It was when I was standing in the middle of the road with my camera that I suddenly felt an eerie sense of history. On the pavement in front of me lay a loose-leaf notebook open to an 8 x 10 photo of North Adams, dated circa 1890. It was identified as, "South from Houghton … [Read more...]

Carl Robare, my friend and constant companion at the Bean, worked in the Strong-Hewat woolen mill for a few years after World War II, before serving 30 years as a technician with the phone company. He likes to tell the story about the co-worker who had lots of hair all over his … [Read more...]

"I've never tried to block out the memories of the past, even though some are painful. I don't understand people who hide from their past. Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are now." -actress Sophia Loren Over the Christmas holidays, I learned to do … [Read more...]

It is the second Friday of the month, a time I always look forward to. About 9:45 a.m., I enter the First Baptist Church in North Adams through the side door on Eagle Street. I am greeted by Carolyn Leab, who is making coffee and setting out munchkins on the table in the basement … [Read more...]

Sarah Sandler was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1981, 55 years after R.C. Sprague founded the Sprague Electric Company in the same city. A communications major at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, she has been interning this summer in the development department at … [Read more...]

Jim Daunais was born in Adams 58 years ago, and has lived there most of his life. For a time, his mother worked in the Berkshire Mills. He remembers the noise she had to put up with. "One time, my sister and I went to pick her up, and I was parked near the door. The noise was … [Read more...]

On July 21, I celebrated the seventh anniversary of my first visit to North Adams. That was the Sunday that my wife and I drove up from Torrington, Connecticut, to look around and find out about a project called the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA), which we … [Read more...]

Last month’s annual Downtown Celebration was once again a lively display of community spirit and togetherness. For more than four hours, Main and Eagle Streets became the ultimate public space, a relatively sizeable area enclosed by tall, familiar buildings and the comforting … [Read more...]

A few years ago, I was headed toward the entrance to Mass MoCA when I passed two well-dressed women wearing the familiar museum stickers. They were apparently on their way out after visiting the galleries. One woman pointed to several of the buildings and exclaimed to her … [Read more...]

"That’s what I like about this town. I go out to feed the meter, and three people stop me to say hello." -Gillian Jones, at the Bean in North Adams (1998) A long time ago, I was sitting with my wife in a New Hampshire diner. We were strangers in town, but it was obvious that … [Read more...]

The first time I huffed and puffed up North Holden Street in North Adams, I looked at the retaining wall and the three nearly identical houses behind it and wondered if it would all tumble down at any moment, burying me in a mountain of rubble. Finally out of harm's way … [Read more...]

If you haven't read my article about "Porch Stories," please read it first by clicking this link INTERVIEW WITH MARTA RENZI (September 2006) The following is the edited text of a conversation I had with Ms. Marta Renzi, the creator and director of Porch Stories, and … [Read more...]

My projects always seem to start with a story from North Adams native Carl Robare, one of my best friends since I started visiting the city 11 years ago. It’s the one about the guy with the hairy chest. "Back in the early 1950s,” Carl says, “I used to work at the Strong-Hewat … [Read more...]

"On the drive up here, I was imagining what this place could be. I thought it would be a place that people would travel some distances to see. I'm just dreaming here. It's some years off, but it's nice to be in on the ground floor." -Artist and singer David Byrne, at the opening … [Read more...]

On Nov 2, 1927, the afternoon sky grew ominously dark as residents of River Street received the daily North Adams Transcript. Thirty-six hours later, over six inches of soaking rain had fallen, carrying a few tenement houses into the raging water. The Marshall Street bridge broke … [Read more...]

"As far as my Uncle Henry nailing his name in the floor, that sort of sounds like something he would do. He was a man with a great imagination. He always had a mischievous glint in his eyes. He always looked like Peck's Bad Boy. He would be smiling at you like he had a secret he … [Read more...]

It's almost nine-thirty. It has been storming on and off all evening, rip-roaring blasts of thunder shaking the thick walls of Mass MoCA's Hunter Center, while torrents of rain pelt the roof. A grainy black and white film is on the screen, showing disturbing views of apocalyptic … [Read more...]