of The Agricultural Bank from 1853-1861, and in 1839 was elected to the Massachusetts General Court. George Campbell had four children: George, David, Edward, and Caroline. Caroline married Ensign H. Kellogg, the president of the Agricultural National Bank and Pontoosuc Woolen Mill before he served as a representative from Pittsfield to the Massachusetts General Court in Boston. Kellogg also was elected to fill a seat on the Massachusetts Senate, and later served under an appointment by U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes as the U.S member of the International Commission

The Campbell House was demolished in 1902 to make way for the Berkshire Museum.

 

10. Berkshire Place, Berkshire Home for Aged Women, 89 South Street

The Museum of Natural History and Art, now known as The Berkshire Museum, was founded in 1902 by Zenas Marshall Crane, the grandson of the founder of Crane & Co. in Dalton. Zenas Crane was inspired by the Smithsonian, the American Museum for Natural Science, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and decided to combine the best of these places into a new museum for the people of western Massachusetts. Two historic homes, the Campbell House and the Martin House, were torn down in order to make room for the museum, whose purpose was “to bring the wonders of the world to the Berkshires.” Crane invested his wealth in his community as he actively sought art and artifacts for the Berkshire Museum, as well as donate his personal collection to the new establishment.

The architectural firm Harding and Seaver adopted an Italian Renaissance design for the building and used “Roman Brick” and Indiana limestone. The small museum gradually grew into a two-building structure comprised of four wings that surrounded an interior square court. In 1937, the museum added a second-floor exhibition space in the courtyard area named after Ellen Crane (Zenas Marshall Crane’s wife). Also an auditorium was added on the first floor. A focal point of the oak-paneled Crane Room, the Swedish green and marble fountain and its surroundings, was designed by noted Beaux Arts sculptor A. Stirling Calder. His son, Alexander Calder, designed two mobile fixtures once on display in the auditorium.

 

9. Campbell House, 39 South Street

In 1816, Calvin Martin was admitted to the Berkshire Bar and began to practice law in Pittsfield.  He married Mary, daughter of David Campbell, in 1816 and moved into the home next door to his in-laws.  Martin prospered as a real estate lawyer and later became the Director of the Agricultural Bank, first president of the Cemetery Corporation (the association that created the Pittsfield Cemetery), and secretary and treasurer of the Pittsfield Mutual Fire-Insurance Company.  In 1822, Martin was named a trustee of the Ministerial Fund to provide social services to the needy. Intensely interested in public education, he is contributed $5000 toward the construction of what would become the Berkshire Athenaeum. Because of his prominent role in the building of the South Congregational Church, he was the perennial secretary for the church. In 1850 Calvin Martin built the Martin Block, now home to Patrick’s Pub.  In order to build the Berkshire Museum, the Martin House was moved almost a half-mile away to 14 Broad Street, a site chosen by Mrs. Mary Clapp, daughter of Calvin Martin. It can still be seen there, its Federal style emphasized by the Ionic pilasters that decorate its façade.   (Nonextant)

8. Berkshire Museum, 39 South Street

 

Colonel James Easton was Pittsfield’s Renaissance man in the late 1700s. He could give a sermon in the morning, and after church services he and the men would go to his tavern for a refresher or two, then return to church to give the afternoon sermon. He was the person one sought out in matters of faith; he was a contractor and commander of the local militia.   

Colonel James Easton met with John Brown and Captain Edward Mott on May 1, 1775 to make plans to seize artillery and munitions from the British fort at Ticonderoga, pictured below.  This was one of the first offensive military actions of the Revolutionary War, and a successful one. Easton was the first to report this success to the Provincial Congress in Boston.   (Nonextant)

7. Martin House, 39 South Street

From the early 1800s to today, the south side of Park Square has been home to a succession of small business buildings.  

The largest, the Backus Building, was constructed around 1820 by William G. Backus, who owned a stove and plumbers’ supply store that was on the premises for fifty years. The roof originally was Federal style, but was changed in 1880 to build a third story with a flat roof. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, “When I drive up West Street and see the Backus sign, I feel that Pittsfield is still Pittsfield.”

Next door, the Martin Building was erected in 1850 by Calvin Martin, a prominent lawyer.  Now the home of Patrick’s Pub, it was a coffee house in the 1770s. Martin, the civic leader who lent his name to the building, is also well known for his significant contribution to the town’s first public library, his role in the building of South Congregational Church and the expansion of the public school system. The building suffered two major fires in July 1875 and January 1903 and was rebuilt both times.

The Wood Building is one of the oldest commercial structures in downtown Pittsfield. Erected in 1810 by Captain Daniel Pepoon, a charter cooperator and director of the Berkshire Bank, the building first served as Dr. James & Co. Medical Store. The structure originally was three stories with a gable roof, but, in 1880, Attorney Edgar Wood added the fourth story and a flat roof. The Haddad Rug Company bought the building in 1945 and renovated it in 1979 to its current appearance.

 

6. Easton’s Tavern, 39 South Street

Built in 1876, the original Berkshire Athenaeum is a striking Victorian Gothic building erected with the backing of two cousins, Thomas Allen and Phineas Allen Jr. Their grandfather had been the Fighting Parson, Thomas Allen, minister of First Church Congregational.  Before the Athenaeum, the small city library was housed on North Street and contained only 800 volumes, but, by 1870, the collection had grown to 2,400 books.  The architect was William Appleton Potter, a young man who later went on to become supervising architect of the United States Treasury, designing official buildings across the United States.  Until the Berkshire Museum was built in 1903, the second floor of the library served as a museum as well.

Growth in the city brought more and more patrons to the library, and overcrowding motivated adding on to the rear of the building a large space in 1897. Pressure to build a new library continued throughout the 1900s, with some plans including demolition of this building. By 1975, the Berkshire Athenaeum moved to a larger building across the street on Wendell Avenue. Fortunately, a vocal group insisted on preserving this unique structure, and the old Athenaeum was renovated for use as a courthouse, named after the county commissioner who worked so hard to save the building, James Bowes.

5. Backus, Martin & Wood, 4 – 32 Bank Row

The Peace Party House, named for a famous celebration of American independence, stood at this site from 1773 to 1869, where the Berkshire Superior Courthouse stands today. The house was originally built for Col. James Easton, a hero of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, but Easton’s financial difficulties only allowed him to finish the first floor. John Chandler Williams purchased the house in 1782.

The Treaty of Paris which was signed on September 3, 1783, marked the end of the American Revolutionary War. When John Chandler Williams heard the long-awaited news, he and his family threw a grand party for the citizens of Pittsfield that included, but was not limited to, roasted ox, geese, turkey, and a lot of liquor and wine. From that boisterous party the house became known as the Peace Party House. In 1869 the Peace Party House was moved to 1 Wendell Avenue where the library now stands. There were many owners after Williams, but, by 1956, the City of Pittsfield owned the house. It was razed in 1957.   (Nonextant)

3. Henry Shaw Briggs

In 1868, Pittsfield replaced Lenox as the county seat, setting the stage for the construction of the Berkshire County Courthouse. Completed in 1871, the building was constructed from marble taken from a nearby quarry in Stockbridge. The property on which the Court House is located was the site of the Peace Party house, owned by John Chandler Williams, the donor of Park Square.   Architect Louis Weissbein of Boston gave the Courthouse its unique design by adding Italianate detailing: a large fan window with a keystone above a pavilion, columns at the front entrance, round-top windows, and marble medallions.  The Berkshire County Courthouse was renamed the Silvio O. Conte Courthouse on September 27, 1992. Conte (1921-1991) was an influential figure in the U.S. Congress. The entire Berkshire County Court complex is named after Francis Joseph Quirico (1911-1999), who was a justice on the state Supreme Judicial Court.   

2. Peace Party House