Springside Park is a recreational city park on the north side of
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. Pittsfieldâ ...
. At it is the city's largest park. Much of the park is wooded, providing for passive recreational opportunities such as hiking. The southwestern section of the park, nearest to North Street, is developed, with ballfields, a bath house, pond, and Springside House, an Italianate mansion whose early construction dates to c. 1856. Some of the parklands are also used for the Hebert
Arboretum
An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...
. Through the 1960s the City of Pittsfield operated a ski rope tow and provided ski lessons at the park. The park was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2008.
History
In the early 19th century, the area that is now Springside Park was farmland, much of which belonged to the Strong family. In 1808, Asahel Strong sold water rights to springs on land that may now be in the park to the Pittsfield Water Works Company. Sometime in the late 1840s or early 1850s, Abraham Burbank established a gentleman's farm
In the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, a gentleman farmer is a landowner who has a farm (gentleman's farm) as part of his estate and who farms mainly for pleasure rather than for profit or sustenance.
The Collins English Diction ...
on land purchased from a Strong descendent. A portion of Burbank's land, including the house, was sold in the 1850s to a private boarding school operated by Charles Abbott. Around this time, Burbank apparently began construction on Elmhurst, the building that is now called Springside House. It was further enlarged in the 1870s by John Davol, a businessman who purchased Burbank's farm in 1872. It was acquired by Clarence Stephens in 1904, and became part of Springside Park in 1938.[
The formation of the park was spearheaded by former mayor Kelton Miller, who began purchasing land near the Burbank/Davol/Stephens estate in 1908. He and his wife Eva donated land south and east of the estate to the city in 1910, and continued to make land donations afterward. The Stephens estate was acquired by Miller's sons in 1938 and donated to the city, and the city also acquired from the William Alton Pierce family a 39 acre "cow pasture" on the north side of the estate the same year, making the park over in size. Development of the park's infrastructure began in the years following this acquisition. The park was reduced in size when the nearby school was built, but the city compensated by making additional land acquisitions, eventually bringing the park to its present size.][
]
See also
*
References
External links
Hebert Arboretum
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Berkshire County, Massachusetts
Parks in Berkshire County, Massachusetts
Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Pittsfield, Massachusetts