2025 Calendars Now on Sale

Front cover of the 2025 CHS calendar

The Colrain Historical Society has captured 14 of the vivid paintings from the “Colrain and Hilltowns on Canvas” exhibition last Fall in a 2025 calendar which is now available for $15. The calendar will make a great holiday gift!

You may purchase it at 

Catamount Country Store, 113, Main Rd, Colrain, MA

or at

Pine Hill Orchards, 248 Greenfield, Rd, Colrain, MA.

The calendar size when open is 17” x 11”.

Back cover of the calendar

The artists, images, and locations are

Front cover, A. Hale Johnson, The Sled

January, Robert Emmett Owen, Shelburne Center

February, Robert Strong Woodward, A Winter’s Day, Buckland

March, Shepard Klar, Sugaring, Conway

April, Denis Bordeaux, Catamount Bobcat

May, Albert Maguire, The Lineup, Windswept Farm, Colrain

June, JoAnne Sherburne, Summerfield, the Dude Ranch, Colrain

July, Fred Burrington, Waiting to Smell Roses, Foundry Village, Colrain

August, Cynthia Herbert, Summer’s Day at Keldaby, Heath Rd, Colrain

September, David Brewster, Tumble In, Barber Hill, Colrain

October, W. Lester Stevens, Pumpkin Hollow, Conway

November, Joseph Baker, Martin Farm, West Leyden Rd, Colrain

December, Robert Steinem, Wild Raspberries, Colrain

End page, Ingrid Greenberger, Old Homestead, Ed Clark Rd, Colrain

Pile of calendars at Catamount Country Store

Copies of Industries and Occupations of Colrain are also available for sale for $20.

November 2024 Update and Membership Drive

Click on the photos below to enlarge and read. 

November, 2024

Dear Members and Friends, 

We hope you've seen the elegant sign--Museum of Colrain History-- on the barn, freshly painted barn-red last summer by a lively crew from the county jail. 

What you couldn't see was a bevy of volunteers cleaning the barn and house while another bevy worked to inventory and digitize thousands of items in the collection, which is the repository of the material history of Colrain. Someday it will be the basis for a virtual museum of Colrain history.

While we work to achieve a certificate of occupancy for the physical museum, we will continue to offer free programs such as the recent apple history of Colrain, drawn largely from our archival collection, as well as engaging fundraisers such as last summer's sprawling garden tour.

And as we organize a refreshed museum in the former Pitt House and barn, we want to hear from you what you'd like to see in a Colrain-focused museum. We invite you to enclose a note about that with your contribution in support for an invigorated Colrain Historical Society, its collection, restored museum and popular programs.

We also invite you to join the Helen Stacy Legacy Circle, along with the late Hale Johnson and others, by including CHS in your estate planning.

Please fill in the form on the back of this letter and send it in the enclosed envelope with your generous donation.

Thank you, 

CHS Board of Directors

Belden Merims, Bill Cole, Phil Sherburne, Joan McQuade, Debby Wheeler, Sarah Hollister, Casey Ryan, and Cynthia Herbert

- - - - - - 

I support the efforts of the Colrain Historical Society! 

**Non-member friends who contribute $50 or more will become life members. 

Name 

Address

Email

Phone 

Please accept my donation of ( ) $50 ( ) $100 ( ) $250 ( ) $500 Other: $

Please make check payable to The Colrain Historical Society. Thank you!

Note: The CHS is a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization, so all your donations are deductible to the extent of State and Federal tax regulations.

The Copeland Farm

In the undated photo above, Edgar Copeland stands at the foot of Van Nuys Road on what is now the Scranton farm. A Civil War veteran, the young Copeland worked on farms in southern Vermont before buying the house and 160 acres which were to become perhaps the largest apple orchard in Colrain, once the apple capital of Massachusetts. 

Around 1875, Edgar set out 300 apple trees and many peach trees covering some 15 acres of the farm. Later he planted another 400 trees, mostly Baldwins. He introduced the Macintosh apple to the area and raised prize-winning Holstein cows.

Below is the original Copeland farmhouse, built along with the barn about 1740. The women and girl in the photo are unidentified. The house was replaced in the early 1900s (1912 - see newspaper clipping below) with the house now occupied by Mark Scranton. One of the old barns was in use until 1975.

Above source: [November 2024 issue of the Colrain Clarion.]

The Brattleboro New England Farmer

Saturday, June 12, 1909, page 6.

Halloween Extravaganza!

Welcome to the Colrain Historical Society’s Halloween Extravaganza! A Walk Through the Ages of Antique and Vintage Halloween. It is a partially narrated tour through a house fully decorated for the holiday with hundreds of items on display from the 1900s to the present. 

Please join us to celebrate Halloween and support our ongoing fundraising efforts to get our museum up and running! 

Cost: $25.00 

Dates: October 25th – 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm and 26th & 27th -12:00 pm to 9:00 pm 

Location: Shelburne Falls address. Exact location will be on your ticket!

Where to buy your tickets: 

 Catamount Country Store, Main Rd, Colrain 

 Pine Hill Orchards, Greenfield Rd, Colrain 

 Mo’s Fudge Factory, State St., Shelburne Falls 

Limited tickets available at the door. Call ahead if you need a ticket at the door: 413-624-8800. Please try to buy ahead of time.

Light refreshments will be served. Three vendors will be selling holiday items.

This is intended to be a review of Halloween through the 20th century, its traditions and how it was celebrated. This is not intended for children under 12. It is not a haunted or spooky house event.

If you have any questions, please contact Debby Wheeler 413-624-8800 or Deborahjeanwheeler@gmail.com. 

No photos will be allowed. No large purses or bags (Please leave them in your car.) Park at the town garage on Sears St. and walk a short distance to the house. The house is not handicapped accessible; there are stairs.

Top image: a vintage Halloween postcard.

Bottom image: a Jack-o-lantern wax candle.