North Adams

Blackinton Mansion // 1865

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This mansion in North Adams, MA was built in 1865 for Sanford Blackinton. Blackinton was said to be the first millionaire in North Adams, and his mansion was the most elaborate home ever built in the city. His mill produced woolen goods during the Civil War including cloth for the Union forces. After the Civil War, many factory owners no longer lived amongst their workers, as they formerly had done, but instead built luxurious mansions in other neighborhoods, away from their factories. These large residences were designed in extravagant modern styles to impress the public and reflect the stature of their owners. European materials were even imported to grace these homes, such as the Italian marble fireplaces in the Blackinton Mansion.

Sanford Blackinton built his mansion in the hopes that it would become the ancestral home for his descendants. However, after the death of his widow (their four children died by the 1870s), the mansion was put up for sale in 1896, and was bought by North Adams’s first mayor, A.C. Houghton.
He in turn donated the mansion, along with $10,000 for renovations, to the city, to be used as a public library and as a meeting place for the local historical society. He requested that the building be known as the Andrew Jackson Houghton Memorial after his late brother. The home, designed by architect Marcus Fayette Cummings, is a high-style Second Empire mansion with a prominent tower, constructed of red brick with brownstone trim.

St. John’s Episcopal Church // 1868

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The St. John’s Episcopal Church in North Adams, MA was established in 1855 by Rev. William Tatlock and Stephen Higginson Tyng Jr. while both were studying at nearby Williams College. A church was built in 1858, but deteriorated quickly, and the congregation gathered funding to erect this large edifice. Architect Stephen C. Earle, a leading architect in Central and Western Massachusetts, designed the Gothic church constructed out of large stone blocks quarried nearby. The church continued to grow over the next decades, and it was added onto as the immigrant community boomed in town following North Adams’ industrial growth. In 1893, the adjoining Parish House was constructed of the same stone as the main church, also designed by Earle. In the 20th century, membership shrunk due to decreasing population, and in 2011, the parishes of St. John’s Episcopal Church in North Adams and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Adams merged to form the All Saints’ Episcopal Church.

North Adams Universalist Church // 1893

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Tucked away off Main Street in North Adams you’ll find this charming little church. The Universalists were organized in North Adams in 1842, restoring an existing church near the Hoosic River. The congregation chose a site for a new church in 1852, and erected a white wooden chapel. It is unclear if the church was outgrown or a fire destroyed it, but the Unitarian society voted to build this church for a cost of approximately $25,000 in 1892. Architect Henry Neill Wilson of Pittsfield drew the plans, and the firm of Porter and Harnam of North Adams constructed the church. Due to the declining population in town in the mid-20th century, the church struggled and was sold to a private owner. The building began to decay by the 1970s and was later sold in 1996 to Barbara and Eric Rudd to house artist Eric Rudd’s installation entitled “A Chapel for Humanity”. The building is currently used as the Berkshire Art Museum Annex.

New Kimbell Building // 1902

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Located on Main Street in North Adams, you’ll find this monstrous commercial block looking like it belongs in New York, not in Western MA. North Adams in the early 20th century was booming as an industrial center with a rapidly growing population. Due to this, business owners had the capital and clientele needed to erect large commercial buildings. A man named Jencks Kimbell owned a couple large parcels of land on Main Street and ran a livery stable there until his death in 1858. The business was ran by his sons until their death and the property was willed to their widows Clara and Lydia who saw the potential for the site to make them money. In 1902, the two widows erected this magnificent block on Main Street, with a stone facade. Built on top of a quicksand pit, it was the first building in North Adams to be built on steel pilings. I could find no information on the architect, but it is Eclectic to say the least! It has Romaneque arches, monumental pilasters with Corinthian capitals, and a Swan’s neck broken pediment at the parapet.

Wilkinson House // c.1895

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At the end of the 19th century, many homes built were a hybrid of architectural styles. The Wilkinson House on Church Street in North Adams, MA is one of these examples. The term Eclectic can often be used to describe the phenomena when many architects of the 19th and early 20th centuries designed buildings in a variety of styles according to the wishes of their clients, or their own, blending features and styles which in the past may have been reserved for a single style. This home exhibits features of the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles.

Penniman House // c.1885

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Edmund Burke Penniman (1841-1929) was born in North Adams, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Edmund B. Penniman. His father an established lawyer, and mother died, leaving the young boy with a sizable estate. Just before the Civil War broke out, he developed a mill, which had to shut down when the war began. After the war, the company had no orders to fill and they sold the property. Penniman became treasurer for the North Adams Manufacturing Company, and later served as President of the Hoosac Savings Bank. He and his family resided in this Stick style home until his wife’s death in 1909. The home features a brick ground floor and clapboards (now aluminum) above. The Victorian home has a rusticated arched entryway protected by a projecting porch with stickwork. A large corner tower gives the house a large street presence.

Mohawk Theater // 1938

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Local theaters once dominated the urban landscape, providing flashing neon lights and marquees on Main Street USA. After WWII, many downtowns saw populations move to the suburbs and through the advancement in technology, many of these historic movie houses were demolished. Large cineplexes with 10+ screens were built, and the death of the small movie theater coincided with the death of many Main Streets in the mid and late 20th century. Fast forward to today, we see many Main Streets thriving (before the COVID crisis) thanks to women and minority-owned businesses investing in their communities.

The Mohawk Theater in North Adams was built in 1938 and is an excellent example of Art Deco architecture in Western Massachusetts. Loews Cinemas hired the Boston architectural firm of Mowl & Rand to design the 1,200 seat theater which also featured a Native American motif at the lobby. The theater was sold in 1987 to a private investor, who opened the theater for occasional concerts and films, but efforts to maintain the Mohawk were short lived. In 1991, its doors were closed for good.

Church Street Tenements // 1872

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Industrial cities and towns all over New England drew in thousands of European immigrants looking for work. Due to the massive influx of workers and families, many towns and companies constructed tenement housing and other worker’s housing to provide living spaces close to factories and mills. This six-unit tenement house was built in 1872 and is a high-style Second Empire example of worker’s housing in North Adams. The use of brick, mansard roof, and window hoods was likely a concerted choice by the developers as they were located on a street lined by mill owners houses and the who’s who of North Adams.

Gallup House // 1894

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William A. Gallup was born October 28, 1851, in North Adams. He worked primarily for the Arnold Print Works beginning in 1870 before becoming a charter member, elected clerk, and director of the company. He went on to work for and own a few more mills in North Adams by the end of the 19th century. Gallup hired H. Neill Wilson, a Western MA based architect to design a mansion for his family on Church Street, near his father in-law and business partners (A.C. Houghton) house.

Hoosac Savings Bank // 1893

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Located in Downtown North Adams, this beautiful Romanesque Revival commercial block is one of the better designed buildings in the region. Designed by architect H. Neill Wilson of Pittsfield, the Romanesque headquarters with fine terra cotta decorations cost $60,000 to build. When built in 1893, the stone over the storefronts were carved to display the bank’s name. The two venerable institutions merged into the North Adams Hoosac Savings Bank in 1962. In 2013, the bank merged with MountainOne Bank.