Lee, Massachusetts 01238

The town of Lee, with an interchange on the Massachusetts Turnpike, serves as the gateway to the Berkshires for many visitors. Lee is the location of working mills and quarries, a vibrant downtown business district, the country's tallest wooden church steeple and Joe's Diner, recognised by many to be the locale of Norman Rockwell's famous painting, "The Runaway."

The Town of Lee lies in the valley of the Housatonic River between the Taconic Range and the southernmost extent of the Green Mountains. It was first settled in 1760, relying on agriculture and lumbering, and grew quickly enough to be incorporated by 1777. The town took its name from General Charles Lee, second in command to George Washington.

Lee, MA Hotels and Inns

"quiet and unostentatious ...?"

The following is excerpted from a 1939 Berkshire guide book produced by the Federal Writer's Project.

"Lee, compared to Berkshire's orchid towns next door, Stockbridge and Lenox, is quiet and unostentatious. There isn't anything stylish about the town; the streets are narrow, the trim houses modest, and the people occupied with the everyday job of making a living in the paper mills and the marble quarry."

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Lee, MA facts:

  • Town Hall: 32 Main St.
  • Phone: (413) 243-2100
  • Population: 5,985
  • Settled by: Cape Codders & CT Yankees
  • Settled/Incorporated: 1760/1777
  • Elevation: 888'
  • Demographic data: state.ma.us/cc/lee.htm