Pittsfield, Massachusetts "Pittsfield"
For other places titled Pittsfield, see Pittsfield .
Pittsfield, Massachusetts Park Square in downtown Pittsfield in 2014 Park Square in downtown Pittsfield in 2014 Official seal of Pittsfield, Massachusetts Location in Berkshire County and the state of Massachusetts.
Location in Berkshire County and the state of Massachusetts.
Pittsfield, Massachusetts is positioned in the US Pittsfield, Massachusetts - Pittsfield, Massachusetts Pittsfield is the biggest city and the governmental center of county of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States.
It is the principal town/city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Travel Destination which encompasses all of Berkshire County.
The populace was 44,737 at the 2010 census. Although the populace has declined in recent decades, Pittsfield remains the third biggest municipality in Massachusetts, behind only Springfield and Chicopee.
In 2005, Farmers Insurance ranked Pittsfield 20th in the United States as "Most Secure Place To Live" among small suburbs with severaler than 150,000 residents. In 2006, Forbes ranked Pittsfield as number 61 in its list of Best Small Places for Business. In 2008, Country Home periodical ranked Pittsfield as #24 in a listing of "green cities" east of the Mississippi. In 2009, the City of Pittsfield was chosen to receive a 2009 Commonwealth Award, Massachusetts' highest award in the arts, humanities, and sciences. In 2010, the Financial Times proclaimed Pittsfield the "Brooklyn of the Berkshires", in an article covering its recent renaissance. 1.2 Baseball in Pittsfield The Mahican (Muh-hi-kann) Native American nation, an Algonquian citizens , inhabited Pittsfield and the encircling area until the early 1700s, when, the populace greatly reduced by war and disease, many migrated westward or lived quietly on the fringes of society. Pittsfield was incorporated in 1761.
Royal Governor Sir Francis Bernard titled 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 had period to nearly 2,000 residents, including Colonel John Brown, who began accusing Benedict Arnold as a traitor in 1776, a several years before Arnold defected to the British.
Pittsfield was primarily 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.
Pittsfield Depot, c.1905 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.
Thanks to the success of GE, Pittsfield's populace in 1930 had grown to more than 50,000.
On October 8, 2015, SABIC announced it would relocate its command posts from Pittsfield to Houston, Texas. On September 3, 1902, at 10:15 AM, amid 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 (see historic photos above) collided head-on with a street car.
In 2004, historian John Thorn identified a reference to a 1791 by-law prohibiting anyone from playing "baseball" inside 80 yards (73 m) of the new meeting home in Pittsfield.
(See Origins of baseball.) The document is available on the Pittsfield Library's web site. In 1859, the first intercollegiate baseball game was played in Pittsfield.
Professional baseball was played in Pittsfield's Wahconah Park from 1919 through 2003.
Teams encompassed the Pittsfield Electrics of the 1940s, the Pittsfield Red Sox from 1965-69 with such then A-league players and future primary leaguers as George Scott, Carlton Fisk, and Reggie Smith, the Pittsfield Senators (later Rangers) of the 1970s, and the 1985-88 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 town/city in the New York Penn League.
In 2005, Wahconah Park became the home stadium of the Pittsfield Dukes, a summer collegiate baseball charter of the New England Collegiate Baseball League owned by Dan Duquette, former Boston Red Sox general manager.
In 2009, the charter changed its name to the Pittsfield American Defenders.
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 autonomous teams.
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.
Pittsfield is positioned at 42 27 N 73 15 W (42.4522, -73.2515). According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 42.5 square miles (110.0 km2), of which 40.5 square miles (104.8 km2) is territory and 2.0 square miles (5.2 km2), or 4.70%, is 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 positioned 48 miles (77 km) northwest of Springfield, 135 miles (217 km) west of Boston, and 39 miles (63 km) east of Albany, New York.
Pittsfield lies at the confluence of the east and west chapters of the Housatonic River, which flows south from the town/city towards its mouth at Long Island Sound, some 149 miles (240 km) distant.
Like much of Berkshire County, the town/city lies between the Berkshire Hills to the east and the Taconic Range to the west.
The portion of the town/city contains Pittsfield State Forest, an 11,000-acre (45,000,000 m2) facility with hiking and cross-country skiing trails, camping, picnic areas, and a beach for swimming. Pittsfield is positioned at the crossroads of U.S.
Massachusetts Route 8 passes through the northeast corner of town, with a portion of it combined with Route 9, the central east-west road through the part of the state, whose end is in the town/city at Route 7.
Long-distance ground transit 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 (BRTA), the transit provider for Pittsfield and vicinity, is based at the Intermodal Center and also uses it as a core for most of its lines.
The FBO positioned at Pittsfield Municipal Airport offers access to the region via private and chartered airplane ranging from single-engine piston to multi-engine jet.
Pittsfield's climate is continental.
Climate data for Pittsfield Municipal Airport, MA, 1981-2010 normals, extremes 1925-present William Stanley, Jr., established the Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company in 1890 at Pittsfield.
In 1903, GE acquired Stanley Electric and later directed three primary manufacturing operations in Pittsfield: transformer, ordnance, and plastics. During the mid-20th century, the Housatonic River and its floodplain were contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other hazardous substances released from the General Electric Company (GE) facility positioned in Pittsfield.
The contaminated area, known as the General Electric/Housatonic River Site, includes the GE manufacturing facility; the Housatonic River, its riverbanks and floodplains from Pittsfield to Long Island Sound, and former river oxbows that have been filled; Allendale School; Silver Lake; and other areas contaminated as a result of GE's operations in Pittsfield. The highest concentrations of PCBs in the Housatonic River are found from the site of the GE plant in Pittsfield to Woods Pond in Lenox, Massachusetts, where they have been calculated up to 140 mg/kg (140 ppm). About 50% of all the PCBs presently in the river are estimated to be retained in the sediment behind Woods Pond dam.
Cleanup activeness at one of the GE Pittsfield plant Superfund sites on the Housatonic River.
The year 1999 was a milestone for Pittsfield, when negotiations between EPA, the state, General Electric and the City resulted in a settlement agreement valued at over $250 million to clean up Pittsfield and the Housatonic River.
Pittsfield is the biggest city by populace in Berkshire County, and rates 27th out of the 351 metros/cities and suburbs in Massachusetts.
Major lineage groups reported by Pittsfield inhabitants include: Irish 20%, Italian 17%, French 11%, English 10%, German 8%, Polish 7%,Black/African American 5%, French Canadian 4%, Puerto Rican 3%, Scottish 2%, Dutch 2%, Scotch-Irish 1%, Russian 1%, Greek 1%, Ukrainian 1%, Lebanese 1%, Portuguese 1%, Asian Indian 1%, Swedish 1%.
Pittsfield City Hall Pittsfield employs the mayor-council form of government.
The current mayor is Linda Tyer, who was propel for Pittsfield's first four-year term in January 2016, succeeding Daniel Bianchi, who served the town/city since January 2012.
The city's library, the Berkshire Athenaeum, is one of the biggest in Massachusetts, and is connected to the county-wide library system.
Pittsfield is also the governmental center of county of Berkshire County, and as such has many state facilities for the county.
In 2011, the City of Pittsfield received 129 designs of prospective official flags from inhabitants in honor of the 250th anniversary of Pittsfield's incorporation as a town, with the winning design submitted by Shaun Harris. On the state level, Pittsfield has two delegates to the Massachusetts House of Representatives: the Third Berkshire District, which covers most of the town/city proper and is represented by Tricia Farley-Bouvier and the Second Berkshire District, which serves portions of Berkshire County as well as portions of Hampshire County and Franklin County, represented by Paul Mark.
In the Massachusetts Senate, the town/city is represented by the Berkshire, Hampshire and Franklin district, which includes all of Berkshire County and Hampshire and Franklin counties and is represented by Benjamin Downing. The town/city is patrolled by the Fourth (Cheshire) Station of Barracks "B" of the Massachusetts State Police. On the nationwide level, Pittsfield is represented in the United States House of Representatives as part of Massachusetts's 1st congressional district, and has been represented by Richard Neal of Springfield since 2013.
Pittsfield operates a enhance school fitness which has over 6,000 students.
Reid), and two high schools (Pittsfield High School and Taconic High School).
Pittsfield is the home to the chief campus of Berkshire Community College and Mildred Elley's Pittsfield campus.
The nearest state college is the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, and the nearest state college is Westfield State University.
Pittsfield home of Barrington Stage Company Pittsfield is the geographic and commercial core of the Berkshires a historic region that includes Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and author Edith Wharton's estate The Mount.
Many buildings in Pittsfield are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Downtown Pittsfield is home to the gilded-age Colonial Theatre, the Berkshire Museum, the Beacon Cinema (multi-plex), the Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Athenaeum, Wahconah Park and Hebert Arboretum.
Barrington Stage Company, the Tony Award-winning producer of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee invested millions into its newly renovated stage in downtown Pittsfield, along with the evolution of other stages inside the downtown for lesser performances.
Barrington Stage's head of its Musical Theatre Lab, William Finn, told the Boston Globe that he was determined to make Pittsfield the "epicenter of the musical theater universe." Many of the Berkshires' earliest homes, dating to the mid-18th century, can be found in Pittsfield, as well as many historic neighborhoods dating from the late 19th century and early 20th century. Several small multi-generational farms can still be found in Pittsfield, though suburban sprawl and territory evolution have recently claimed some of this land.
Pittsfield has a several country clubs, including the Pontoosuc Lake Country Club.
Pittsfield is home to two lakes, Onota and Pontoosuc, both prominent for swimming, boating, and fishing.
Pittsfield is home to Canoe Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary, 264 acres (107 ha) of woods, fields, and wetlands maintained by the Massachusetts Audubon Society.
Pittsfield State Forest, an 11,000-acre (4,500 ha) park, provides inhabitants and tourists with hiking and cross-country skiing trails, camping, picnic areas, and a swimming beach.
The highest body of water in Massachusetts, Berry Pond, is positioned at the top of the Pittsfield State Forest just outside the town/city limits in the town of Hancock. The Berkshire Bike Path Council is working with the City of Pittsfield and small-town inhabitants to extend the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail, a prominent 10.8-mile (17.4 km) paved trail positioned just north of Pittsfield.
The extension would pass through Pittsfield and lead south to Lenox and Great Barrington.
Pittsfield is served by Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited from Chicago to Boston.
The Berkshire Eagle, the chief daily journal for the Pittsfield region The Pittsfield Gazette, a weekly journal devoted to small-town news, viewpoints, investigative journalism, and town/city politics Pittsfield is positioned in the Albany tv market and is the improve of license for two stations in that market, My - Network - TV partner WNYA, and a low power TV station, W28 - DA, which rebroadcasts sister station and NBC partner WNYT on channel 13 from a locale on South Mountain in the city.
WGGB-TV, Springfield's ABC affiliate, has never been carried on the cable fitness in Pittsfield, but is viewable over the air in some sections.
Also carried on cable, but not necessarily serving Pittsfield, is Boston's WCVB (the ABC partner in that area).
Cable tv subscribers of Time Warner Cable (TWC) in Pittsfield receive public, educational, and government access (PEG) channels, provided by Pittsfield Community Television (PCTV), on channels 16, 17 and 18: Access Pittsfield, channel 16, Public-access tv Pittsfield ETV, channel 17, Education-access tv Pittsfield Community Television is a not-for-profit, 501 (c)(3) organization and a member of the Alliance for Community Media.
Pittsfield is home to the following airways broadcasts: Signals from North Adams, Great Barrington, and Springfield, Massachusetts, as well as from Albany, New York, also reach Pittsfield.
In some areas signals from metros/cities well outside of Pittsfield, like Boston and Hartford, Connecticut, will be received, depending on the location.
One of Pittsfield's earliest airways broadcasts, WBEC-FM 105.5, was sold and relocated to Mount Tom in Holyoke, where it became a Springfield airways broadcast (technically licensed to Easthampton).
The move changed over two decades of programming on the Pittsfield dial which moved WBEC-FM as a Top 40 station on 105.5 down to 95.9, WUPE (as oldies) up to 100.1 in North Adams, replacing the Beautiful/EZ format on 100.1 known as WMNB.
Pittsfield is home to a several businesses, including: General Dynamics Mission Systems (Pittsfield facility originally known as General Electric Ordnance) Pittsfield Generating Facility, natural gas fired generating station The Berkshire Humane Society operates animal welfare services and pet adoption facilities in Pittsfield Marshall Field, established Chicago's Marshall Field's department stores, took his first job in 1853 as a clerk in a Pittsfield.
The white terra-cotta Pittsfield Building in downtown Chicago is so titled because of Field's connection to Pittsfield.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., poet, summered in Pittsfield.
His mother's family owned 26,000 acres (10,522 ha) in Pittsfield Sean Hurley, bassist for John Mayer, former bassist for Vertical Horizon, graduate of Pittsfield High School Hung Huynh, season three winner of the reality tv show Top Chef, graduate of Pittsfield High School Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet, educator, linguist, owned a home on East Street, now site of Pittsfield High School (see photos above) Herman Melville, author, resided at Arrowhead in Pittsfield, where he wrote his most famous novel, Moby-Dick.
Herman Melville lived in Pittsfield from 1850 to 1863, amid which time he wrote Moby-Dick, Pierre: or, The Ambiguities, The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade, and The Piazza Tales.
His home, Arrowhead, is maintained as a exhibition by the Berkshire Historical Society, and visitors can see the peaks of Mount Greylock through the study-window, peaks which reminded Melville of a whale's back. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote "On the hither side of Pittsfield sits Herman Melville, shaping out the gigantic conception of his 'White Whale,' while the gigantic shape of Graylock looms upon him from his study-window." Elkanah Watson, author and agriculturist, in 1810 held the first county fair in the nation in Pittsfield David Dunnels White, a soldier of the 37th Massachusetts Regiment which was organized in Pittsfield amid the Civil War, captured Confederate Major General George Washington Custis Lee, son of the famed General Robert E.
Robin Williams, actor who maintained a summer home in Pittsfield Bob Lewis[disambiguation needed], Audio Engineer for bands including Goo Goo Dolls, Rob Thomas, Matchbox Twenty and many more who was born in Pittsfield a b "Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001): Pittsfield city, Massachusetts".
"Pittsfield MA, Best Small Places For Business 2006".
"Pittsfield MA, Statewide Creative Community Award".
"Central Part of Pittsfield, Massachusetts".
"Colonel John Brown, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the Brave Accuser of Benedict Arnold".
"Sheeptacular Sculptures Reunite in Downtown Pittsfield Exhibit".
"SABIC Leaving Pittsfield And Moving Headquarters To Houston".
"Pittsfield's 1791 Baseball Bylaw".
Pittsfield Library.
"Pittsfield uncovers earliest written reference to game".
Pittsfield State Forest a b "The Berkshires Pittsfield State Forest".
Pittsfield Economic Development Authority.
"Step By Step, Clean Up Efforts Make Pittsfield Healthier".
"Massachusetts by Place and County Subdivision - GCT-T1.
"1990 Enumeration of Population, General Population Characteristics: Massachusetts" (PDF).
"1980 Enumeration of the Population, Number of Inhabitants: Massachusetts" (PDF).
"'Deeply humbled' Linda Tyer takes reins as Pittsfield's mayor".
City of Pittsfield.
"Massachusetts Legislators by City and Town".
"National Register of Historic Places - Berkshire County, MA".
"A homecoming for Pittsfield Slim".
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Pittsfield.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclop dia Britannica article Pittsfield.
City of Pittsfield official website Pittsfield stakes its claim in baseball history, by Adam Gorlick, Associated Press, May 11, 2004, retrieved on 2009-10-16 History of Pittsfield 1800-1876 Pittsfield History, Old Newspaper Articles, Genealogy The History of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from the Year 1876 to the Year 1916 Pittsfield Community Television Wikisource-logo.svg "Pittsfield, Mass.".
Municipalities and communities of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States
Categories:
Cities in Massachusetts - Cities in Berkshire County, Massachusetts - Pittsfield, Massachusetts - History of baseball in the United States - County seats in Massachusetts - Populated places established in 1752
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