December 3 - Auction and Dinner

Come join us for the Home for the Holidays fundraising auction and dinner for Colrain's Griswold Memorial Library and Historical Society this Saturday, Dec 3 at the Colrain Community Church!

Start with the pork roast dinner by Sharon Call (reserve tickets at 624-8818) and the silent auction from 5-7 pm, then stay for the live auction starting at 7 pm.

With over 100 items, there's something for everyone -- local services, hand-crafted items from local artisans, antiques and collectibles, home baked goodies, and lots more! It promises to be a lively evening with auctioneer Doug Wilkins. Spread the word, and bring a friend. Thanks!

[UPDATE 4/3/2017] From the Spring 2017 Newsletter:

Home for the Holidays Update

Metal sculpture by
John Sendelbach
auctioned at
Home for the Holidays

It was a festive evening in early December and the Community Church was redolent with the aroma of roast pork and apple crisp. which nearly 90 diners enjoyed, casting their bids between courses for the 100-odd items on the tables of silent auction choices.

Co-sponsored by the Historical Society and Friends of the Griswold Memorial Library, the bi-annual benefit dinner and auction raised $1,994 for each. Doug Wilkins ably presided over the live auction of some 30 artifacts and services.

We are grateful to the 70 individuals and businesses who donated 134 items and services as well as cash donations to defray expenses. As always, we are especially grateful to Sharon Call, who single-handedly worked her magic in the kitchen.

Home for the Holidays Fundraising Dinner and Auction

Auction item: creative re-use of cast-offs which find new life as a stylish table lamp. One of a kind by Kevin French of Colrain.

The Colrain Historical Society joins the Friends of the Griswold Memorial Library in this bi-annual benefit dinner and auction.

Saturday, December 3, 2016

5:30-6:30 p.m.: Pork Dinner

7:00 p.m.: Auction

Colrain Community Church, 306 Main Road, Colrain

Sharon Call will preside over the kitchen, producing her delectable pork dinner, with squash, mashed potatoes, apple crisp and trimmings. Reservations for the dinner, which costs $12, can be made until December 1 by calling Joan McQuade at 413-624-3453.

During dinner, items for both silent and main auction may be viewed, and bids may be cast for silent auction items. Auctioneer Doug Wilkins will preside over the floor auction, beginning at 7 p.m.

Donations to both auctions are being sought now: antiques in good condition,vintage clothing, crafts by local artisans, paintings by local artists, goods and services from local providers. If you find something in the attic someone might treasure, contact Belden Merims, belden37@verizon.net, 624-3453, or Ellen Weeks, weeks@umass.edu, 624-5137. No electronics or plastic, please.

Come for the food, for the fun and surprises. And come to support these important institutions in our community.

Auction item: one of a kind piece made from found objects by John Sendelbach, Metal and Stone Arts in Shelburne Falls.

Auction item: antique inkwell

 Also to be auctioned are:
   Paintings and prints
   Crafted items by local artisans, including items by some of the Crafts of Colrain artists
   Catered dinner party for four by Tim Slowinski
   Certificates for local services
   Cherished antiques and collectibles
   Ever popular home-baked goods (including Robin Hartnett's famous pecan rolls)
   Other tasty edible, such as honey, maple syrup, and hard cider
   And lots more too numerous to mention!

HEADS UP… …

for the return of the bi-annual holiday dinner and Home for the Holidays Auction, which we will co-sponsor as a benefit for CHS and the Griswold Memorial Library on Saturday, December 3, 2016 at the Colrain Community Church.

We’re looking for donated items for the auction and for the silent auction: Grandma’s antique rocker, the Bennington crock in your attic, a flat of sticky buns, a delivered cord of dry wood, and of course that Rembrandt you don’t know what to do with.

If you’ve got something. or an idea, call Ellen Weeks at 624-5137 or email her at eweeks@umext.umass.edu or call Joan McQuade at 624-8818.

The raven statue pictured above was donated to the 2013 HFTH Auction by JH Sherburne's Serious Whimzy Gallery.

Trolley bus sightings in Colrain on October 15

The trolley bus tour was seen Saturday afternoon at two sites in Colrain that were stops on the Shelburne Falls & Colrain Street Railway route in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

Trolley bus tour departing the former site of the Hillside Park, a popular recreation destination in Shattucksville for riders of the Shelburne Falls & Colrain Street Railway. The park fell into disuse after the trolley stopped running in 1927, then was used as a gravel pit, then a town landfill, and currently as the town transfer station for trash and recyclables.

Description of Hillside Park in Lois Patrie's book, "A History of Colrain, Mass.," page 166. Click on the image to enlarge for easier reading.

Trolley bus tour arriving at a parking lot opposite the site of the former Griswold Manufacturing Co. in Griswoldville, currently Barnhardt Manufacturing Co. Griswold Manufacturing was one of the largest employers in the area. Raw materials and finished products were transported to and from the railway station in Shelburne Falls, and many workers commuted from Shelburne Falls via the Shelburne Falls & Colrain Street Railway.

2 Events - Trolley Talk and Bus Tour

Thurs. Oct. 13 – Talk – The Story of the Shelburne Falls & Colrain Street Railway

Opening in 1896 to carry passengers and freight, the Shelburne Falls & Colrain Street Railway changed lives and businesses in the two towns until the coming of the automobile bankrupted the line in 1927. Shirley Pelletier will tell the story at the next meeting of the Colrain Historical Society on Thursday, October 13.

Image credit: Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum screenshot.

Note the special location! The event will be held at the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum, 14 Depot Street in Shelburne Falls(*). The program begins at 7:30 p.m., following the annual business meeting at 7:00. From 6:30 to 7:30 attendees can ride the renovated No. 10 trolley. The program is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served.

(*) The SFTM has a GPS warning on their website and provides a link to correct directions. See http://www.sftm.org/contacts.shtml


Sat. Oct. 15 – Trolley Bus Tour – Ride along the Route of the SF&C

The Colrain Historical Society will take passengers on a trolley bus ride along the route of the former Shelburne Falls & Colrain Street Railway on Saturday, October 15, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. The ride will begin at the Trolley Museum in Shelburne Falls, following the old line to Colrain and back, with commentary describing what riders would have seen 120 years ago.

Map credit: Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum

Tickets to ride cost $10, which includes ice cream, recalling the time when Shelburne Falls residents took the trolley up to “Coleraine City” to enjoy ice cream at the Colrain Inn. There are seats for only 26, so early registration is advised. Call Belden Merims at 624-3453 to reserve seats. She must have your name, phone number and check or cash, no credit cards, no later than October 10.

Colrain, 1896: A Snapshot

“Colrain, 1896: A Snapshot” will be the topic of the next Colrain Historical Society program Thursday, September 8. With old photos, anecdotes and narrative, Belden Merims will describe life in the town before the coming of the Colrain-Shelburne Falls trolley that year. This program continues the series devoted to transportation in Colrain, from the earliest paths and roads to the trolley and how it changed Colrain.

Image source: A History of Colrain, Mass. by Lois McClellan Patrie. Illustration by Ursula Russell.

The event will be held in the Stacy Barn behind the Pitt House at 8 Main Road in Colrain. The program begins at 7:30 p.m., following a business meeting at 7:00. It’s free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For more information call Belden at 624-3453.

The Railroad through Shelburne Falls

When the Troy and Greenfield Railroad came to Shelburne Falls in 1867, lives and businesses in Colrain were forever changed. Colrain native and railroad historian Carl Byron will tell that story at a meeting of the Colrain Historical Society on Thursday, August 11. This presentation continues the series of 2016 programs looking at the history of transportation in Colrain, from the earliest days until the coming of the trolley in 1896.

Shelburne Falls station of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad, 1928.
Photo source: HoosacTunnel.net.

The program, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Stacy Barn behind the Pitt House at 8 Main Road in Colrain. It begins at 7:30 p.m., following a business meeting at 7:00.

A potluck picnic supper at 6:00 will precede the meeting. Those planning to attend the potluck should bring your own place settings, a main course, salad or dessert to share. Iced tea will be provided.

For more information call Belden at 624-3453.

Thursday, August 11, 2016
6:00 pm Potluck picnic supper
7:00 pm Business meeting
7:30 pm Program:  "The Railroad through Shelburne Falls"
Where: Stacy Barn behind the Pitt House at 8 Main Road in Colrain

Colrain's Inns and Taverns

Located near Colrain's meetinghouses, crossroads, and stagecoach routes, inns and taverns have flourished throughout the town’s history, providing patrons with news, drink, food and lodging. Colrain native Brad Brigham will offer a peek inside each of these vital, public houses at the next program of the Colrain Historical Society on Thursday, July 14.

The Colrain Hotel and its renowned host, "General" Orrin Gaines.
Photo and caption source: A History of Colrain, Mass. by Lois McClellan Patrie.

The event, which continues a season-long focus on transportation in Colrain, will be held in the Stacy Barn behind the Pitt House at 8 Main Road in Colrain. The program begins at 7:30 p.m., following a business meeting at 7:00. It’s free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For more information call Belden at 624-3453.

Thursday, July 14, 2016
7:00 pm Business meeting
7:30 pm Program:  "Colrain's Inns and Taverns"
Where: Stacy Barn behind the Pitt House at 8 Main Road in Colrain

Catamount Hill Hike Saturday, June 18

Catamount Hill Association will conduct a hike on Saturday, June 18, 2016,  to the monument and flagpole at the site on Catamount of the first flag-raising over an American schoolhouse.

Hike time and meeting location, as well as more information about the hike are posted on the Upcoming Events page on the Catamount Hill Association website.

Cheapside: Port of Call for Colrain Goods

Cheapside mural by artist Stephan G. Maniatty.
Image source and more information here.

In the late 18th Century and until the railroad came to the region, Cheapside, a village on the Deerfield River in Greenfield, was a bustling river port, busy with sailors, taverns, warehouses and the comings and goings of flat bottomed boats. Much of what was sold at the original Chandler’s Store in Colrain was hauled up from Cheapside by teamsters, as was cotton for Griswold’s mills.

Learn all about Cheapside and its relation to Colrain at the next meeting of the Colrain Historical Society on Thursday, June 9. The speaker will be Peter Miller, from the Greenfield Historical Society.

The event, which continues a season-long look at transportation in Colrain, will be held in the Stacy Barn behind the Pitt House at 8 Main Road in Colrain. The program begins at 7:30 p.m., following a business meeting at 7:00. It’s free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For more information call Belden at 624-3453.

Thursday, June 9, 2016
7:00 pm Business meeting
7:30 pm Program:  "Cheapside," presented by Peter Miller
Where: Stacy Barn behind the Pitt House at 8 Main Road in Colrain

Update 6/10/2016: photo of  Peter Miller speaking at the Colrain Historical Society on June 9, 2016.

Pathways, Roads, and Bridges

A town’s roads not only knit the community together and connect it to the outside world, they also reveal its deep layers of history. The evolution of Connecticut Valley’s pathways and roads, with a focus on Colrain itself, will be the topic of the Colrain Historical Society’s next program on Thursday, May 12. Speaker Eric Goldstein will use maps to show which early pathways became the highways that we travel today, and which ones have disappeared altogether.

The event, which continues a season-long look at transportation in Colrain, will be held in the Stacy Barn behind the Pitt House at 8 Main Road in Colrain. The program begins at 7:30 p.m., following a business meeting at 7:00. It’s free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For more information call Belden at 624-3453.

Thursday, May 12, 2016
7:00 pm Business meeting
7:30 pm Program:  "Pathways, Roads, and Bridges"
Where: Stacy Barn behind the Pitt House at 8 Main Road in Colrain

Map image source: "The Mohawk Trail Showing Old Roads and Other Points of Interest" by David L. Costello, copyright 1975. The book is in the Reference Collection of Colrain's Griswold Memorial Library and may be viewed during regular library hours.

Historical Notes 2016

The Spring 2016 edition of Historical Notes, the periodic newsletter of the Colrain Historical Society, was mailed in April. Click here for a PDF version (2.54 MB.)

 

 

 

In Memory

BASIL HOFFMAN

We mourn the passing in February of Basil Hoffman, 80, former Colrain Historical Society president and a member of the Board of Directors until 2015. As President Basil played a major role in the Arthur A. Smith Covered Bridge Project in 1979. He is remembered in Colrain for his sunny disposition and for his performance on the guitar with the popular dance band, the Hofftones, which included his wife and fellow CHS member, Barbara.

Basil T. Hoffman (1935 - 2016)

Obituary

SHELBURNE FALLS - Basil T. Hoffman, 80, of 1 Highland Village, Shelburne Falls, passed away in the early morning hours of Friday, February 26.
Basil was born to William and Ethel (Benson) Hoffman in Mt. Kisco, New York on March 15th, 1935. He moved to Colrain in 1942 where he lived with his mother and stepfather, Edwin Joy. On November 30, 1957 he married Barbara A. Mayberry. They lived and raised their children in the old school house on Adamsville Road in Colrain. In 2007 they moved to Highland Village.
Basil worked for 25 years at Lamson & Goodnow Manufacturing until his retirement in 1975. In the early 1960s he formed the popular dance band ""The Hofftones"" playing countless weddings and parties for over 25 years. In addition he performed with numerous other musicians throughout his lengthy musical career. Basil was active in Colrain town government serving as assessor for 13 years. He was a life member and former president of the Colrain Historical Society and served on the board of directors until 2015. He played a major role in the Arthur A. Smith Covered Bridge restoration project.
Basil had a passion for photography. He thought every occasion was worthy of a picture. Together he and Barbara enjoyed watching the Red Sox, trips to Hampton Beach, and attending live music events. His greatest love of all was spending time with his family.
Basil is sorely missed by his wife, Barbara; his daughter, Sharon Hoffman and her friend, Dave Montmeny; his son and daughter-in-law, Steven and Bonnie Hoffman and their son Stephen; his son Scott Hoffman and his partner, Kate Kearns. He also leaves a half-sister, Evelyn Kaczmark.
The family will receive friends at Smith-Kelleher Funeral Home in Shelburne Falls on Wednesday, March 2nd from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Private services will be held at West Branch Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Franklin County TRIAD, 160 Elm Street, Greenfield, MA 01301, OR to The Shelburne Senior Center, 7 Main Street, Shelburne Falls, MA 01370.

Home for the Holidays Auction

HEADS UP… …

for the return of the bi-annual holiday dinner and Home for the Holidays Auction, which we will co-sponsor as a benefit for CHS and the Griswold Memorial Library on Saturday, December 3, 2016 at the Colrain Community Church.

We’re looking for donated items for the auction and for the silent auction: Grandma’s antique rocker, the Bennington crock in your attic, a flat of sticky buns, a delivered cord of dry wood, and of course that Rembrandt you don’t know what to do with.

If you’ve got something. or an idea, call Ellen Weeks at 624-5137 or email her at eweeks@umext.umass.edu or call Joan McQuade at 624-8818.

The raven statue pictured above was donated to the 2013 HFTH Auction by JH Sherburne's Serious Whimzy Gallery.

2015 Donors

CHS wishes to thank those whose generosity in 2015 and since has helped to fund the work we do.

• Marybeth Chichester
• Diane O’Connell
• Nancy Dole
• Lorraine and Hale Johnson
• Allan and Kendra Daniel
• Sally and Alfred Alcorn
• Marion Stafford
• Robert and Betsy Sand
• Prentice Crosier
• Belden Merims
• Toni Manning
• Rebecca Tippens
• Phil and JoAnne Sherburne
• Deb Wheeler
• Cynthia Herbert
• Sue Samoriski
• Bill Dornbush/Janna Standish
• Liz Sonnenberg/Erica Wheeler
• David Nims
• Anne Yeomans

To become a donor send contributions to Colrain Historical Society, 8 Main Road, P.O. Box 45, Colrain, MA, 01340.

What We've Been Up To

It’s been a busy year at the Pitt House and in the out buildings.

For a couple of years we’d noticed sinking in that part of the barn that connects its two portions. Water coming off the mountain in back had weakened the foundation under that section. Ken Shearer and TK got under the floor and restored a firm foundation.

Over the winter our caretaker/tenant, Fred Burrington, has installed a new sheetrock ceiling to cover the deteriorating plaster in the Pitt House breakfast room. He has repaired cracks in the plaster walls and is prepared to paint the room in its original color.

Electrician James Slowinski installed a much-needed fan and ceiling light in the Stacy Barn, as well as outside lights on the Stacy and the main barn so that we won’t have to feel out way out of evening meetings in the dark. Since Fred had reinforced the ceiling in the Crocker Abbey, we were able to move a collection of doors and house shutters out of the barn attic and into the Abbey attic, freeing space in the barn for the storage of documents in cupboards removed from Memorial Hall.

The curatorial committee is nearing the end of inventorying those documents (it’s taken just two years so far) into conservation boxes so that they will be safe and more easily retrievable in future.

You may have noticed that neither the Pitt House nor the barns have been open to the public recently. The work on the foundation and on the breakfast room, as well as inventory work done in the dining room, have left both buildings in temporary disarray. We do hope to be open again by 2017. There will, however, be an exhibit open to the public in the front room of the barn the second Sunday afternoon in June, July and August.

....AND TO DO NEXT

After Ken Shearer and TK had lifted the south end of the connecting portion of the barn, it became apparent that the north end of that portion was now in need of a lift. That will be a priority for the coming season.

The back of the Pitt House is in need of paint. We hope to be able to get a crew from the Franklin County Jail to do that work for just the cost of paint and supplies.

And inventorying the collection continues.

(Article from Historical Notes 2016: Newsletter of the Colrain Historical Society, published April, 2016.)

Rise and Fall of Penn Station

In 2016 the Colrain Historical Society celebrates the 120^th anniversary of the Shelburne Falls and Colrain Street Railway with a season-long focus on transportation in Colrain’s history. But our first program on Thursday, April 14 is a tip of the (conductor’s) hat to another anniversary – 50 years of the National Historic Preservation Act.

Penn Station in 1911. Photo source: Wikimedia Commons.

For Thursday’s program we’ll show the PBS documentary film “The Rise and Fall of Penn Station,” which tells the story of building the magnificent terminal of the Pennsylvania Railroad in New York City in 1910. But just 53 years after the station’s opening, the building was demolished. The heartbreaking loss inspired the city to establish the Landmarks Preservation Commission, sparing Grand Central Terminal a similar fate. Larger than that, it sparked the modern preservationist movement, culminating with the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966.

For any town grappling with the fate of its remaining historic structures and character, this film serves as a great conversation-starter. It will be shown at 7:30 p.m. in the Stacy Barn behind the Pitt House at 8 Main Road in Colrain. The program, which follows a business meeting at 7:00, is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For more information call Belden at 624-3453.