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THE HISTORY OF THE BERKSHIRES
When cruising along Route 7, enjoying a look at the "Ivy League" appearance of Williamstown, or ascending the scenically spectacular Mohawk Trail, one wonders as to how all of this began. The Berkshires and its immediate environs has a multi-tiered history, tied into what was going on some 3,000 miles to the east.
The seeds that were once sown went back to an earlier time in Europe, perhaps back to 1066, when William, Duke of Normandy expected to be the next king of England. He had been promised this role by members of his distant family. When the promise was broken, he became enraged and decided to take his own very militant steps to make certain that the promise would be kept.
During the summer of that year, he amassed an armada of ships that would transport his powerful army across the English Channel for his invasion of England. The historic Battle of Hastings then took place. The Normans won. On Christmas Day in 1066, William, the Conqueror was crowned king of England at Westminster Abbey. That's when the trouble began.
What has this to do with the Berkshires in the New World? Please read on...
William, the Conqueror began a dynasty named the Plantagenets. Descendants of William, included Henry I (ever see the film "The Lion In Winter"?), Richard the Lion Heart, King John (remember the legends of Robin Hood, or the signing of the Magna Carta?), and finally ended with Richard III, as the "War of the Roses" left him fatally wounded during the Battle of Bosworth Field, crying out.."my kingdom for a horse!".
This has nothing to do with the Berkshires, or does it? The Mohawks, Iroquois, or other Indian tribes were just minding their own businesses at that time, fighting tribal wars, making treaties, etc. But wait!
The European "tribes" were also fighting wars, making treaties via royal family marriages, whose kings or leaders were seeking power. The Plantagenets ultimately lost control of Normandy ensuing from the rise of other French dynasties, along with struggles resulting in the Hundred Years War. One remembered casualty.... Joan of Arc being burned at the stake. France became a unified power, as did Spain, and, of course, England. With the Age of Exploration, the woes within Europe were exported to the New World. England and France became rivals for power and dominance.
Gazing from the Western Summit of the Mohawk Trail, one can enjoy a view extending as far as 150 miles. The panorama includes the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This was once "New France", while standing from "New England", as thus named by their respective European kingdoms. Their boundaries were constantly in a state of change, challenged by a long running war called the "French and Indian War". This state of hostility lasted for more than 50 years, in which the French allied themselves with tribes from the Algonquin Nation, using them as mercenaries to raid "New Englanders' " towns and villages.
The "French and Indian War" ended about 1750, when the British Empire defeated the French at the Battle of Quebec. New political boundaries were formed, and for a while, the gods of war took a short rest.
During the next 25 years, the mountains to the west of the Connecticut River were opened up to settlers. The settlers wanted an item dearer than money.....land. The Massachusetts Bay Colony offered land grants to those in want of same, provided that these lands would be cultivated and developed for farming and agriculture. New trails were blazed, while some European settlers followed trails made by Indians, such as the Mohawk Trail. Thus, the "wild and woolly west" of Massachusetts, including what would be known as the Berkshires, became tamed.
Thus they came. Sir Francis Bernard, the Royal Governor, named this new area..."Berkshire", in honor of his home county in England. He loved giving names to towns. He even named a town after himself....Bernardston, next to the Vermont border in the north. William Pitt, the elder, then England's Prime Minister, was commemorated by Sir Francis, who named a place formerly referred to as "Pontoosuc Plantation" as Pittsfield, the largest town in Berkshire County. That christening occurred in 1761.
So there were a few years of peace...Really? Well, not really.
There was a growing unrest against a new object of resentment. George III of England was having a field day taxing the colonists. Goodbye England...Hello America! The revolutionary war was initially begun with armed insurrection in Great Barrington in 1774, when royal judges were booted out of the town's court house by enraged citizens.
In the beginning, the war turned badly for the colonists. The Battle of Saratoga, occurring in September and October of 1777, was the turning point of the war when General Burgoyne surrendered to General Gates, leading the way to the final victory at Yorktown in 1781. It was over.
(Incidentally, a guided tour to Saratoga from the Berkshires for extended visits is a popular day's excursion for many group visitors).
It was now time for the business of developing a new nation, as the 1800's came into chronology. During the next half-century, the Berkshires began to grow. One of Pittsfield's greatest historical treasures can be found at Hancock Shaker Village. This Shaker settlement began in 1790, lasting as a commune for over 150 years. The Shakers, originally founded by Mother Ann Lee in 1776, were a communal "family" of "brothers" and "sisters" that were famous for their ingenuity. They first grew with the Berkshires in the first half of the 19th century. They were celibate in which men and women lived separately, but equally. They were renown for their efficiency, their manufacture of furniture, their revolutionary methods of farming and agriculture, their production of medicine and herbs and many other products. After the Civil War, they began to decline in population as their style of living became less desirable. The last of the Shakers, two sisters, abandoned the community in 1961, as the site was taken over by citizens who wanted to preserve the 20 buildings as a museum.
(Hancock Shaker Village can be arranged as an optional 2 hour guided visit, in combination with the Explorer Tour. The Explorer Tour includes a view of the complex as part of a non-stop drive by.)
The "world's people", as the Shakers referred to their non-Shaker neighbors in the Berkshires, were involved in tanning and agriculture, which were the region's earliest industries. Growth was further stimulated in 1840 when the Berkshires were linked with the rest of the country with the opening of the railroad. This first railroad, known as the Boston and Albany, linked Pittsfield with both state capitals. As the industrial revolution was taking place, paper manufacturing plants, woolen mills and other assorted producing enterprises represented themselves in Great Barrington, Pittsfield, Adams and North Adams. A second line, the Boston and Maine Railroad, linked North Adams and Williamstown to Troy and Boston, thanks to the construction of the Hoosac Tunnel, boring through the Hoosac Mountains just east of North Adams. It was finally completed in 1876 after 20 years in the making, including the cost of 200 lives lost in cave ins.
The quiet charm and beauty of the Berkshires attracted many famous American writers, such as Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne. By the mid-century, Melville had built "Arrowhead", his home in south Pittsfield, where he wrote "Moby Dick" in 1851. At the same time, Hawthorne rented a cottage for a year in Stockbridge to write "The House of the Seven Gables" and the "Tanglewood Tales", to flee from the isolating winter in 1851. There were many other famous authors and poets who called the Berkshires their "home away from home". "Arrowhead" and the "Hawthorne Cottage" still stand, and are viewed on the guided Explorer Tour supplied by Animactions Unlimited.
After the Civil War,in the latter part of the 19th century, the Berkshires saw much growth and social change. A new crop of humanity was being harvested. They were the industrial tycoons who became millionaires reaping the bounty of the industrial age, who were drawn to the beauty of the Berkshires. They lived in wealth and splendor in the large cities, such as New York and Boston. They had need to find a place away from the rapid pace of their home towns. What better place than the Berkshires? In time, the Berkshires was to become known as an "inland Newport".
Thus began the "Gilded Age" that reached its peak in the 1890's and early 1900's. It began in 1849. William Aspenwall Tappen, a railroad tycoon, fell in love with the area and purchased a large tract of land in Lenox, so vast that it extended into the neighboring town of Stockbridge. He named it "Highwood". He and his family set to task to adorn the property with beautiful landscaping. The property also included some smaller cottages along the shores of Lake Makeenac, also known as "Stockbridge Bowl". One of these cottages was rented to Nathaniel Hawthorne, as mentioned above. The name "Tanglewood" replaced "Highwood" as Tappen was enchanted by that name from the tenant's children's stories entitled the "Tanglewood Tales", written while he resided there. Unbeknownst to either of them at that time, that name would ultimately become synonymous with one of the world's most famous music festival sites.
(Based on circumstances and weather, the Explorer Tour makes a short "leg stretcher" stop at the Tanglewood grounds in which your tour guide will relate its history. Group tickets for a performance or rehearsal at Tanglewood can also be arranged at optional charge, as combined with a guided tour.)
As the years progressed, more and more of the wealthy were drawn to the Berkshires. During their initial visits, they and their families stayed at resorts. However, as they wanted their privacy, they rented cottages owned by the respective resorts. In time, they built their own "cottages", which were in truth elaborate, baronial country estates, some as large as containing 100 rooms. During the summer months, they lived like Roman emperors, lavishing a life style that included numerous servants to attend to the cleaning, serving and maintenance of their palatial residences. They were free to give lavish parties, have fashionable afternoon teas, enjoy golf tournaments, partake in fox hunts and reap the benefits of the truly "good life". The season usually ended with the "tub parade", a kind of millionaires' Mardi Gras, which strutted down the main streets of Lenox.
By the 1890's, there were 93 "cottages" in the Berkshires. But all good things had to come to an end, even for millionaires. It must be remembered that everything earned by them was tax free. They kept it all, thus being able to afford all those goodies. In 1917, when the United States entered the First World War, Congress enacted the income tax law. That was the beginning of the end of the "Gilded Age". It is believed that the final nail driven into the coffin occurred during the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression that ensued.
The "cottages" became "white elephants", whose upkeep were too expensive to maintain. Some families were fortunate to sell them for whatever price they could get. Many of them became resorts such as Cranwell, Eastover, Blantyre, Canyon Ranch, and the Seven Hills. Others simply gave them away to become private schools or condominiums. "Tanglewood" was donated by the descendants of the Tappen family to the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1937. One of the very few survivors was "Naumkeag", a modest 26 room "cottage" built by Stanford White for the family of Joseph Choate, a successful lawyer, who himself became wealthy, attending to the legal affairs of his millionaire neighbors. "Naumkeag" survived in tact, thanks to Choate's youngest daughter, Mabel, who inherited the estate after the death of her father in 1917. She maintained the house up to the time of her death in 1958, when she deeded it to the Trustees of Reservations, a non profit organization that maintains Naumkeag as a museum, preserved exactly as it was during the "Gilded Age".
(An optional one hour group visit to Naumkeag can be pre-arranged in combination with the 2 hour Explorer Tour by Animactions Unlimited, if desired.)
After the Second World War, the Berkshires opened up to the traveling public as a "cultural garden". The "Gilded Age" is now but a memory. Many of the former haunts of tycoons and millionaires are perpetuated in the form of resorts and museums. The former Linwood Estate in Stockbridge is now the home of the Norman Rockwell Museum. The celebrated artist-illustrator made Stockbridge his home where he created some of his most famous Saturday Evening Post covers. The former home of John Sloane, a relative of the Vanderbilt family is now the Cranwell Resort, whose grounds were designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, the landscapist who designed Manhattan's Central Park. Since then, the Berkshires has been the summer home of ballet, concert, opera and theatre events, a kind of "Broadway north of Broadway", entertaining millions who have come to this carefully preserved beauty spot called "America's Premier Cultural Resort".
A guided tour by Animactions Unlimited puts all of this together within a fascinating perspective for your group.
Notes by Richard Erlanger