GB Main Street

Main Street in Great Barrington MA, shown here about 1880 in a photograph from Great Barrington Historical Society, has grown from a muddy footpath in the mid-18th century to the heavily traveled, multi-lane road of today. Over the first two centuries of its existence, its condition provoked criticism and calls for improvement as traffic over it increased.

In 1882 it was termed “picturesque,” but the visual impression belied the facts. Elms, fast-growing and statuesque, had been planted as a monoculture a century before, and were dying. The roadbed was dirt, patched with gravel—dusty in summer and muddy in winter. Frugal Yankees that they were, residents resisted costly repairs until 1890 when a loaded lumber wagon sank into a hole on Main Street in front of Town Hall.

In 1895 the Commonwealth cited Great Barrington’s Main Street as dirty and dangerous and finally in 1898 all projections into the sidewalks were removed. In 1899 hitching posts were taken out and in 1904 the road was widened and paved.

Still some were unhappy. The 1909 Advisory Committee Report kvetched: “Within the last five years … we have expended for paving Main Street … over $60,000 per mile, and (the paved street) costs much more to keep in repair than does a good macadam, cinder or gravel road.”

How they would have blanched at last year’s Public Works budget proposal of $195,000 for roads and bridges.