Brick by Brick

Dedication

For Edith Taskin, Lillian Glickman, and my mom Lorraine Maloney for their dedication to keeping the history of North Adams alive. For Roger Rivers, Edmond Trudeau, and Stephen Boisvert who are no longer with us but will always inspire me. For the North Adams Historical Society for sharing their collection with all who visit, and Gene and Justyna Carlson for all they do. And to my family, and especially my husband Gene, for all their love and support.

Table of Contents

4. Nature in Our Backyard
5. Weather
6. Natural Bridge
7. Hoosic River, Windsor Lake
8. Mohawk Trail
9. Fort Massachusetts
10. Early Settlers
11. Jeremiah Colgrove
12. Farming
13. A Community of Hard Working People
14. Stores
15. Hoosac Tunnel
16. North Adams 1896
17. James Hunter Machine Company
18. North Adams Brick Company
19. Brick Making
20. Cutting's Store
21. Arnold Print Works
22. Italian Americans
23. French Canadians
24. Welsh
25. Chinese

26. Sprague Electric Company
27. Wall Streeter Shoe Company
28. North Adams Public Library
29. Schools
30. Recreation
31. Military
32. Veterans
33. Influential People
34. Shaping the Future
35. North Adams Hospital
36. Our Community
37. Vocabulary
38. Resources

Nature in Our Backyard
The Northern Berkshire Mountains were once part of an ocean. Over time, beaches were turned to sandstone. The intense heat and pressure turned the sandstone into quartzite. Marine animals built coral reefs. Eventually the clear water began to dry and was replaced by mud. Shellfish couldn't survive and over many years turned to limestone. Some of the limestone re-crystallized under the pressure and turned to marble.

Over 350 million years ago, the continents began to shift from pressure beneath the surface. At a very slow pace the shale was pushed. It gradually came up over the rocks, and mud began to cover the coral and the beaches. The huge ripples in the land that were caused by the pressure would eventually become the Appalachian Mountain Range.

Mt. Greylock continued to be pushed upward getting taller and taller. Then erosion began to wear away the mountain. Rain falling became streams, and those streams washed some of the soil and rock down the mountain. Today Mt. Greylock, the tallest mountain peak in Massachusetts, is 3,491 feet above sea level. There are many trails for hiking on Mt. Greylock and the surrounding area. Learn more!

Plants
Plants include many common and rare plant species such as hepaticas, white Canada violets, purple and yellow violets, red trillium, trout lilies, and Dutchman's breeches to name a few. Trees include sugar maple, beech, birch, black cherry, basswood, white ash, and poplar. Raspberries, blueberries, and chokecherries grow wild as well.

Mammals
Mammals in the Berkshires include: turkey, deer, gray and red squirrel, raccoon, cottontail rabbit, snowshoe hare, opossum, red fox, skunk, porcupine, short-tailed weasel, mink, woodchuck, chipmunk, porcupine, fisher, bobcat, coyote, and black bear.

Birds

This area is home to many bird species including Robins, House Wrens, Scarlet Tanagers, Baltimore Orioles, Ruby throated Hummingbirds, Chickadees, Red-breasted Grosbeaks, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Nuthatches, Downy Woodpeckers, and many others.

Weather

North Adams was often flooded. Early records in the 1800's show the entire Main Street area under water, homes and businesses washed away. There were major floods in 1869, 1927, 1936, 1938, and in 1948. In 1948 Mayor James Bowes pushed for earlier plans for flood control to move forward. In the 1950's the flood control chutes were finally built to protect the city from severe damage.

Eagle Street, 1927 Flood
(above)

River Street - 1927 Flood

The Hoosic River overflowed its banks many times causing a lot of damage to homes and businesses. Concrete flood control chutes were put in through the city center in the 1950's. Photo above is during construction of the chutes.

Storm of the Century

Summer Street - Blizzard of 1888

Snow began falling on Sunday, March 11, 1888, and didn't stop until four days later. A total of 37 inches fell during the storm. Strong winds blew at speeds between 30 and 40 miles an hour.

In the 1940’s the mill produced 200 tons of marble a day. The business was closed after a fire burned down the mill in 1947. The property was then sold to a couple who ran it as a tourist attraction. In 1984 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts purchased it for Natural Bridge State Park.

Natural Bridge
Natural Bridge in North Adams is a crescent shaped wall. To get a good view you have to descend a small set of stairs. The deposits of limestone lifted and folded under heat and pressure causing it to crystallize into marble. At the end of the last ice age, 13,000 years ago, melting glaciers formed the bridge. Water rushing through carried minerals that reacted with the calcium carbonate in the marble and eroded it away forming the marble bridge we call Natural Bridge.

In 1810 companies began quarrying the marble. The stone was used for cemetery monuments, storefronts, fireplace mantels, and hearths. The powder from the stone was used in toothpaste, makeup, and paint. The big marble dam that you see near the footpath was built in the early 1800’s to use the water power to run a mill that could cut the marble slabs.

How is Marble Formed?

Marble is a metamorphic rock. If limestone is exposed to high temperatures and pressures, it changes to marble. The variety of colors you see in the marble are from the impurities that are mixed in during its formation.

The Marble Quarry

Did you know?
Author Nathaniel Hawthorne visited Natural Bridge on August 17, 1883, and was inspired by the natural beauty of the area. He wrote "It is strange to see such a rough stream subdued to the purposes of man, making cottons, woolens, sawing boards and marble, and giving employment to women and men. There is a picturesqueness in finding these factories in the midst of wild scenery."

Limestone and Marble
The marble quarry in North Adams is closed. There are large deposits of limestone in Adams where a quarry is still in operation today. You can see the ledge of white rock on the mountainside as you drive through Adams.

Hoosic River
The Hoosic River travels through three states. It is fed by streams from the Green Mountains in Vermont, the Taconics in New York, and from Mt. Greylock. It begins in Massachusetts at the Cheshire Reservoir and leaves in Stillwater, New York. The North and South branches come together in North Adams on River Street. The South branch comes from Adams and the North branch through Clarksburg. Information about the river can be found by searching the Web for the Hoosic River Watershed Association.

The water power of the Hoosic is what attracted early settlers. It was used to power the mills. The River would often overflow, so concrete flood control chutes were built in the 1950's in the city center. There are efforts underway to improve the flood control chutes, search the Web for Hoosic River Revival.

Cascade
The Cascade, or Notch Brook Cascade, is in a small town park in North Adams. It is a 45-foot horsetail falls. You can reach it by going to the end of Marion Avenue. It is about a two-mile hike along an easy trail. Depending on the snow melt in the spring, the rushing water can get quite strong and very high. Some areas where the banks are low can be easily flooded. It is not unusual after a storm to hear rocks tumbling along in the powerful current. The brook empties into the Hoosic River.

Photo U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
www.nae.usace.army.mil

Above photo shows the Hoosic River.

Photo below young Bel poses at the Cascade in the early 1900's.

Windsor Lake
Windsor Lake (Fish Pond) was used by the Windsor Print Works to supply water to their plant through an under ground pipe. The city purchased the pond for swimming in the 1960's and later added the Historic Valley Campground.

Mohawk Trail
Thousands of years ago, Native American groups traveled between the Hudson and Connecticut valleys along a route that followed the Hoosic River, across the Hoosac Mountains, and along the Deerfield River. It was probably used by a variety of native people, but became known as the Mohawk Trail. The reason might have been that the Mohawks, of the present area known as New York State, traveled it to reach the Pocumtucks who lived in what is now Deerfield for a battle in 1664.

Europeans expanded the trail into roads and railroads, joining the forts, farms, mills and people of northwestern Massachusetts with Vermont and New York. It was traveled by many people including famous writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau. The trail route was later modified for the use of vehicles. In 1992, Williams College students explored the history and path to re-establish the trail. The Mahican-Mohawk recreational Trail today follows the original path when possible.

Did You Know?

Henry Ford wanted to build a car for the average American, so in 1908 he produced his Model T. It sold for $825. Cars would now be available to more people. In 1914 the Mohawk Trail was designated as one of the first scenic tourist routes in the country.

The Mohawk Trail has long been a destination for a Sunday drive. It is especially beautiful in the fall, and the colorful New England foliage attracts people from all over the world.

Fort Massachusetts
Before settlers began staying in this area, Native Americans of the Abenaki or Mahigan tribes stopped here. They were nomadic people and built temporary shelters. They hunted and fished the waters of the Hoosic River. By the time settlers moved into area, by way of the trail that the Mohicans used, most of the Native Americans were gone.

In the 1700's some of the Native Americans became friends with the French in Canada, and some became friends with the English. The rulers of the colonies feared trouble with the French and Indians, so in the winter of 1744, a line of forts was built including Fort Massachusetts in what is now North Adams. These forts were built to protect the people who lived in the area.

Fort Massachusetts was built in a swampy meadow in 1745 (near where the supermarket is today). It was about 80 feet wide and 120 feet long. To defend the area near the fort, units of Militia men went out on regular patrols, often with dogs to sniff out the enemy. The captain of the fort was Ephraim Williams.

A Replica
In 1930 a replica of the fort was built. It is no longer there today, but the replica's chimney is there along with a memorial plaque near the Price Chopper parking lot. You can also visit a replica of the interior of the fort at the North Adams Museum of History and Science.

A Battle at Fort Massachusetts
On Tuesday, August 19, 1746, the fort was occupied by Reverend John Norton, Sergeant Hawkes, 21 men, 3 women, and 5 children. Many of them were sick. The fort was surrounded by 800 French soldiers and their Native American friends. After 12 hours, they decided they must surrender. They were taken by canoe down the Hoosic River to Eagle Bridge New York, and then they set out on foot. They met others at Crown Point in New York. It took 21 days to get to Canada. The captives were freed a year later on August 16, 1747.

The 1930's replica

Early Settlers
In May of 1739 three townships were surveyed-Clarksburg, East Hoosuck, (now Adams and North Adams) and West Hoosuck (now Williamstown). In 1741 the northern boundary of Massachusetts was surveyed. There was a small mistake made during the survey, Williamstown and North Adams were really supposed to be part of Vermont! There were no settlers here at that time, so the land in East Hoosuck was surveyed later in 1749, mapping the area out at 7 miles north and south, and 5 miles east and west.

In 1750 the General Court of Britain (this land was still ruled by Great Britain) gave nearly 200 hundred acres of the township to Ephraim Williams on the condition that he build and maintain a saw mill and a grist mill. In 1752 Captain Williams had them built on the Hoosic River near the top of Main Street (cont. next page).

Learn more about grist mills and how they work, visit Plimoth Plantation.

North Adams
The town of Adams that began in 1778 was very large which made it difficult for people to meet together. In 1878, exactly a century after Adams was formed, the north village split away and became a new town called North Adams.

Where did the name of the town come from?
The town was incorporated on October 15, 1778, with the name of Adams, in honor of Samuel Adams a leader in the Revolutionary War, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and later Governor of Massachusetts.

An early surveyor

Photo: Floridamemory.com