Berkshires towns homepages

How to get to the Berkshires

Here are inks for local and regional public transportation depots and stops, plus where to get Peter Pan bus and Amtrak train schedules and tickets: how to get to the Berkshires.

Great Barrington, MA

Great Barrington, Mass maintains a small town charm and character while serving as the commercial hub of south Berkshire county. A unique array of fine restaurants anchors the town’s tourism industry today, while Gt. Barrington’s history includes events and persons of world stature. Great Barrington was the site of the first organized resistence to British rule in the colonies, was the birthplace of scholar and political leader W.E.B. DuBois (a founder of the NAACP), and, as the home of inventor William Stanley, was the first municipality with electric streetlights. Cultural center of Gt. Barrington is the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center.

Great Barrington, Mass facts:

Town Hall: 334 Main St.
Phone: (413) 528-3140
Population: 7,527
Settled/Inc’d: 1726/1761
Named for: Viscount Barrington
Elevation: 710′

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Hancock, MA

Hancock, MA Town Hall, October 2009; photo by John Phelan

The town of Hancock in the Berkshires, was re-named for John Hancock in 1776, the year of its incorporation, from Plantation of Jericho, as it was called by the original settlers in 1762. Hancock Shaker Village was established there in 1790, becoming a thriving Shaker community before the movement’s mid-19th century demise. In 1960, the Hancock community was closed by the Shaker Central Ministry, and the next year Hancock Shaker Village, a non-profit museum was opened; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1968.

Points of interest in Hancock include: Hancock Shaker Village, Jiminy Peak, the state’s largest ski area, time-share mecca Vacation Village At Berkshires, a barn museum, a campground, a nudist camp, and twenty-four known and catalogued cemeteries.

Hancock, MA facts and map:

Phone: (413) 738-5225
Population: 721
Settled/Inc’d: 1767/1776
Named for: John Hancock
Elevation: 1020′

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Hinsdale, Mass.

The Berkshires town of Hinsdale is a small, quiet hilltown with a population of over 1,900 that increases considerably in the summer months. Settled in the 1760s, Hinsdale was incorporated in 1804. Its early history saw farms and saw mills as the primary sources of occupation. In the late 1800s, textile mills flourished, and the community found itself able to install a reservoir and public water an sewer systems. In the early 1900s, the mills departed, and the railroad became the main industry. By the mid-1900s, this industry departed, as well. The Town is now primarily a bedroom community to the city of Pittsfield. (Photo credit:Wikipedia User:ToddC4176)

The Town encompasses approximately 21.7 square miles. It is home to two lakes, Lake Ashmere and Plunkett Lake, and to a section of Muddy Pond, the headwaters of the East Branch of the Housatonic River. Hinsdale also is home to the 14,500 acre Hinsdale Flats Watershed Resource Area, which is an Area of Critical Environmental Concern. The Appalachian Trail, a national scenic trail, passes through Hinsdale, and encompasses 440 acres. There are over 1500 acres of state-owned open space within the Town’s borders, as well.

Hinsdale, MA facts:

Town Hall: 95 Maple St.
Phone: (413) 655-2245
Population: 1,872
Settled/Inc’d: 1763/1804
Named for: Rev. Theodore Hinsdale
Elevation: 1,431′

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“I was raised in Hinsdale in the 50’s and the 60’s. I’ve got a lot of good memories about Hinsdale. I lived above the drug store when Benard Collins was the Pharmacist. I would love some old and new photos. Thank you, Joseph Rock (djrock4@attbi.com).”

Photo credit: ToddC4176 at en.wikipedia / CC BY-SA

Lanesborough, Mass.

The Berkshires town of Lanesborough is situated just north of Pittsfield, between Pontoosuc Lake and Mount Greylock State Reservation. It is a suburban area with two small commercial centers along Rt. 7 and the Berkshire Mall on Rt. 8. The popular 19th century humorist Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) was born in Lanesborough.

“Originally Richfield and later New Framingham, the town adopted its present name…(in)1765. Tradition has it that a Mr. Lane of England promised the community a bell if they would take his name, but the bell was never produced. It is also possible that the name may be connected with James Lane, Viscount Lanesborough in the Irish Peerage, or with the town of Lanesborough in Ireland upon the Shannon River, or derive from the ‘fact that its six miles square adjoining south on Indian Town (Stockbridge) on the Housatonic River’ lay along a winding lane. The name may even have been a tribute to the beautiful Countess of Lanesborough, court favorite, and friend of the Royal Governor of Massachusetts.” {The Berkshire Hills, by Federal Writers’ Project, © 1939, Berkshire Hills Conference, Inc.}

Lanesborough, MA facts:

Town Hall: 83 N. Main St.
Phone: (413) 442-1167
Population: 5,989
Settled/Inc’d: 1753/1765
Named for: see note above
Elevation: 1,210′

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Photo credit: ToddC4176 at en.wikipedia / CC BY-SA

Lee, Mass

View of Joe's Diner, Lee, MA, with the original Joe Sorrentino visible — View of Joe’s Diner, Lee, MA, with the original Joe Sorrentino visible

Lee, Mass was settled in 1760, as Dodgetown, then incorporated in 1777 as Lee. Formed from parts of Great Barrington and Washington, it was named after General Charles Lee. For a while, it looked like Prime Outlets would be a big deal, or destroy retail in downtown, but it’s been a wash – as Bezos/amazon has rendered mall and mainstreet retail practically obsolete.

The town was also famous for the quality of its marble, with the first quarry established in 1852. Almost 500,000 cubic feet of marble was excavated and shipped in 1867 on the Housatonic Railroad. Buildings constructed of Lee marble include a wing of the United States Capitol building and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

Lee, MA facts and map:

Town Hall: 32 Main St.
Phone: (413) 243-2100
Population: 5,985
Settled by: Cape Cod natves and CT Yankees
Settled/Incorporated: 1760/1777
Elevation: 888′

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Lenox, MA

Lenox, MA is the hub of the Berkshires’ cultural industry. Dubbed “the inland Newport” in the 19th century, Lenox was the location of scores of mansions – the famous Berkshire cottages. With the passing of the Gilded Age, many of the estates were converted to other uses. The Highwood Estate now is part of Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra; Canyon Ranch, perennially rated the #1 spa in the US, is located at the former Bellfontaine, and the nationally prominent Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health occupies the property where Andrew Carnegie’s last residence, Shadowbrook, stood (destroyed by fire in 1956). The popular Shakespeare & Co. is located near the site where Fanny Kemble built her home in the mid-1800s.

how Lenox was settled

The founding of Lenox is described in the following excerpt from Rev. Clayton J. Potter’s “Historical Address” given at the Centennial Anniversary of the Dedication of the Old Church on the Hill, Lenox, Massachusetts, June 12, 1906.

“The Rev. Peter Reynolds of Somers, Conn., was one of seven men who had purchased from an inhabitant of Stockbridge who was an undesirable citizen, certain lands in that town, in order the community might be relieved of his further residence there. To compensate these men, the government gave them 4000 acres of uncleared land lying north of Stockbridge.

This tract covered all of what is now the present town of Lenox, and perhaps the township; and in the records of the time it was called the Ministers’ Grant, in as much as five of these men were ministers. (The implication, made in a history of the town, that this tract of land belonged to any Minister of the town by virtue of his office and that the title to it was commuted later to his obvious loss, is misleading.)” Read the full text plus see other material.

Shadowbrook, Stokes, Carnegie, Jesuits, Fire, Kripalu

Shadowbrook was built in 1893 for Anson Phelps Stokes, who hired Frederick Law Olmsted to design the 900 acre grounds. The estate was purchased in 1917 by Andrew Carnegie, who died there in 1919. The 100 room house burned in 1956.

In 1922, the New England Province of the Society of Jesus purchased the Shadowbrook estate, which the Jesuits used as a seminary. The entire structure burned to the ground in a tragic fire in 1956, in which four of the Jesuits died. The Society then built the current brick structure on the site, maintaining their operation of the property until 1970, when they could no longer support it. The building stood empty for many years (13) until the New Age Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health purchased it in 1983.

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