Berkshire Links

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.

Cheshire Lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024

By Dave Read, Lenox, MA, Sept. 22, 2024 outing – With friends Kelley and Eddie, I splashed and paddled around lower Cheshire Lake, the section between Berkshire village and the causeway that runs between Rt. 8 and Cheshire/Lanesborough Rd. It was somewhat of a trip down cinder-strewn memory alley, since I lived next to the lake for a few wild and crazy years of the first Raygun Admin.!

It was the first day of fall, and even though our annual leaf-borne extravaganza of color remains to be seen, what came into view from the vantage point of a canoe was as subtly beautiful as what soon will explode all around us. (click an image to slide through them all)

Towns & cities in the Berkshires

Whether called simply Berkshire, as Nathaniel Hawthorne did, or the Berkshires, as most of us mortals do, the land on the western edge of Massachusetts, extending from the southern edge of Vermont to the northern edge of Connecticut, the former* county of Berkshire, contains 30 towns, two cities and many smaller, less formal entities, such as Glendale, Housatonic, and Lenox Dale.

* On July 1, 2000, Berkshire county government ceased to exist; here’s the story.

Berkshire city and town homepages

The pages linked here are rudimentary homepages with image, historical sketch, and basic data for each city and town of the Berkshires.

Adams, MA

Adams-McKinley-StatueThe town of Adams, located 15 miles north of Pittsfield on Rt. 8, is noted as the birthplace in 1820 of Susan B. Anthony, a descendent of the Quakers who settled the area in the 18th century. Adams is situated along the Hoosac River, with the Hoosac Range to the east and the summit of the state’s highest peak, Mt. Greylock, immediately east of town. A statue of President William McKinley is located at McKinley Square at the intersection of Columbia & Maple Streets, Adams, MA. The base is surrounded with three scenes of his actions, in the Civil War, in Congress, and as President, with the fourth side bearing a quote from the Pan-American Exposition: “Let us remember that our interest is in concord not conflict, and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not of war.”

Quaker Meeting House

Adams, Mass. Quaker MeetinghouseThe Quaker Meeting House, built in 1782, is open to visitors on Sundays between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Adams celebrates the legacy of Susan B. Anthony with a summer festival; the Adams Agricultural Fair is held every August and the annual Greylock Ramble attracts as many as 1,000 hikers to the mountain on Columbus Day. (Photo credit)

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Adams, MA once known as the East Hoosuk Plantation

First surveyed in 1739 and known as the East Hoosuk Plantation, Adams was incorporated in 1778 and included present-day North Adams until 1878. A National Register Historic District of 70 Victorian homes recalls the days when textile industry drove Adams’ economy, as does a statue of President William McKinley whose policies benefited the domestic textile industry and who was a friend of the Plunkett brothers, founders of the Berkshire Cotton Mfg. Co..