Brain Bites: Susan B. Anthony where are you? Or... Maya Lin made it here. This week's adventure "In Search Of" 3/22/15

It's Women's History month, what else did you expect me to do? Remember that show from the 1970's, "In Search Of?" Well in a sort of tribute to Leonard Nimoy (he died 2/27/15), the multi-talented Star Trek star who also hosted the show, I will now have as my subtitle, "In Search Of."

For this mini venture we went into the highland geologic region of Western MA- The Berkshires. Not the Berkshires of Edith Wharton or the area of moneyed folks "cottages," but instead into the very modest, and now downright economically depressed former mill town of Adams, MA.

As you see in this new sign designating this small section of the planet to Susan's birthplace, Adams is probably more famous for Mt. Greylock than it is for her. Mount Greylock is the highest natural point in Massachusetts at 3,491 feet. Its peak is located in the northwest corner of the state in the western part of the town of Adams.

In fact Adams, MA almost lost the historic home of Susan B. Anthony a few years back. As these things occur- small town (pop. about 8,000) with little left to provide for decent jobs, fighting hard to stay viable, isn't paying attention to a small home up in a corner of the town. Into the void steps a radical pro-life neo-feminist, Carol Crossed who purchases the house at auction for something like 164k and begins the revisionist battle over who and what Susan B. Anthony was.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony_abortion_dispute

http://www.benningtonbanner.com/local/ci_14393524

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/local/ci_14393524?source=rss

Feminists For Life, Carol Crossed's outfit took control of the home and some of us became dismayed at what these folks would do to poor SBA's life and home. Then the battles began in the press between the Rochester, NY SBA house and the SBA birthplace house.

The fact of the matter, in my eyes, is that this spot in Adams, MA was a birthplace for SBA, and a place she only lived for the first 6 years of her life. The home up in the Eastern corner of this small town wasn't even mentioned when my husband and I first began biking The Ashuwillticook Rail Trail, an 11 mile multi-use trail that's Northern terminus dumps you into the downtown of Adams. I kept wondering where the home was, for I knew SBA had once lived here, and I incorrectly envisioned the home as this quaint farmstead we rode by on the outskirts of the downtown.

So, after almost a year since I mentioned the place in a blog, we decided to stop in and have a look see at this controversial place. We found the address, 67 East Road and drove to town and immediately got lost and confused. Apparently the Eastern section of town has BOTH an East St. and a East Rd. and of course the GPS took us to the Street and not the road.

We found lovely old homesteads, only none of them were the place. So we went back to the old fashioned view (i.e. looking at a map) and tried again.

There it was, the house that time almost forgot. It has been spruced up with a nice sign placed out front, but guess what? Despite the website saying so, it wasn't even open. And I was up for some good Women's History dialogue with whomever was going to take my money and give me a contrived guided tour of "not really SBA relics, and not SBA words, and not SBA views." Susan B. Anthony was a suffragist, abolitionist, author and speaker who was the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

For those of you out there who can't make it to Adams, MA, here is a lovely biography on the woman:http://t.co/Y0MHhHPWWr

I think it is a blessing and a curse that the homestead in Adams was saved. The journeywoman in me loves to get out and explore, but the lover of truth is outraged when history is usurped by individuals and/or organizations for revisionist history-making. SBA was first a Quaker (by birth) and later an Agnostic (by choice) who would be bullshit by the misuse of her story to promote a contemporary pro-life agenda. In a place she spent so little time too.

Adams, MA was not anything like the Suffragette area of Northern New York where SBA settled and operated out of. Rochester, NY and Adams, MA in fact share almost nothing in common, except that SBA once slept and lived in both places.

Oh well at least this little jaunt got me out of the house on a beautiful cold day to explore the environs and learn a little more about the area.

The Quaker movement in America and subsequent settlements that grew out of this religious faith is what brought SBA's family to this small space on earth.

"Quaker Meetinghouse, Adams MA" by John Phelan - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia

This extant meetinghouse sits in the Maple Street Cemetery in Adams, MA and dates to circa 1780.

The Quakers came and settled homes (like the SBA homestead) on high ground away from the flooding Hoosic River. Some of these homes still dot the hillside as shown above.

From an excellent source of historical information I gleaned some of the Anthony history: http://adamsma.virtualtownhall.net/Public_Documents/AdamsMA_Historical/autotour?textPage=1

So giving up on SBA and a tad angered over the museum not being open, we moved on down into the town. Earlier I mentioned Milltown (how could I not!?!) and now I share this: SBA's papa along with her uncle built and ran a small cotton mill on Tophet Brook in 1822. It was Mr. Anthony's success as a mill owner that ultimately took the family from MA to NY, as Mr. Anthony went to Battenville, NY to manage a mill there (hmmm... another day's journey mayhaps). The Anthony footprint is still in this town not necessarily because of Susan B. and all the current controversy, but because the family were successful early pioneers and mill operators. In fact there is an Anthony St. in the town!

Well Mr. Anthony's mill was a small 3.5 story high mill that employed 22 farm girls, 11 of which stayed at 67 East Road with the Anthony family. Had they stayed, by the end of the 19th century they would have seen the tremendous growth of the textile mill industry in the area that had the town looking like this:

Alas, following is what we found left of this once proud and prosperous place.

Meadow Street homes.

Meadow Street follows Tophet Brook as it winds down and connects with the Hoosic River.

At the intersection of Meadow and East Hoosac St. we found this, a combo home and empty storefront. Many homes back in the day (including the Anthony homestead on East Road) had stores attached or within them. Sadly, this empty storefront is but one of many.

Hoosac Street runs into the downtown area. Always looming in the background is Mt. Greylock.

These two houses intrigued me. They are on North Summer St. which is near Mill St. (of course I found a Mill St.!). They literally are almost kissing each other, yet one is stick and the other brick. Could the brick one have been a Mill once upon a time? Would it be what I imagine the Anthony 3.5 story cotton mill of 1822 to look like? Yes, I think so. The street abuts the Tophet Brook.

Another example of a home retrofitted to handle the influx of people as the town grew along with the growth of the mills. Alas, what was once convenient is now probably an inconvenient space that is costly to heat never mind impractical to run.

The War of 1812 set the stage for the growth of the textile industries in the area as imports ceased from England, the fledgling new country across the sea had to produce its own goods. By 1889 the Berkshire Cotton Mills seen in the picture above was built. It had a peak around 1948 with 11,000 workers in 11 mills (wow right?). This company merged with Hathaway Manufacturing in 1955 (before Warren Buffett bought it), but by 1960 the slow decline began with the reduction in workforce down to 6,000 people in 7 mill sites. By 1965 when Buffett bought the company, the Adams site was down to 2 mills and 2,300 people. By 1982 the industry was gone and the mills were converted to other uses (Berkshire Mill #1 is a designated Nat'l Historic site luxury apartment bldg., and Mill 2 has a baseball training business being run out of it).

This newly established tavern (2013) used to be called St. Stan Hall. Built in 1919 and across the street from...you guessed it, The St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, the building used to be a private fraternal club. It's uses over the years include pub, banquet hall, youth center, dance studio, has basketball court, bowling alleys, two banquet rooms, stage. To give you an idea of the rough shape of the local economy, this building was sold at auction for >60k!

Spring St. in the downtown area also had many multi-use homes, which are mostly now boarded up and unused. It's not hard to imagine a bustling and vibrant mill town at the turn of the 20th century that now is almost ghost town at the turn of the 21st.

This poor structure on 17 Spring St., built in 1880 and allegedly renovated 40 yrs. later (1919) was originally listed as a single family home with 16 rooms. By 2013 re-sale, it was called a mixed use bldg w/ 3 apts. + 1 storefront and was sold for 56k. However, the red "X" on the right corner I thought meant it was due to be demolished.

Random pictures along Spring St. tell the tale of a downtown neighborhood in a New England mill town.

Most of these houses look to be multi-apt. units of varying construction from the late 19th and early 20th century.

This bldg. and the one below look to be rehabbed and in use. I think this 1895 is not the address, but the date of the bldg. Another oddity of these 2 buildings my husband pointed out= look at the arches under the 2nd floor decks. Unusual and I wonder why they did this.

This triple decker is much different in build than some of the Worcester, MA ones I recently saw.

WoJo's Bar at 27 Spring St., as you can see from the picture was up and running in the late morning on a weekday. Wonder who the customers are these days? Unemployed folks? Typically in the larger milltowns there was a proliferation of bars that were open at all hours near the mills to take advantage of and make money off of the shift workers.

At the end of Spring St. is the intersection of Pleasant and yet another bar. CJ's Sports Pub was once The Pittsfield & North Adams Passenger Station built in 1889 along the North Adams Branch of the Boston + Albany R.R. and in fact behind the Pub is the almost terminus of the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail built over that R.R. Nice to see a depot in reuse. I once had the fantasy of chasing down and photographing all the re-used depots I could find. Another day's project!

Because you know what I really wanted to find and here it is- my beloved Mill St. signs! Mill St. isn't very long any more. In fact there is very little at this place of convergence of the Tophet Brook and Hoosic River, excepting some canals, a shabby park, and this very interesting bldg. below.

I'm wondering if this area housed some of the 11 mill buildings of the Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing Co.? Whatever mills were here are no more excepting this building. I couldn't wait to get home to hunt!

Somebody cared enough to put the time and work into making the front of this building look nice.

Were the boarded up areas once glass? Was it a showroom of some sorts? Oh I wish I knew!

Then I found a real estate listing for this property: $229,000 for 4,000 sq ft. of Industrial space. The listing says: Description

Beautiful brick building (former butcher's market) now a woodworking shop. Building is 30'x100' Has 400 amp 3 phase power. Zoned Industrial/Commercial. Uses only limited by your imagination. Great .74 acre lot.

Located in quiet area across from picnic grounds.

So whoever JW was, s/he proudly had this lovely brick work and be-jeweled front facing around the date and initials of this butcher's market in a once thriving mill town.

The Mill Housing near Mill Street has been rehabbed and that was nice to see.

And oddly enough the canals from Tophet Brook and Hoosic River are still there too.

There is quite a bit of extant mill housing in this small enclave neighborhood that once was surrounded by mills.

Once out onto a main road (West Main St. or Route 2) we encountered some of the nicer homes. Wondering if the West end was once for the upper echelon of the mills? This is 496 West Main St. and it was built in 1877, has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths and 2,768 sq. ft.. When last sold in 1990 it was purchased for a mere $62K!

At this point I think we had crossed over into North Adams- don't ask, they once were all Adams, but a split happened in 1878 and now there is an Adams (approx 8400 pop) and a North Adams (approx 13,700 pop). I thought this a cool little place that I believe is not currently operating, but at one time had been an antique store. Was it too also once a butcher's market?

How did we get here? Here's how: I made hubby turn around so I could go back to look at the art deco sign on the Market and we found ourselves here. Here would be Walden St. in North Adams, a parallel street to Route 2 that runs beside the train tracks.

This place is now a multi-use space that has a 2nd floor apartment as well as downstairs showroom and warehouse. It was once on the market for approx $336k for 11,413 sq. ft. but it was taken off again. Somebody previously purchased this surplus bldg. in 1993 for $68k and it was once a plumbing supply sales co. We wonderred what exactly the Milk Depot was? Was it where you brought your milk to be put on a train for parts far away? Or was there a person named Milk who the depot was named after in 1900? Oh it will just have to be a poser.

We had another town to visit in search of another woman who has made herstory worthy of a hunt. So we hopped over North Adams and entered into Williamstown.

I just need to mention that so much has gone on to revitalize North Adams that the town now has galleries galore. And many others like myself who poke around in the history of the mills and mill folk here. A few links if you're interested:
http://www.brillgallery109.com/exhibits/millchildren/welcome.php

http://www.northadamshistory.org/history.htm

We came up here for that exhibit back in 2011 because well...because you know- I love mills, mill history, and also social photographer Lewis Hine. As mentioned on Brill's site, there is another local connection to a man with many shared interests who we have also gone to hear speak and that is Joe Manning of Florence, MA. Joe is very knowledgeable of Lewis Hine's work documenting the mill children of the Northeast and he has done some extensive research on finding out the identities of some of the photographed children. Adams mill owners were leery of Lewis Hine and did not allow him into their mills, but there is one photo he shot of a group of boys before they went to work in an Adams Mill. Here is that picture

And here are a few links to Joe Manning:
http://www.iberkshires.com/story/46466/Manning-Seeks-Out-Mill-Children-as-Exhibit-Comes-to-Adams.html

http://www.morningsonmaplestreet.com/joemanning.html

And now on to Williamstown.

A funny thing always happens on our adventures; like dogs, we just can't keep our noses out of book stores, cool houses, and odd sights whenever we stumble upon them so we often flit about an area before really honing in on a focused hunt.

Water street above and Spring Street here are in the heart of Williams College, a small but elite liberal arts Ivy college of about 2000 which has battled for years with Amherst College over #1 status in the "best of's." Frankly, I do not like the town. Some of the snootiest, pretentious, and affected people I have encountered here. Not all, but enough to make me want to do things like fart or pick my nose publicly here and enjoy the odd looks I would receive in doing so. I come in spite of my dislike because...well just because I can!
Have been coming thru for years (first for summer stock theater, later to visit Clark for art, but most enjoyably to uncover the little talked about "other" Williamstown= that of a solidly working class stock of mill folk employed at the local mills that were once here along the Green River.

This plaque caught my eye on the way to the hunted site so of course we had to do a "turn-around."

This accounting firm is located in a much-admired vintage 18th century building.

And this is the North corner original part of the house

And this is the cool stained glass window that shows the dates.

But equally as cool was this gem right across the street. Creative reuse or what? A pizza joint? Yeah, but here is what someone had to say about this joint in the swanky, gentrified area of Water St., "Hot Tomatoes is fine if you like designer foofy pizza."

The fun find of the day by far! A Michigan-plated cadillac deville that reads, "Cruela." I so wanted to find the owner and kiss that person for being fun and funky, even if they had their little pretentious college sticker in the back window.

After this bit of fun we got down to business. We were hunting for the first personal home built by one of my idols who we heard speak at Smith College last year- Maya Lin. She has now joined FLW as an architect I will enjoy chasing around the country and world to find her work. So here we were getting our start at a place where she had a first practically right in our back yard!

There was not a lot of fanfare, nor a lot of press and the site was not a super easy one to find, but we did. Here is local press on the house:

http://williamsrecord.com/2005/05/10/maya-lin-made-her-mark-on-williamstown/

And here is a brief mention of her 1991 achievement in an article in 1994 about an exhibit I wish would come around again (and I think there will be another and I think I will go):

http://business.highbeam.com/438315/article-1G1-15739154/maya-lin-after-wall

Finally, here is the crowning jewel in our journey on this March 2015 day!

As we approached, I could tell my reserved hubby was getting anxious. After all we were going to a private residence in snooty Williamstown built by world-renowned, no...probably THE MOST FAMOUS FEMALE ARCHITECT ALIVE TODAY.

I'm sure he envisioned a gated or at least "Private KEEP OUT" sign confronting us and forcing me into one of my innocent tourist rubes.

But guess what? None of that was there! Thank you, thank you, thank you Mr. and Mrs. Weber for being so generous as to keeping the property observable to the mere mortals like us common folk. What a treat!

The simple and elegant and sharp lines of this Japanese inspired home matched the sharp and crystal clear air on this beautiful March day.

We were surprised by not only the openness, but really the close proximity to town, as well as the close proximity to neighbors. The lot is almost a pork-chop driveway set-up, and the houses in the area abut each other in snuggly close proximity.

No one came out and yelled at us.

No cops showed up to escort us off.

I was very curious about this grove of rock wall'ish area, but I knew hubby would likely keel over and die of embarrassment if I went a-knocking at the door to inquire, so I left it a mystery (for the moment).