Encyclopedia
Pittsfield is the largest city in Berkshire County,
Massachusetts,
United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Its area code is 413. Its three zip codes are 01201, 01202, 01203. The population was 45,793 at the 2000 census and remains relatively stable. It is the county seat of Berkshire County and one of the population centers of
Western Massachusetts.
In 2006, ranked Pittsfield as #61 in their Best Small Places for Business. In 2005, ranked Pittsfield 20th in the United States as Most Secure Place To Live .
Downtown Pittsfield is home to The
Berkshire Museum, , Wahconah Park,
Hebert Arboretum, , and the newly renovated historic A multi-plex cinema is also planned for the near future.
Pittsfield is home to , as well as , a private college-preparatory school for girls and one of the first girls' boarding schools established in New England .
Williams College is located 20 miles North of Pittsfield, in
Williamstown, Massachusetts.
The offers access to the region via private and chartered aircraft ranging from single engine piston to multi-engine jet.
History
Pittsfield was first settled in 1752 and was officially incorporated in 1761. It was named after British
nobleman and politician William Pitt.
A group of young men came and began to clear the land in 1743, but threats of Indian raids associated with the conflict of the
French and Indian War soon forced them to leave, and the land remained unoccupied by whites for several more years. Finally in 1752, settlers, many from Westfield, Massachusetts, arrived and a village began to grow, which was incorporated as Pontoosuck Plantation in 1753. By 1761 there were 200 residents and the plantation became the Township of Pittsfield, named in honor of British Prime Minister William Pitt, who later would champion the colonists’ cause before the revolution.
By the end of the revolutionary war, Pittsfield had expanded to nearly 2,000 residents. While primarily an agricultural area, because of the many brooks that flowed into the Housatonic River, the landscape was dotted with mills that produced lumber, grist, paper and textiles. With the introduction of Merino sheep from Spain in 1807, the area became the center of woolen manufacturing in the United States, an industry that would dominate the community’s employment opportunities for almost a century.
The town was a bustling metropolis by the late 1800’s. In 1891, the City of Pittsfield was incorporated, and William Stanley, who had recently relocated his Electric Manufacturing Company to Pittsfield from Great Barrington, produced the first electric transformer. Stanley’s enterprise was the forerunner of the internationally known corporate giant, General Electric. Thanks to the success of GE, Pittsfield’s population in 1930 had grown to more than 50,000. While GE Advanced Materials continues to be one of the City’s largest employers, a workforce that once topped 13,000 was reduced to less than 700 with the demise and/or relocation of the transformer and aerospace portions of the General Electric empire.
Historic events
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote "On the hither side of Pittsfield sits Herman Melville, shaping out the gigantic conception of his 'White Whale,' while the gigantic shape of Graylock[sic] looms upon him from his study-window."
Herman Melville lived in Pittsfield from 1850 to 1863, during which time he wrote
Moby-Dick is an 1851 [i] novel [i] by Herman Melville [i]. ...
,
,
, and
The Piazza Tales. His home, Arrowhead, is maintained as a museum by the Berkshire Historical Society, and visitors can see the peaks of
Mount Greylock through the study-window, peaks which reminded Melville of a whale's back.
On September 3, 1902 at 10:15 AM, during a two-week tour through
New England campaigning for Republican
congressmen, the barouche transporting
President Theodore Roosevelt from downtown Pittsfield to the Pittsfield Country Club collided head-on with a
trolley. Roosevelt,
Massachusetts Governor Winthrop Murray Crane, secretary to the president
George Bruce Cortelyou, and bodyguard
William Craig were thrown into the street. Craig was killed; he was the first Secret Service agent killed while on a presidential protection detail. Roosevelt, whose face and left shin were badly bruised, nearly came to blows with the trolley engineer, Euclid Madden. Madden was later charged with manslaughter, to which he pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to six months in jail and a heavy fine.
Baseball in Pittsfield
In 2004, historian John Thorn discovered a reference to a 1791 by-law prohibiting anyone from playing "baseball" within 80 yards of the new meeting house in
Pittsfield, Massachusetts. A librarian found the actual by-law in the Berkshire Athenaeum library, and its age was verified by researchers at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center.
If authentic and if actually referring to a recognizable version of the modern game, the 1791 document, would be, as of 2004, the earliest known reference to the game in America. See,
Origins of baseball.
The city has "reprinted" the by-Law with auxiliary documents.
The socalled Broken Window By-Law is the earliest known reference to "baseball" in North America. A finding that
baseball was invented in 1839 by
Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown provided the rationale for baseball centennial celebrations in 1939, including the opening of a National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in that city. But few historians ever believed it and "Hall" vice president Jeff Idelson has stated that "Baseball wasn't really born anywhere."
Ulysses
Frank Grant, born August 1, 1865 in Pittsfield, MA , was an African American baseball player in the 19th century, who played in the International League and for various independent teams. He is widely considered to have been the greatest African-American player of the 19th century.
Ferry, Alfred Joseph 'Cy', born September 27, 1878 , died September 27, 1938. A Major League Baseball Player. He made his major league debut on May 12, 1904, and played his final game on August 4, 1905. Ferry played for the Detroit Tigers in 1904, and the Cleveland Naps in 1905. He died in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1938, as is buried there.
Ferry, John Francis 'Jack', born April 7, 1887 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. A Major League Baseball Player. He made his major league debut on September 4, 1910, and played his final game on June 7, 1913. Ferry played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1910 to 1913. He died in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, August 29, 1954.
Professional
baseball has been played in Pittsfield's Wahconah Park since 1919. As of 2005, Wahconah Park was the home stadium for the
NECBL Pittsfield Dukes, a summer amateur team.
Mark Belanger, Golden Glove for the Baltimore Orioles, and Tom Grieve Outfielder for the Texas Rangers were both from Pittsfield.
Other references
The white terra-cotta Pittsfield Building in downtown
Chicago, Illinois is named after this location. It is a reference to the famous Chicagoan Marshall Field, who was born in Massachusetts and has a direct connection to Pittsfield as an apprentice merchant for several years in a Pittsfield store before heading west to Chicago.
Local Business
Pittsfield is home to the following businesses:
- General Electric
- KB Toys - World Headquarters
- Chemex Corporation
- General Systems
- Laurin Publishing
- , a historic bed and breakfast inn.
- General Dynamics Defense Systems
- Interprint Incorporated
- New England Acupuncture and Herb Clinic
- , a family run market devoted to fresh organic and locally grown produce, dairy, and meat.
General Information
Pittsfield is centrally located in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, and borders Lenox,
Massachusetts, home of
Tanglewood - summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra as well as the Tanglewood Jazz Festival.
Many of the Berkshires' oldest homes, dating to the mid 1700s, can be found in Pittsfield, as well as historic neighborhoods dating from the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Several small multi-generational farms can still be found in Pittsfield, though suburban sprawl and unwise land development has recently claimed some of this land.
Pittsfield, MA has two large lakes, Pontoossuc Lake and Onota Lake. Pontoosuc Lake is nearby to the , a public 18 hole golf course, one of several golf courses in Pittsfield. Onota Lake is home to the .
Pittsfield is home to , 264 acres of woods, fields, and wetlands maintained by the Massachusetts Audobon Society.
entertains visitors and residents year-round with skiing, water slides, go-karts, and other fun activities.
Pittsfield is also home to the , a 65 acre park with hiking and cross-country skiing trails, camping, picnic areas, and a swimming beach. Located within the Pittsfield State Forest is Berry Pond, the highest natural body of water in the state of Massachusetts.
is a living history museum located in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The Village consists of 20 historic buildings set on 1,200 acres of farm, field, meadow and woodland, and a collection of 22,200 objects. Each year 75,000 visitors from around the world come to the Village to experience programs, view the Village's premier collection, and learn about Shaker life.
The is presently working with the City of Pittsfield and local residents to extend the Ashuwillticook Trail, a popular 10.5 paved trail located just North of Pittsfield through Pittsfield to Great Barrington, South of Pittsfield and Lenox.
Environmental Issues
Pittsfield contains an area designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as a Superfund site due to the high content of polychlorinated biphenyls, a suspected carcinogen. The source of this contamination is the largely vacant General Electric operations. The EPA has also selected the City of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, for a Superfund Redevelopment Pilot.
The Pittsfield Economic Development Authority is using the Pilot funds to develop a reuse plan for the GE site. Economic redevelopment of the property represents the area’s best opportunity to attract businesses to the area, resulting in jobs and an increase in the city’s tax base.
The total contaminated areas include Silver Lake, former GE properties, residential properties, and "areas where soil was contaminated by the migration of the wastes via the Housatonic River" most notably the floodplain from Pittsfield to Lenox.
, a non-profit coalition of Berkshire County residents, is working to restore the Housatonic River and its floodplain as a major community asset, a river safe to fish and swim.
The controversy concerning this issue garnered media attention in the late 1990s. An article in the Boston Globe revealed that "a 1948 GE memo obtained by the Globe indicates that company officials relied to some extent on residents' willingness to take the fill as a way of handling its industrial waste. 'This is the last section anywhere near the plant where we can dump most anything that comes out of the factory,' a GE manager wrote in 1948 when describing the filling of the residential areas.'"
The year 1999 was a milestone for Pittsfield, when negotiations between EPA, the state, General Electric and the City resulted in a landmark settlement -- valued at over $250 million -- to clean up Pittsfield and the Housatonic River. The settlement was memorialized in a Consent Decree that was entered in federal court the following year, making it a binding legal agreement.
During the six and one-half years since the settlement was reached, EPA, state agencies, the City and GE have undertaken one of the largest and most complex cleanups in the country, while meeting the underlying objectives of the settlement: remediation, revitalization, and restoration.
Examples of success are in plain view, most notably along the ancient Housatonic River as it winds through Pittsfield. Clean up work is complete on the first previously PCB-laden ½ mile of the Housatonic River, adjacent to the GE facility. Exceptional progress has been made on the 1 ½ Mile Reach between Lyman Street and Fred Garner Park.
The EPA has overcome significant engineering hurdles, allowing this $90 million portion of the EPA clean up to be ahead of schedule and likely completed in late 2006.
GE has also removed contaminated soil and restored 27 residential properties abutting the river. To date, more than 115,000 cubic yards of PCB-contaminated sediment, bank, and floodplain soil have been removed from the river and from people's yards, making a safer environment for children to play.
Sources:
http://www.epa.gov/ne/ra/column/archive/2006/pittsfield_cleanup_20060303.html
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/programs/recycle/pilot/facts/r1_05.htm
http://housatonic-river.com/index.php
Geography
Pittsfield is located at .
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 109.6 km² . 105.5 km² of it is land and 4.1 km² of it is water.
The two primary streets in Pittsfield are East/West Street and North/South Street. East Street runs from to Dalton, MA until the town center, at which point it becomes West Street and continues until Hancock, MA. North Street runs from Lanesborough, MA to the town center, at which point it becomes South Street and continues to Lenox, MA.
Major US Routes 7 & 20 pass through or near the center of Pittsfield, and State Routes 8, 9, 41 and nearby 295 offer direct connections from the three nearby states of New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, as well as points East. The city of Pittsfield is also accessible from Interstate 90 to the south. Pittsfield is reachable in approximately 2 hours from Boston and 2.5 hours from New York City.
Demographics
As of the
census of 2000, there were 45,793 people, 19,704 households, and 11,822 families residing in the city. The
population density was 434.1/km² . There were 21,366 housing units at an average density of 202.5/km² . The racial makeup of the city was 92.58%
White, 3.66%
African American, 0.14% Native American, 1.16% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.77% from
other races, and 1.64% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.04% of the population.
There were 19,704 households out of which 27.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.9% were married couples living together, 13.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.0% were non-families. 34.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.89.
In the city the population was spread out with 23.2% under the age of 18, 6.9% from 18 to 24, 28.3% from 25 to 44, 23.0% from 45 to 64, and 18.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 90.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.2 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $35,655, and the median income for a family was $46,228. Males had a median income of $35,538 versus $26,341 for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,549. About 8.9% of families and 11.4% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 16.7% of those under age 18 and 7.1% of those age 65 or over.
Recent population trends
| 1930 | 49,677 |
| 1940 | 49,684 |
| 1950 | 53,348 |
| 1960 | 57,879 |
| 1970 | 57,020 |
| 1980 | 51,974 |
| 1990 | 48,622 |
| 2000 | 45,793 |
| 2002 | 45,023 |
| 2010 | 42,199 |
| 2020 | 39,115 |
Sources: and
Weather
Education
- High Schools
- Miss Hall's School
- Pittsfield High School
- Taconic High School
- St. Joseph's Central High School
- Middle Schools
- Herberg Middle School
- Reid Middle School
- St. Mark's Middle School
- Elementary Schools
- Allendale Elementary
- Capeless Elementary
- Crosby Elementary
- Egremont Elementary
- Morningside Community
- Silvio O. Conte Community
- Stearns Elementary
- Williams Elementary
- Alternative Education
- Universities
- Berkshire Community College
Points of interest
...
, home of author
Herman MelvillePittsfield is home to the , a unique cultural organization described by the Los Angeles Times as "suddenly, joyously steaming mugs of hot cocoa."
Media
Newspaper
- The Berkshire Eagle, main newspaper for the Pittsfield area
Radio and television
Pittsfield is located in the
Albany television market and is the community of license for a station in that market,
My Network TV affiliate
WNYA.
Springfield stations also serve the market with two on cable. Also carried on cable, but not necessarily serving Pittsfield, are
Hartford's
WFSB and Boston's
WCVB .
Pittsfield is home to the following radio stations:
- 860 kHz WSBS
- 1110 kHz WUHN
- 1340 kHz WBRK
- 1420 kHz WBEC
- 89.7 MHz WTBR-FM
- 90.3 MHz WAMC-FM
- 91.1 MHz WHVP
- 95.9 MHz WBEC-FM
- 100.1 MHz WUPE
- 101.7 MHz WBRK-FM
- 102.7 MHZ WEQX
- 105.1 MHZ WAMQ
Signals from
Albany, New York and
Springfield, Massachusetts also reach Pittsfield as well as some signals from
Hartford, Connecticut and even
Boston depending on location.
Cable television subscribers of TimeWarner Cable in the City of Pittsfield receive Public, Education and Government access channels , provided by Pittsfield Community Television , on channels 16, 17 and 18:
- Access Pittsfield, channel 16, Public Access
- Pittsfield ETV, channel 17, Education Access
- Citylink, channel 18, Government Access
Pittsfield Community Television is a not-for-profit, 501 organization and a member of the Alliance for Community Media. Programming on PCTV is available 24 hours per day, year-long, and is available online at www.pittsfieldtv.org.
Transportation
Pittsfield is located at the crossroads of
U.S. Route 7 and
U.S. Route 20 which join together in the city. The nearest interstate,
Interstate 90 is located about 10 miles south in
Lee.
Long-distance ground transportation in Pittsfield is based at the Joseph Scelsi Intermodal Transportation Center which serves as the station for
Amtrak trains and Peter Pan buses. The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority , the transit provider for Pittsfield and vicinity, is based at the Intermodal Center and also uses it as a hub for most of its lines.
Sister cities
Pittsfield has four sister cities, as designated by :
There is also a cultural exchange with:
Notable residents
- Thomas Allen, born in Pittsfield, was a railroad builder and member of the United States Congress
- William Allen, born in Pittsfield, complier of the first work of general biography published in the United Statesrman Melville]], the author resided at in Pittsfield, MA where he wrote his most famous novel, Moby Dick.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, poet, summered in Pittsfield. His mother's family owned 26,000 acres in Pittsfield.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet, educator, linguist owned a home on East Street.
- Jack Welch, well-known CEO of General Electric.
- Frank Grant, famous 19th century African-American baseball player.
- Elizabeth Banks, actress who performed in the films Seabiscuit, Spider-Man, and 40 Year Old Virgin.
- Adrian Pasdar, actor, born in Pittsfield, MA in 1965, married Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks in June 2000.
- Stephanie Wilson, American astronaut.
- Jay Mcinerney, author of Bright Lights, Big City on which the popular film is based.
- Emily Erwin of the Dixie Chicks, born in Pittsfield.
- William Stanley, invented the first alternating current electrical transformer.
- Daniel Fox, shares credit for the invention of LEXAN plastic.
- Samuel Harrison, Chaplain for the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first African-American units in the Civil War
- Elaine Giftos, film and television actress, born in Pittsfield.
- Nancy Graves, American sculptor and painter, born in Pittsfield.
- Gordon McKay, 19th century inventor and industrialist, born in Pittsfield.
- William Miller, famous 19th century preacher, born in Pittsield.
- James Walter Thompson, 19th century advertising pioneer.
- Marshall Field, founded Chicago's Marshall Field's department stores, took his first job in 1853 as a clerk in a Pittsfield.
- Elkanah Watson, author and agriculturist, in 1810 held the first county fair in the country in Pittsfield.
- Brian Louis Piccolo, Chicago Bears halfback, subject of movie Brian's Song, born in Pittsfield.
References
External links
