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Founding
Founding of Pittsfield
city and county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States
- 1752
- North America
Founding
city and county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Pittsfield is the most populous city in and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses Berkshire County. Pittsfield's population was 43,927 at the 2020 census. Although its population has declined in recent decades, Pittsfield remains the third-largest municipality in Western Massachusetts, behind only Springfield and Chicopee.
In 2017, the Arts Vibrancy Index compiled by the National Center for Arts Research ranked Pittsfield and Berkshire County as the number-one medium-sized community in the nation for the arts.
The Mohicans, an Algonquian people, inhabited the area that would later come to comprise Pittsfield until the early 18th century, when the population was greatly reduced by war and disease brought by European Colonists. Many migrated westward or were subjugated to live on the fringes of their land.
In 1738, wealthy Bostonian Colonel Jacob Wendell bought 24,000 acres (97 km2) of land known, originally as "Pontoosuck," from a Mohican word meaning "a field or haven for winter deer," as a speculative investment. He planned to subdivide and resell to others who would settle there. He formed a partnership with Philip Livingston, a wealthy kinsman from Albany, New York, and Col. John Stoddard of Northampton, Massachusetts, who had claim to 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) here.
A group of young armed militia men came and began to clear the land in 1743, but the threat of Indian resistance around the time of King George's War soon forced them to leave, and the land remained unoccupied by Englishmen for several years.
Soon, many colonists arrived from Westfield, Massachusetts, and a village began to grow, which was incorporated as Pontoosuck Plantation in 1753 by Solomon Deming, Simeon Crofoot, Stephen Crofoot, Charles Goodrich, Jacob Ensign, Samuel Taylor, and Elias Woodward. Mrs. Deming was the first and the last of the original colonists, dying in March 1818 at the age of 92. Solomon Deming died in 1815 at the age of 96.
Pittsfield was incorporated in 1761. Royal Governor Sir Francis Bernard named Pittsfield after British nobleman and politician William Pitt. By 1761 there were 200 residents and the plantation became the Township of Pittsfield.
By the end of the Revolutionary War, Pittsfield grew to nearly 2,000 residents, including Colonel John Brown, who began accusing Benedict Arnold of being a traitor in 1776, several years before Arnold defected to the British. Brown wrote in his winter 1776–77 handbill, "Money is this man's God, and to get enough of it he would sacrifice his country."
Pittsfield was primarily turned into 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 dominated the community's economy for almost a century.
The town was a bustling metropolis by the late 19th century. In 1891, the City of Pittsfield was incorporated and William Stanley Jr., 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 internationally known corporate giant General Electric (GE). Thanks to the success of GE, Pittsfield's population in 1930 had grown to over 50,000. While GE Advanced Materials (now owned by SABIC-Innovative Plastics, a subsidiary of the Riyadh-based Saudi Basic Industries Corporation) is still present in the city, a workforce that once topped 13,000 was reduced to less than 50 with the demise and/or relocation of General Electric's transformer and aerospace portions, and the subsequent announcement of the relocation of SABIC's headquarters from Pittsfield to Houston, Texas, on October 8, 2015.
General Dynamics occupies many of the old GE buildings and its workforce is expanding. Much of General Dynamics' local success is based on the receipt of government contracts related to its advanced information systems. In September 2018, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, and other Baker administration officials attended the groundbreaking of a $13.7 million project to build a life sciences and advanced manufacturing center in the city.
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 motorman, 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.
In 2004, historian John Thorn discovered a reference to a 1791 bylaw prohibiting anyone from playing "baseball" within 80 yards (73 m) of the new meeting house in Pittsfield. A reference librarian, AnnMarie Harris, found the actual bylaw 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 document is available on the Pittsfield Library's web site.
A finding that baseball was invented in 1839 by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York, provided the rationale for baseball centennial celebrations in 1939 including the opening of a National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in that city. Few historians ever believed it and even the Hall's vice president, Jeff Idelson, has stated that "Baseball wasn't really born anywhere."
In 1859, the first intercollegiate baseball game was played in Pittsfield. Amherst defeated Williams College, 73–32.
Ulysses Frank Grant, born August 1, 1865, in Pittsfield (died May 27, 1937), was an African American baseball player in the 19th century who played in the International League and for various independent teams.
Professional baseball was played in Pittsfield's Wahconah Park from 1894 through 2003. Teams included the early Pittsfield Colts and Pittsfield Hillies, the Pittsfield Electrics of the 1940s, the Pittsfield Red Sox from 1965 to 1969 with such A-league players and future major leaguers as George Scott, Carlton Fisk, and Reggie Smith, the Pittsfield Senators (later Rangers) of the 1970s, and the 1985–1988 AA Pittsfield Cubs featuring future stars Mark Grace and Rafael Palmeiro. From 1989 to 2001, the Pittsfield Mets and Pittsfield Astros (2001 only) represented the city in the New York–Penn League. The Astros have since moved to Troy, New York, and are now known as the Tri-City ValleyCats.
In 2005, Wahconah Park became the home stadium of the Pittsfield Dukes, a summer collegiate baseball franchise of the New England Collegiate Baseball League owned by Dan Duquette, former Boston Red Sox general manager. The Dukes had played the 2004 season in Hinsdale, Massachusetts, as the Berkshire Dukes. In 2009, the franchise changed its name to the Pittsfield American Defenders. The American Defenders' name refers to both the United States military and a line of baseball gloves produced by Nocona Athletic Goods Company. Duquette's ownership group also owned the American Defenders of New Hampshire, members of the independent Can-Am League.
Since 2012, Wahconah Park has been the home of the Pittsfield Suns of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.
Mark Belanger, eight-time Gold Glove winning shortstop for the Baltimore Orioles, Turk Wendell, relief pitcher for the New York Mets, and Tom Grieve, outfielder for the Texas Rangers, were all from Pittsfield.
The love of baseball in the Berkshires, especially Pittsfield, extends to all ages. Pittsfield has two Little League teams, Pittsfield American and National, which are the two dominant powers in Berkshire County Little League and Western Massachusetts. The 2022 Pittsfield 13U Babe Ruth baseball team made a run to the Babe Ruth 13U World Series Championship game, winning the New England Regional and going to the Title Series, before losing to Kado, Hawaii. Pittsfield hosted the 2023 Babe Ruth 15U New England Regional Tournament at Wahconah Park. Pittsfield received an automatic bid for hosting and advanced to the championship game, but fell to Norwalk, Conn.
Both Pittsfield high schools are known for their baseball and softball prowess. Taconic High School won state championships in 2017 and 2019 and reached the Final Four in 2023. It was the No. 1 overall seed in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Division III bracket in 2022 and beat city-rival Pittsfield High three times: twice in the regular season and once again in the PVIAC Western Massachusetts Class B Championship Game in front of a crowd of over 3,500 at Wahconah Park. However, the two teams met in the Division III Sweet 16 and Pittsfield High pulled off the upset to send its crosstown rival home.
Pittsfield is at 42°27′N 73°15′W / 42.450°N 73.250°W (42.4522, −73.2515).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 42.5 square miles (110.0 km2), of which 2.0 square miles (5.2 km2), or 4.70%, are covered by water. Pittsfield is bordered by Lanesborough to the north, Dalton to the east, Washington to the southeast, Lenox to the south, Richmond to the southwest, and Hancock to the west. Pittsfield is 48 miles (77 km) northwest of Springfield, 99 miles (159 km) west of Worcester, 135 miles (217 km) west of Boston, and 39 miles (63 km) east of Albany, New York.
Most of the population occupies roughly one-quarter of the city's land. Pittsfield lies at the confluence of the east and west branches of the Housatonic River, which flows south from the city towards its mouth at Long Island Sound, some 149 miles (240 km) distant. The eastern branch leads down from the hills, and the western branch is fed from Onota Lake and Pontoosuc Lake, which lies partly in Lanesborough. Like much of western Berkshire County, the city lies between the Berkshire Hills to the east and the Taconic Range to the west. Sections of the Housatonic Valley Wildlife Management Area dot the banks of the river. The western portion of the city contains Pittsfield State Forest, an 11,000-acre (4,500 ha) facility with hiking and cross-country skiing trails, camping, picnic areas, and a beach for swimming.
Pittsfield is at the crossroads of U.S. Route 7 and U.S. Route 20, which intersect in the city. Massachusetts Route 8 passes through the northeastern corner of town, with a portion of it combined with Route 9, the central east-west road through the western part of the state, which terminates in the city at Route 20. Route 41 begins in the southwestern corner of town, heading south from Route 20. The nearest interstate highway, Interstate 90 (the Massachusetts Turnpike) is about 10 miles (16 km) 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. Rail freight transportation is provided by CSX Transportation and the Housatonic Railroad.
The fixed-base operator at Pittsfield Municipal Airport offers access to the region via private and chartered aircraft ranging from single-engined piston to multiple-engined jet planes. They also offer scenic rides and flight training. The nearest airport with national service is Albany International Airport.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Pittsfield, Massachusetts”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.