The 1904 atlas tells you who the county believed owned every parcel. It cannot tell you what any of it looked like. This book can, for a few dozen places, and it does it fourteen years earlier — in 1890, when Elm Court was six years old, Wyndhurst was rising, and Erskine Park had just been made.
I. What it is
George Blatchford, bookseller, of Pittsfield, published it in 1890 under the title Central Berkshire Illustrated: Pittsfield, Lenox, Dalton, Stockbridge. The plates are photogravures, mounted one to a leaf with the backs left blank, and captioned in capitals and small capitals below the image. There is no text: no preface, no title page, no list of plates. The book is the pictures.
It runs in the order of its subtitle. Pittsfield first — the Housatonic in four moods, Balance Rock, the savings bank, the Maplewood Hotel, East Street looking west, and five houses. Then Dalton, which is to say the Cranes. Then Lenox, which is the longest section and the reason this book matters here. Then Stockbridge, ending at St. Paul’s.
II. Thirty-seven plates, not fifty-seven
The library catalogue record for this book says 57 pl. The copy scanned here — Boston College’s — carries thirty-seven. The plates sit on odd leaves in an unbroken run from leaf 3 to leaf 75, with no gap in the sequence and no stubs where a leaf has been cut out, so whatever accounts for the difference is not visible in the scan. View-books of this kind were routinely broken up and the plates framed, and catalogue records are copied from one library to another. Both facts are recorded here and neither is resolved.
III. Where it disagrees with the atlas
Two sources fourteen years apart, and they do not always agree about a name. Where they differ, both readings stand:
- Blatchford prints HOLMESDALE. RESIDENCE OF MRS. WILLIAM PALLOCK. The 1904 atlas letters the same Pittsfield place HOMESDALE, owner Mrs. Wm. Pollock. There is a third source, and it is below.
- Blatchford prints SHADOWBROOK as one word; the atlas gives Shadow Brook as two.
- Blatchford and the atlas agree on COLDBROOKE, with the final e — which is worth knowing, because the Patrons’ Directory at the back of the atlas drops it.
- The book gives CAIRNLOE HALL. RESIDENCE OF W. A. WHITTLESEY. and EDGECOMBE. RESIDENCE OF MISS FURNISS. Neither house name appears anywhere else on this site.
IV. Photographed again, ten years later
Two of Blatchford’s subjects were photographed again by the Detroit Publishing Company in the following decade, and those negatives are at the Library of Congress with no known restrictions on publication. Setting them beside the 1890 plates does two things.
That settles the spelling, or comes as close as three sources can. Blatchford’s engraver set HOLMESDALE in 1890; the Detroit photographer scratched HOLMESDALE into the emulsion fifteen or twenty years later; the atlas draftsman lettered HOMESDALE in 1904. Two to one, and the odd one out is the one that had to fit the name inside a parcel boundary. The atlas reading is left standing where it is, because the rule here is that a source says what it says — but a reader looking for the house should look under both.
And it shows what a decade did. The Maplewood on leaf 15 and the Maplewood here are the same building from nearly the same standpoint, with the trees grown up and the verandas extended. The atlas draws its footprint on plate 2, in the block of hotels that also holds the Wendell, the Norwood, the Parker House and the New American.
V. The plates
Captions verbatim. The middle column is a plain description of what the photograph shows, written from the image, for a reader who cannot see it. The right-hand column links through where the caption names a house this site already has a page for.
| Caption, as printed | What it shows | On this site | Leaf |
|---|---|---|---|
| HOUSATONIC RIVER. | a narrow river curving between dense brushy banks · caption set in capitals and small capitals; a strip of adhesive tape on the verso shows through the lower left margin below the plate | Leaf 3 | |
| SUMMER ON THE HOUSATONIC. | still water reflecting trees that overhang both banks · caption set in capitals and small capitals | Leaf 5 | |
| BALANCE ROCK. | an enormous boulder poised on a low ledge, a seated man at right · caption set in capitals and small capitals | Leaf 7 | |
| HOUSATONIC RIVER, FROM NEWELL ST. BRIDGE. | a massive leafy tree above a river bend · caption set in capitals and small capitals; the plate is mounted turned ninety degrees, so the caption runs vertically up the right margin of the scan | Leaf 9 | |
| BERKSHIRE COUNTY SAVINGS BANK BUILDING. | a tall stone commercial block on a street corner, lettered signs across its ground floor · caption set in capitals and small capitals; the plate is mounted turned ninety degrees, so the caption runs vertically up the right margin of the scan | Leaf 11 | |
| LOOKING NORTH FROM SNAKE HILL. | a single large elm on a hillside above a broad valley, distant hills and a rail fence · caption set in capitals and small capitals | Leaf 13 | |
| MAPLEWOOD HOTEL, PITTSFIELD. | a long white verandaed hotel behind a lawn and tall shade trees, a bicycle at right · caption set in capitals and small capitals | Leaf 15 | |
| LOOKING TOWARDS GREYLOCK, FROM MILTON'S. | an open mown meadow below a wooded ridge and distant mountains under heavy clouds · caption set in capitals and small capitals; the apostrophe is printed as a typographic right single quote | Leaf 17 | |
| LATE OCTOBER ON THE HOUSATONIC. | bare trees mirrored in still river water · caption set in capitals and small capitals; the final period is very faint on the page, reading uncertain | Leaf 19 | |
| “H. W. BISHOP, 3RD,” MEMORIAL TRAINING SCHOOL FOR NURSES. | a large brick institutional building with gabled and turreted roof, elms and a utility pole in front | Leaf 21 | |
| EAST STREET, LOOKING WEST. | a wide unpaved street receding between rows of tall elms · brown adhesive/tape stain across the lower margin of the mount, well below the caption | Leaf 23 | |
| THE LONGFELLOW HOUSE. RESIDENCE OF MRS. PLUNKETT. | a mansard-roofed mansion on a lawn behind one enormous spreading elm · plate is printed upright (portrait) and the leaf is scanned sideways; the caption runs down the right edge and the image must be rotated to read it | Leaf 25 | |
| CAIRNLOE HALL. RESIDENCE OF W. A. WHITTLESEY. | a long low shingled house with striped awnings behind scattered trees and a curving drive | Leaf 27 | |
| HOLMESDALE. RESIDENCE OF MRS. WILLIAM PALLOCK. | a broad sloping lawn with a light-colored house set among trees on a rise · the final mark after Pallock is printed as a period but ink spread makes it resemble a comma - reading uncertain; brown adhesive stain in the lower margin | Leaf 29 | |
| THE HOMESTEAD. RESIDENCE OF H. W. BISHOP. | a broad clapboard mansion with porches, framed by huge trees above a clipped hedge | Leaf 31 | |
| A ROAD IN BERKSHIRE. | a shaded dirt road beside a wooden watering trough and a steep bank of brush · plate is printed upright (portrait) and the leaf is scanned sideways; the caption runs down the right edge and the image must be rotated to read it | Leaf 33 | |
| IRVING HOUSE, DALTON. | a long white house with a wide two-story veranda, elms across the front lawn | Leaf 35 | |
| RESIDENCE OF MRS. J. B. CRANE. | an ornate bracketed house beside a curving drive with flower beds and a large agave | Leaf 37 | |
| RESIDENCE OF MRS. MARSHALL CRANE. | a gabled clapboard house with veranda, porte-cochere and potted palms under tall trees | Leaf 39 | |
| THE WILLOWS. RESIDENCE OF ZENAS CRANE, DALTON. | a large gabled stone-and-shingle house with porches, an arched carriage porch and a glass conservatory on a lawn | Leaf 41 | |
| WAHCONAH FALLS, DALTON. | a waterfall spilling over layered rock ledges below wooded banks and a rail fence · plate is mounted sideways (rotated 90 degrees) and the caption is set vertically along the right edge of the leaf | Leaf 43 | |
| CURTIS HOTEL, LENOX. | a white two-story hotel veranda with tall columns under big shade trees, people and a horse on the walk | Leaf 45 | |
| TRINITY CHURCH, LENOX. | a stone church with a corner bell tower joined to a shingled and stone parish building beside a dirt road | Leaf 47 | |
| MAIN STREET, LENOX. | a broad tree-shaded village street with carriages standing under a clump of elms | Leaf 49 | |
| EDGECOMBE. RESIDENCE OF MISS FURNISS. | a large shingled house with deep verandas, dormers and gables set back on a lawn among trees | Leaf 51 | |
| COLDBROOKE. RESIDENCE OF JOHN S. BARNES. | an ivy-covered shingled and half-timbered mansion above a lawn set with potted plants and small conifers · caption spells the house name COLDBROOKE, with a final e | Coldbrooke | Leaf 53 |
| WYNDHURST. RESIDENCE OF JOHN SLOANE. | a long hillside mansion with a tall battlemented stone tower, gables and awnings above a sloping lawn | Wyndhurst | Leaf 55 |
| ELM COURT. RESIDENCE OF W. D. SLOANE. | a long low shingled country house with many gables seen across a very wide open lawn | Elm Court | Leaf 57 |
| A STREET IN LENOX. | a four-horse coach with passengers on a curving road beside a bank of large shade trees | Leaf 59 | |
| SHADOWBROOK. RESIDENCE OF ANSON PHELPS STOKES. | a large gabled house on a wooded hilltop above open pasture | Shadow Brook | Leaf 61 |
| ERSKINE PARK. RESIDENCE OF GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE. | a towered mansion behind young trees on a broad lawn | Erskine Park | Leaf 63 |
| LAKE MAHKEENAC—STOCKBRIDGE BOWL. | a long lake and hills seen from a high mown field · em dash between the two halves of the caption; spelling is MAHKEENAC at high magnification, not MARKEENAC | Leaf 65 | |
| STOCKBRIDGE BOWL, FROM WEST SIDE. | a lake below a rounded wooded hill under cloud | Leaf 67 | |
| LAUREL LAKE. | a distant lake and mountain framed by heavy foliage · caption is faint and low in contrast; read at 6x | Leaf 69 | |
| STOCKBRIDGE, FROM THE HILL. | a fountain on a lawn above a village and mountains | Leaf 71 | |
| MAIN STREET, STOCKBRIDGE. | an unpaved street under tall arching elms · upright portrait plate; the scan is rotated 90 degrees, so the caption runs vertically down the right edge of the image file | Leaf 73 | |
| ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, STOCKBRIDGE. | a stone church with arched porch and a tall monument · apostrophe in PAUL'S is printed as a typographic right quote | Leaf 75 |
George Blatchford, Central Berkshire Illustrated: Pittsfield, Lenox, Dalton, Stockbridge (Pittsfield, 1890). Boston College copy, digitized by the Internet Archive. Detroit Publishing Company, between 1900 and 1915. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. No known restrictions on publication. Public domain: published in 1890, and the scan carries no restriction. The Internet Archive copy was contributed by Boston College through the Boston Library Consortium. Page images are re-encoded for the web at their full scanned size; nothing is retouched, and the foxing, the tape repairs and the accession stamps are left where they fall. Captions are transcribed from the plates by eye, in the book’s spellings and punctuation; the plates set them in capitals and small capitals, and they are given here in capitals. Where a reading was not certain it says so. The descriptions in the second column are written from the photographs and are not the book’s words.