Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Discovering Berkshire Street Railway’s history

Discovering Berkshire Street Railway’s history

Historian Gary Leveille speaks at Canaan Meeting House on Tuesday, Aug. 6.

Patrick L. Sullivan

FALLS VILLAGE — Historian Gary Leveille told the story of the Berkshire Street Railway, a trolley car network that served an area as far north as North Adams, Massachusetts and as far south as North Canaan, Connecticut at the South Canaan Meeting House Tuesday, Aug. 6. The talk was part of the Falls Village-Canaan Historical Society’s “First Tuesdays at 7” series.

Judy Jacobs introduced Leveille, saying they met in a roundabout manner when they were bidding against each other for vintage postcards on eBay.

Leveille said the trolley began operations in 1888 in Massachusetts with horsedrawn cars on routes between Adams and North Adams, and Pittsfield and Lee.

Eventually, “it grew to be the only trolley system in four states” (Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Vermont).

The trolley arrived in North Canaan in 1911. The ticket office was in the Canfield Hotel, now the site of the Walgreens drug store.

The trip between Great Barrington and North Canaan was a dime. A nickel bought a ride on a separate line between Great Barrington and South Egremont, where there was an axle factory.

“It’s hard to believe now but South Egremont was an industrial center.”

To build up ridership, the trolley company put up “points of interest” signs along the various routes.

The company also tried building an amusement park in Great Barrington. This venture failed, Leveille noted, “because the mosquitoes were so bad.”

Now powered by electricity, the trolley offered more frequent trips between North Canaan and Great Barrington than the railroad, and in theory should have been successful.

Leveille offered several reasons why the trolley was finished in North Canaan by 1919 or so.

First was the rise of the automobile, which offered considerably more convenience to casual travelers.

The influenza epidemic of 1918-19 had a depressing effect on all aspects of life, including travel.

The electricity supply, generated by burning coal, was expensive and sometimes erratic, depending on the coal market.

Three or four unusually harsh winters in succession created track problems.

And a labor strike in 1918 disrupted operations.

“After 1919 it never came to Canaan.”

Latest News

‘So Little to Do,’ so much to discover at James Barron Art

‘So Little to Do,’ so much to discover at James Barron Art

Curator Deborah Goodman Davis reads the Emily Dickinson poem “The Grass So Little Has to Do.” Spencer Finch’s “Following Three Bees (Zinnias)” buzzes in the background.

Photo by Natalia Zukerman

“The Grass Has So Little to Do,” on view at James Barron Art in Kent, takes its title from Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Grass So Little Has to Do,” written in 1862:

“The Grass so little has to do—
A Sphere of simple Green—
With only Butterflies to brood
And Bees to entertain—”

Keep ReadingShow less
art

Marina Kotchoubey is taking care of business

Marina Kotchoubey is taking care of business

Marina Kotchoubey at the Ian Ingersoll Cabinetmakers showroom in West Cornwall.

Photo by D.H. Callahan

After 40-something years navigating the world of custom fine furniture, Ian Ingersoll was getting ready to retire. Starting off with a little dovetail stool that he sold at a shop in West Cornwall in the 1970s, he’d grown his skill and his business into something he — and the whole town — could be proud of. Shutting down that business was not an option.

Ingersoll built Ian Ingersoll Cabinetmakers, which produced mainly classical Shaker furniture, on passion: the passion he had to make a living through creative challenges and the passion of his employees, who all seem deeply in love with their craft.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

A legacy of giving at Norfolk Chamber Music Festival

A legacy of giving at Norfolk Chamber Music Festival

One hundred and twenty years ago, Carl and Ellen Stoeckel commissioned New York architect E.K. Rossiter to design The Music Shed in Norfolk, Connecticut. After nearly a decade of entertaining their friends and neighbors with the finest music of the day, they built a permanent home for their beloved Litchfield County Choral Union.

The commission and full funding of the construction was not unheard of in an era when great fortunes led to public enrichment. Railroad tycoon John D. Rockefeller was instrumental in funding institutes of higher education. Steel baron Andrew Carnegie was building libraries all over the country, and famously said that a man who dies rich is a disgrace, challenging his peers to give their fortunes back to the people.

Keep ReadingShow less
music
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Two unique exhibitions at Geary Gallery

Two unique exhibitions at Geary Gallery

Henry Klimowicz with his sculpture, “Partial Pillar 1”

Photo by D.H. Callahan

On Saturday, Aug. 1, Geary Gallery opened its doors in Salisbury for two unique shows in its first- and second-floor gallery spaces. Art lovers flooded both floors over the course of the afternoon, giving the events a vibrant feeling that enhanced the importance of the art.

On the first floor is a show by Chicago-born, Colorado-based photographer Summers Moore, titled “Lobitos: Pueblo Fantasma,” or “Lobitos: Ghost Town.” The work centers around her daughter’s current hometown in Peru. Moore herself found a home away from home in Colorado in the mid-1980s and encouraged her children to seek out new places outside of their comfort zones.

Keep ReadingShow less
art

Writer’s retreat in the woods

Writer’s retreat in the woods

Participants in a 2024 Great Mountain Forest Woodland Academy workshop at Yale Camp.

Photo by Mike Zarfos

Great Mountain Forest (GMF) will host its first Nature Writing Retreat at the historic Yale Camp in Falls Village from Aug. 7-9, 2026. Writers of all levels are invited to draw inspiration from one of New England’s most notable forest landscapes. GMF envisions the retreat becoming an annual event celebrating writing, conservation and the relationship between people and forests.

This immersive three-day retreat reflects on the legacy of Hal Borland, the American writer and New York Times nature columnist whose work was deeply connected to this landscape. The retreat explores how wilderness shapes language, strengthens close observation and fosters environmental consciousness.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

From Cornwall to Rome, Adam Van Doren at Berkshire Botanical Garden

From Cornwall to Rome, Adam Van Doren at Berkshire Botanical Garden

Artist Adam Van Doren and curator Donna Hassler talk to a group of visitors at the Berkshire Botanical Garden. A Stephen Proctor vessel sits to their left.

Photo by Natalia Zukerman

This summer, the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge has hosted “Grounded in Nature: Paintings by Adam Van Doren,” an exhibition exploring the intimate relationship between architecture and the natural world.

On view for only a few more weeks in the Leonhardt Galleries, the exhibition features more than 35 watercolor and oil paintings by the New York-based artist, architect, author and Yale professor, curated by art historian Donna Hassler, director emerita of Chesterwood. The works span three distinct places that have shaped Van Doren’s artistic practice: New York City, Cornwall, Connecticut, and his travels throughout Europe.

Keep ReadingShow less
art
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.