The Berkshire hills are not noted for their grandeur, it would not be the proper word to use in a descriptive sense. They are beautiful almost beyond compare.

They incite the poetic instinct rather than awe and for that reason the euph- onious name “Mohawk Trail” should never have been dese- crated by introducing so unpoetic a name as Hairpin Curve to any part of it.

True, that would probably suggest itself to the mind of the engineer who, by the way, had to work out some mathematical problems in making that bend, but should this not be termed Inspiration Point? For that is just what it is. Continue reading →

The town of Great Barrington incorporated in 1761, comprehended the whole of the Upper Township, — excepting that part which had been set off in the formation of the Indian Town, — and so much of the Lower Township, — or the old town of Sheffield — as lies between the present north line of Sheffield and a line drawn nearly east and west, crossing the Housatonic river at the Great Bridge.

Its area has since been  diminished by the elimination of its boundary lines in the formation of the towns of Alford and Lee. From 1743 to 1761 this territory had a corporate existence as the North Parish of Sheffield, — sometimes called Upper Sheffield, and during that period was included in and formed a part of the town of Sheffield.

The adjoining towns on the north, are Alford, West Stockbridge, Stockbridge and Lee, on the east, Tyringham, Monterey and New Marlboro, on the south New Marlboro, Sheffield and Egremont, on the west Egremont and Alford. Continue reading →

ONE of the most interesting peculiarities of Early American domestic architecture is its “localism,” its adherence to type within the confines, often, of a very restricted locality.

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