Great Barrington is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

Berkshire County, Massachusetts Berkshire County (pronounced ) is a county on the western edge of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,026. Its largest city and traditional county seat is Pittsfield. The county was founded ...

, United States. It is part of the

Pittsfield, Massachusetts Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfield� ...

Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally incorporated as a city or tow ...

. The population was 7,172 at the 2020 census. Both a summer resort and home to

Ski Butternut Ski Butternut, also known as Butternut Basin, is a ski resort in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, located on Warner Mountain in The Berkshires. Channing and Jane Murdock took control of the area in 1963, naming the area Butternut Basin after th ...

, a ski resort, Great Barrington includes the villages of Van Deusenville and Housatonic.

History

1676–1995

The

Mahican The Mohican ( or , alternate spelling: Mahican) are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe that historically spoke an Algonquian language. As part of the Eastern Algonquian family of tribes, they are related to the neighboring Lenape, w ...

Indians called the area ''Mahaiwe'', meaning "the place downstream". It lay on the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

Path, which connected Fort Orange near

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York Cit ...

, with Springfield and Massachusetts Bay. The first recorded account of Europeans in the area happened in August 1676, during

King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...

. Major John Talcott and his troops chased a group of 200 Mahican Natives west from Westfield, eventually overtaking them at the Housatonic River in what is now Great Barrington. According to reports at the time, Talcott's troops killed twenty-five Indians and imprisoned another twenty. Today, a plaque for John Talcott marks the spot where the massacre is believed to have happened. Civil War Monument, Great Barrington, Massachusetts

Civil War Monument, Great Barrington, Massachusetts

On April 25, 1724, Captain John Ashley of Westfield, Massachusetts, bought on behalf of himself and a committee of the

Massachusetts General Court The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ...

the land that became the towns of Great Barrington,

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

, Egremont, Alford,

Mount Washington Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. The mountain is notorious for its erratic weather. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934 ...

, and Boston Corner for £460, three barrels of "sider," and thirty quarts of rum from 21 Native American

sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Al ...

s headed by Conkepot Poneyote. The

Konkapot River The Konkapot River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 river in southwestern Massachusetts and northern Connecticut. It is a tributary of the Housatonic R ...

in southwestern Massachusetts is named after him. The village was first settled by colonists in 1726 and from 1742 to 1761 was the north parish of Sheffield. In 1761, it was officially incorporated as Great Barrington, named after the village of Great Barrington in Gloucestershire, England. In the summer of 1774, 1,500 men shut down the Berkshire County Court in response to British oppression. In the winter of 1776,

Henry Knox Henry Knox (July 25, 1750 – October 25, 1806), a Founding Father of the United States, was a senior general of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, serving as chief of artillery in most of Washington's campaigns. Following th ...

passed through Great Barrington while transporting the cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to the

Siege of Boston The siege of Boston (April 19, 1775 – March 17, 1776) was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War. New England militiamen prevented the movement by land of the British Army, which was garrisoned in what was then the peninsular town ...

. Due to his time in the area, he established an agricultural interest in the area of Great Barrington. With the arrival of the railroad in the late 19th century, Great Barrington developed as a

Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Wes ...

resort community for those seeking relief from the heat and pollution of cities. Wealthy families built grand homes called Berkshire Cottages here, as others would in Lenox and Stockbridge. Among the earliest estates was one built by New York City banker, industrialist and art patron David Leavitt, who built an elaborate estate, and was soon followed by those of his sons nearby. Leavitt was instrumental in the development of the local Housatonic Railroad, serving as its president. Later estates included Searles Castle, commissioned in 1888 by the widow of Mark Hopkins together with her second husband, Edward Francis Searles, and "Brookside", built for William Hall Walker. In 1895, Colonel William L. Brown, part owner of the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ...

'', presented Great Barrington with a statue of a newsboy, now a landmark on the western edge of town.

World's first alternating current/transformer system

In November 1885 electrical engineer William Stanley, Jr., a sometime Great Barrington resident working for

George Westinghouse George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age ...

, began installing a demonstration

transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...

based

alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time in contrast to direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in whic ...

lighting system. Stanley felt alternating current was an improvement over the

direct current Direct current (DC) is one-directional flow of electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through semiconductors, insulators, or ev ...

system being used by

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

. Stanley was trying to get Westinghouse to adopt it. Stanley had developed a series transformer he thought would make alternating current practical. He built his components at the "Old Rubber Factory" south of Cottage Street and installed a Westinghouse steam engine powering a 500 volt Siemens generator. Stringing the power lines from tree to tree down the street, in March 1886 Stanley powered the system up and was able to expand it to the point where it could light 23 businesses along Main Street with very little power loss over . Using the new Stanley transformers, at each location, the system's 500 volts were stepped down to 100 volts which was used to power incandescent lamps. This was the world's first practical demonstration of an alternating current with transformers system. It was the basis of the alternating current systems Westinghouse would begin installing later that year.

Alice's Restaurant

Arlo Guthrie's song " Alice's Restaurant," which runs for minutes, is based on true-life events of the mid-20th century in Great Barrington and the adjoining towns of Stockbridge and

Lee Lee may refer to: Name Given name * Lee (given name), a given name in English Surname * Chinese surnames romanized as Li or Lee: ** Li (surname 李) or Lee (Hanzi ), a common Chinese surname ** Li (surname 利) or Lee (Hanzi ), a Chinese ...

. The Old Trinity Church, which was the home of Ray and Alice Brock at the time of these incidents, is now owned by Guthrie, and is at 4 Van Deusenville Road in Great Barrington.

Recent history

The town was the site of an

F4 tornado The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is determ ...

around 7:00 pm on Memorial Day, May 29, 1995. The tornado killed three people and caused damage in the area. On July 24, 2009, Great Barrington was named an Appalachian Trail Community by application and acceptance by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. On June 1, 2010, a new fire station was opened for the Great Barrington Fire Department, located on Route 7. The new fire station replaced the old one, on Castle Street. It had deteriorated and was too small for the growing needs of the fire department. The new $9.1 million facility was planned as a center for community events such as elections. It serves as the hub for emergency operations in southern Berkshire County. The town celebrated its 250th anniversary with a large parade on July 10, 2011. Other events celebrating the 250th anniversary were held throughout the year as well. The "" was launched in 2011, involving major improvements along Main Street between Saint James Place and Cottage Street. The plan elements include new pavement, new sidewalks, sewer and utility improvements, and the removal of the large

pear tree Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the family Rosaceae, bearing the po ...

s that span Main Street, to be replaced with a much wider array of trees of varying sizes and growth habits. The project had finished its design phase as of 2012, and construction was to be completed in 2016.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of th ...

, the town has an area of , of which is land and , or 2.09%, is water. Great Barrington is bordered by West Stockbridge, Stockbridge and

to the north, Tyringham to the northeast, Monterey to the east, New Marlborough to the southeast,

to the south, Egremont to the southwest, and Alford to the northwest. The town is south of

Pittsfield Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfield ...

, west of Springfield, west of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, and north-northeast of New York City. Great Barrington is in the valley of the

Housatonic River The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United S ...

. The Williams River, Green River and several brooks also flow through the valley into the Housatonic. To the east of the river, several mountains of

the Berkshires The Berkshires () are a highland geologic region located in the western parts of Massachusetts and northwest Connecticut. The term "Berkshires" is normally used by locals in reference to the portion of the Vermont-based Green Mountains that ex ...

rise, including East Mountain (site of the

resort (also known as Butternut Basin) and a state forest), Beartown Mountain (and the majority of

Beartown State Forest Beartown State Forest is a publicly owned forest with recreational features located in the New England town, towns of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Great Barrington, Monterey, Massachusetts, Monterey, Lee, Massachusetts, Lee, and Tyringham ...

) and

Monument Mountain Monument Mountain may refer to several summits in the United States, including: * Monument Mountain (Berkshire County, Massachusetts) **Monument Mountain (reservation), an open space preserve *Monument Mountain, an underground mountain located in ...

. The Appalachian Trail crosses through East Mountain State Forest in the southeast corner of town. The southwest corner of town is the site of several country clubs and a fairgrounds. U.S. Route 7 passes through the center of town, and was once part of

New England Interstate Route 4 , , , , , The New England road marking system was a regional system of marked numbered routes in the six-state region of New England in the United States. The routes were marked by a yellow rectangular sign with black numbers and border. ...

(also known as the New York-Berkshire- Burlington Way).

Massachusetts Route 23 Route 23 is a west–east route in the western Massachusetts counties of Berkshire and Hampden. The entire route is . Most of the road, approximately , follows the Knox Trail, the historic route of General Henry Knox took to bring cannon fr ...

passes from west to east through town, combining with

Massachusetts Route 41 Route 41 is a extension of Connecticut Route 41 into Massachusetts. It begins at the Connecticut state line in Sheffield and ends at U.S. Route 20 (US 20) in Pittsfield. Route 41 was the original alignment for New England Interstate Route 4 sout ...

and U.S. Route 7 in the western part of town and Massachusetts Route 183 in the eastern part of town, which also follows part of the path of Route 7 northward from Route 23 before splitting towards the village of Housatonic. Great Barrington is approximately south of Exit 2 of

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...

(the Massachusetts Turnpike), the nearest interstate highway.

Climate

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 7,527 people, 3,008 households, and 1,825 families residing in the town. By population, the town ranks fifth out of the 32 cities and towns in Berkshire County, and 202nd out of 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts. The population density was 166.6 people per square mile (64.3/km²), ranking it eighth in the county and 268th in the Commonwealth. There were 3,352 housing units at an average density of 74.2 per square mile (28.6/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 94.74%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

, 2.09%

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.16% Native American, 1.25% Asian, 0.03%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

, 0.70% from other races, and 1.04% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

or Latino people of any race were 2.07% of the population. 17% were of Irish descent, 12% Italian, 11%

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, 10%

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

and 9% Polish. There were 3,008 households, of which 27.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.8% were married couples living together, 11.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.3% were non-families. 32.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.28 and the average family size was 2.89. In the town, the population was spread out, with 22.6% under the age of 18, 9.0% from 18 to 24, 23.5% from 25 to 44, 26.2% from 45 to 64, and 18.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.8 males. The town's median household income was $95,490, and the median family income was $103,135. Males had a median income of $68,163 versus $49,474 for females. The town's per capita income was $42,655. About 2.4% of families and 5.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.6% of those under age 18 and 2.5% of those age 65 or over.

Economy

Great Barrington is the location of the

resort. The Berkshire Humane Society operates animal welfare services and pet adoption facilities in the town.

Arts and culture

Sites of interest

Bard College at Simon's Rock Bard College at Simon's Rock (more commonly known as Simon's Rock) is a private residential liberal arts college in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. It is a unit of Bard College, which is located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The school ...

* First Congregational Church of Great Barrington * Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center *

* Searles Castle * W.E.B. Du Bois Boyhood Homesite

Government

Great Barrington employs the open town meeting form of government, and is led by a board of selectmen and a town manager. Great Barrington has its own public services, including police, fire and public works departments. The town has two libraries, with the main branch, Mason Library, at 231 Main Street in Great Barrington, and a branch library, Ramsdell Library, at 1087 Main Street in the village of Housatonic, both of which are part of the regional library network. The town is home to Southern Berkshire District Court, as well as Fairview Hospital, the largest hospital in the southern end of the county (based on the number of beds). On the state level, Great Barrington is represented in the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

by the Fourth Berkshire district, which covers southern Berkshire County, as well as the westernmost towns in Hampden County. In the Massachusetts Senate, the town is represented by the Berkshire, Hampshire and Franklin district, which includes all of Berkshire County and western Hampshire and Franklin counties. The town is patrolled by the Great Barrington Police Department which is a 24/7/365 service. On the national level, Great Barrington is represented in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

as part of Massachusetts's 1st congressional district. Democrat Richard Neal of Springfield has represented the district since 2012. Great Barrington has a paid by call Fire Department, The Great Barrington Fire Department (GBFD), consists of about 40 members and five pumpers, one tower ladder, two rescue vehicles, and one brush truck. Most members are trained to the

First responder A first responder is a person with specialized training who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance or incident resolution at the scene of an emergency, such as an accident, disaster, medical emergency, structure fire, crime, or ...

level; some are trained to the EMT-Basic level. The Fire Department responds to about 600 calls per year, which vary but are mainly fire alarm activations and medical emergencies. Great Barrington's Emergency Medical Services are covered by Southern Berkshire Volunteer Ambulance Squad Inc. (SBVAS), operated from the grounds of Fairview Hospital. The service provides 24/7/365 paramedic level service to the towns of Great Barrington, Housatonic, Alford, Egremont,

, Ashley Falls, Monterey, and

. SBVAS is the primary paramedic intercept service for ambulances going into Fairview, including New Marlborough, Sandisfield, and

Otis Otis may refer to: Arts and entertainment Characters * Otis (Superman), in the films ''Superman'' and ''Superman II'' and related DC Comics media ** Otis Graves, in the TV series ''Supergirl'' * Otis (''The Walking Dead''), in the Image Comics ...

. The squad consists of a mix of full-time EMTs, paramedics, and volunteer EMTs. The squad responds to 3,000 to 5,000 calls a year.

Local currency

Great Barrington offers the use of its own local currency, called BerkShare notes. There are about 844,000 BerkShare notes in circulation, worth about $801,800 at the exchange rate of one BerkShare to 95 U.S. cents, according to program organizers. The paper money is available in denominations of one, five, ten, twenty, and fifty. Proponents say the currency gets residents to shop at local stores. Local areas may have their own currencies as long as they do not resemble the United States dollar and are in paper only.

Great Barrington Declaration

Great Barrington plays host to the American Institute for Economic Research. AIER was founded in 1933 as a non-profit scientific and educational organization. Originally at MIT, it relocated to the southern shore of Great Barrington's Long Pond in 1946. In October 2020 the Institute held a meeting of epidemiologists, economists and journalists to discuss government responses to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. The result was the

Great Barrington Declaration The Great Barrington Declaration was an open letter published in October 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. It claimed harmful COVID-19 lockdowns could be avoided via the fringe notion of "focused protection", by which t ...

, signed at the Institute's headquarters on October 4, 2020, and released to the public the following day, which advocated an alternative, risk-based approach to the pandemic involving "focused protection" of those most at risk and seeking to avoid or minimize the societal harm of lockdowns.

Education

Great Barrington is the largest town in the Berkshire Hills Regional School District, which includes the towns of Stockbridge and West Stockbridge, and the villages of Housatonic, Glendale and Interlaken. All three school levels are in Great Barrington. Muddy Brook Regional Elementary School offers pre-kindergarten through fourth grade classes and is off Route 7 in the northern part of town. W.E.B Du Bois Regional Middle School offers grades five through eight. Monument Mountain Regional High School (MMRHS) opened in 1968, consolidating the former

Searles High School Searles High School, now Methuen City Hall, is a historic former school building at 41 Pleasant Street in Methuen, Massachusetts, and an excellent example of English Renaissance Revival architecture. It was designed by Henry Vaughan, a favorite ...

in Great Barrington and Williams High School in Stockbridge, and serves the high school students of the district. The town is home to several private schools, including the Rudolf Steiner School, the Great Barrington Waldorf High School, and the John Dewey Academy. Great Barrington is home to

, which was the first-ever early college, and remains the only accredited four-year early college program in the country. Also here is the South County Center of the

Berkshire Community College Berkshire Community College is a public community college in Berkshire County, Massachusetts with its primary campus in Pittsfield. It also has a satellite campus in Great Barrington and classroom spaces in the city of Pittsfield. Established i ...

. The nearest state university is

Westfield State University Westfield State University (Westfield State) is a public university in Westfield, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1839 by Horace Mann as the first public co-educational college in America without barrier to race, gender, or economic class. ...

Media

Two radio stations are located in Great Barrington: * WSBS 860 kHz *

WBCR-LP WBCR-LP is a low power FM radio station with office and studio located in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, broadcasting on the 97.7 FM frequency. The organization's legal name is "Berkshire Community Radio Alliance," and is also known as "Berksh ...

97.7 MHz (local variety)

Infrastructure

Transportation

US Route 7 serves as the Main Street in Great Barrington. The town is located about 7 miles (11 kilometers) south of

I-90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, an ...

and the Massachusetts Turnpike, the nearest

Interstate Highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. T ...

Ground

Great Barrington is served by the

Berkshire Regional Transit Authority Berkshire Regional Transit Authority is a bus transportation system serving the City of Pittsfield and Greater Berkshire County, Massachusetts. It provides year-round bus service with connections to Amtrak at the Joseph Scelsi Intermodal Transp ...

, which offers bus transportation throughout Berkshire County. Peter Pan Bus Lines and

Greyhound Lines Greyhound Lines, Inc. (commonly known as simply Greyhound) operates the largest intercity bus service in North America, including Greyhound Mexico. It also operates charter bus services, Amtrak Thruway services, commuter bus services, and ...

have stops in Great Barrington for long-range bus transportation. The town lies along the Housatonic Railroad line, which roughly follows Route 7 and the river through southern New England.

Air

Walter J. Koladza Airport Walter J. Koladza Airport, , also known as the Great Barrington Airport, is a privately owned airport in Great Barrington, Massachusetts open to the public. It has a single 2,579 ft runway.

is in Great Barrington, and features a full service FBO for

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

aircraft.

Notable people

* Karen Allen, actress known for ''

Raiders of the Lost Ark ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. It stars Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ro ...

'' *

Jim Bouton James Alan Bouton (; March 8, 1939 – July 10, 2019) was an American professional baseball player. Bouton played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a pitcher for the New York Yankees, Seattle Pilots, Houston Astros, and Atlanta Braves between 196 ...

, major league pitcher * Phyllis Curtin, classical soprano *

W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up i ...

, academic, scholar, activist, journalist, sociologist *

Michel Gill Michel Gill (born April 16, 1960), also known as Michael Gill, is an American actor best known for playing President Garrett Walker in the Netflix series '' House of Cards'' and Gideon Goddard on ''Mr. Robot''. Early life Gill is a first gener ...

, actor known for '' House of Cards'' * Cynthia Roberts Gorton, writer *

Thomas Ingersoll Thomas Ingersoll (1749–1812) was an early settler in Upper Canada, later Ontario. He is best known as the father of Laura Secord, who warned the British of an impending American attack on Upper Canada during the War of 1812. He was born in West ...

, founder of Ingersoll, Ontario; Laura Secord's father *

Anson Jones Anson Jones (January 20, 1798 – January 09, 1858) was a doctor, businessman, member of Congress, and the fourth and last President of the Republic of Texas. Early life Jones was born on January 20, 1798, in Great Barrington, Massachu ...

, doctor, businessperson,

member of Congress A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

, and last

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

of the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Me ...

* Pauline Kael, film critic (

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

) *

Hamish Linklater Hamish Linklater (born July 7, 1976) is an American actor and playwright. He is known for playing Matthew Kimble in ''The New Adventures of Old Christine'', Andrew Keanelly in ''The Crazy Ones'', and Clark Debussy in '' Legion''. He is the son of ...

, actor * Dorinda Medley, notable for role on The Real Housewives of New York City * Fantastic Negrito, Grammy-winning blues musician *

Chris Noth Christopher David Noth ( ; born November 13, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for his television roles as NYPD Detective Mike Logan on ''Law & Order'' (1990–95), Big on ''Sex and the City'' (1998–2004), and Peter Florrick on ''The ...

, actor notable for roles in the TV shows '' Sex and the City'', '' Law and Order'' and '' The Good Wife'' * Franklin Pope, electrical engineer and inventor * Shorty Rogers, jazz trumpeter and one of the principal creators of

West Coast jazz West Coast jazz refers to styles of jazz that developed in Los Angeles and San Francisco during the 1950s. West Coast jazz is often seen as a subgenre of cool jazz, which consisted of a calmer style than bebop or hard bop. The music relied re ...

* John Schroeder, golfer * Laura Secord, warned the British of an impending American attack on Canada * Mark H. Sibley, U.S. congressman

Sister cities

Great Barrington has the following sister cities: * Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada *

Fada N'gourma Fada N'gourma, also written Fada-Ngourma or Noungu, is a city and an important market town in eastern Burkina Faso, lying east of Ouagadougou, in the Gourmantché area. It is the capital of the East region and of Gourma province. It is known fo ...

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana t ...

References

History of Great Barrington, Massachusetts

External links

Town of Great Barrington official website
* {{authority control Towns in Berkshire County, Massachusetts 1761 establishments in Massachusetts Towns in Massachusetts