Rediscover North Adams
Old factory towns can be a real eyesore or … they can be turned into beautiful bustling towns with contemporary art, beautiful scenery and a lively dining scene at their core.
North Adams, home to the esteemed MASS MoCA, is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Housed in a restored 19th-century factory campus, MASS MoCA is the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the country. It is open year-round with full schedule of live events, changing exhibitions and Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing Retrospective.
The repurposed industrial mill complex features large-scale installations and works by modern artists. It currently has 34 individual exhibitions on view in its 250,000 square feet of open space.
MASS MoCA embraces all forms of art: music, sculpture, dance, film, painting, photography, theater and boundary-crossing works of art. Much of the work is created onsite, made during extended fabrication and rehearsal residencies that bring some of the world’s most innovative artists to North Adams year-round.
This center for creativity found its origin in the hustle and bustle of the Industrial Revolution. North Adams was first settled in 1745, just at the dawn of mass production. By 1860 Oliver Arnold Company was riding the crest of this new form of industry and had established its headquarters in downtown North Adams.
Equipped with the latest equipment for printing cloth, it prospered when it got government contracts to supply fabric for the Union Army. Over the next the next four decades, Arnold Print Works became one of the world's leading manufacturers of printed textiles, employing some 3,200 workers by 1905. Falling cloth prices and the lingering effects of the Great Depression forced the company to close its Marshall Street operation in 1942.
The factory site continued as Sprague Electric Company. Again working with the U.S. government during World War II, designing and manufacturing crucial components of advanced weapons systems. After the war it provided launch systems for NASA's Gemini missions but competition from abroad led to declining sales and, in 1985, the company closed operations on Marshall Street. Its closure devastated the local economy.
It did not take long to find a new use for the sprawling complex. Mayor John Barrett III learned of the desire of Williams College Museum of Art’s Thomas Krens to find a space to exhibit large art works that would not fit in conventional spaces. Barrett suggested the former factory building and the concept of MASS MoCA began to take shape.
Since it opened, MASS MoCA has been part of a larger economic transformation in the region. North Adams has become home to restaurants, contemporary art galleries and cultural organizations. As an added benefit, abandoned factories and mills have been rehabilitated as lofts for artists in which to live and work.
It can take more than a day to fully appreciate what MASS MoCA has to offer and visitors will find no dearth of places to stay or engaging places to eat. Notable among them is The Porches Inn which consists of seven renovated Victorian-era buildings that originally provided housing for the area’s mill workers.
Other hostelries of note include Tourists, a hotel and riverside retreat set on the banks of the Hoosic River; Hotel Downtown, a 90-room independent hotel in the city center; the Inn on East Main Street, located in a renovated 1881 Victorian home; and the Blackinton Manor Bed and Breakfast, located in an elegant 1832 Georgian style home.
Some of the most popular restaurants in North Adams include PUBLIC eat+drink; Grazie, Freight Yard Restaurant & Pub, Renee’s and the Trail House Kitchen and Bar.
So lovers or art will always find something to do in the transformed cit but there are other options for entertainment as well. Leaf-peeping season is a perfect time to visit the city and visitors in October might want to plan their trip to coincide with the city’s Fall Festival. Slated this year for Thursday, October 2nd, through Sunday, October 5th, the festival includes a dog costume contest, a children’s parade and festival, a Fall Foliage 5K, the return of the Mill Tand a large Fall Foliage Parade.
Can’t make the festival? There’s still plenty to do. Set in the valley created by the Hoosic River, North Adams is home to the Natural Bridge State Park with the only natural white marble bridge in North America, formed by glacial melt. The park also offers woodland walks with views of a dam made of white marble and a picturesque old marble quarry.
The marble bridge has long been a popular attraction for hikers, including author Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote of it in his An American Noteboo. Further opportunity for outdoor recreation can be found at the Mount Greylock State Reservation, the northern end of which reaches into the city, ending at 2,952 feet above sea level on Mount Williams. The Appalachian Trail also passes through the western part of the city, crossing the summit of Mount Williams.
Fall brings to fruition the growing season and the region around North Adams offers many opportunities to source the goodness of nature. Jaeschke’s Orchard is found at 23 Gould Road in Adams, a third-generation family-owned farm that has been growing apples at the base of Mr. Greylock since 1881. Relax at a picnic table and enjoy the beautiful orchard, the mountain view, and offerings from the farm store.
The Berkshire Cider Project, founded by wife and husband team Kat Hand and Matt Brogan, has a tasting room in the beautiful Greylock WORKS facility on State Road in North Adams and the North Adams Farmers Market is held every Saturday morning through October 25th, 9 AM to 1 PM on Main Street.