A Spring Greeting, 1902

This whimsical spring greeting card was fashioned with real pussy willows in 1902 - back when pussy willows bloomed in April.

We think the artist, K.E.B., was Katherine Ellen Burke Bardwell, because this card is among a stash of Bardwell papers in the Colrain Historical Society’s extensive collection. Born in 1878 and married to William Bardwell, she is buried in Arms Cemetery in Shelburne Falls.

There have been Bardwells in Colrain since the late 1700s, some of them prominent.

Elias Bardwell, from A History of Colrain, Massachusetts by Lois McClellan Patrie, Genealogy section, page 12.

Elias Bardwell, an early settler in southeast Colrain, was the son of Gideon Bardwell, Sr. of Montague. Katherine Ellen Burke Bardwell’s husband, William Allen Bardwell, was a great great grandson of Gideon  Bardwell, Sr., but descended through a line of Shelburne Bardwells. Elias’ brother Gideon Bardwell, Jr. (William’s great grandfather) was an early Shelburne settler.

Historical Notes 2024

The Spring 2024 edition of Historical Notes, the newsletter of the Colrain Historical Society, will be mailed soon.

Click on the photos of the pages below to view a larger image.

Memorial Hall

If you grew up in Colrain before, say, the 1980s, chances are you graduated proudly from eighth grade across from the Post Office in Memorial Hall. And maybe you learned to square dance there. For most of the 20th century, Memorial Hall was the social center of Colrain. The Grange met in meeting rooms upstairs and held well-attended suppers. It was home to the local posts of the American Legion and the VFW. Nationally-known entertainers, local minstrel shows and entertainments with local musicians drew audiences there from around Franklin County and southern Vermont.

The Women’s Relief Corps, founded in 1886 as auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic, raised funds with suppers, dances, bake sales and quilt auctions to build Veteran’s Memorial Hall to honor the 198 men of Colrain who fought in the Civil War. Completed in 1895 for $6,000, the structure included an “audience hall” on the first floor with a large stage, and dressing rooms in the basement. Upstairs, the GAR held their meetings in the “post room,” and ladies gathered by the fireplace in the “parlor” near the kitchen.

By 2011, when the town celebrated its 250th anniversary, Memorial Hall was empty and abandoned. Efforts by the town to sell the building failed, and the structure was demolished in 2013 at a cost of about $60,000.

(The site is now the home of the less attractive but useful "Hub" for our municipal broadband network.)

What’s Up With the Pitt House?

Have you wondered…

What’s up with the Pitt House? The white farmhouse to the left of the library is becoming the Museum of Colrain History. The transformation began in 2020, when the town turned the property over to the Colrain Historical Society. As a result the buildings on the property required new Certificates of Occupancy in order to be open to the public, requiring significant improvements to the Pitt House especially. Soon you’ll see our new sign!

We have already completed the invisible stuff: rebuilt part of the rear foundation and removed knob-and-tube wiring, along with some plaster and paint repair. Up next: a handicap-accessible bathroom and insulation to reduce our carbon footprint ---and our oil bill. There’s more, but when we’re done, we’ll have a museum refocused on Colrain history, its people, farms and industry. Our legal name remains Colrain Historical Society, Simultaneously, Sarah Hollister, Dave Allen and volunteers are organizing our extensive collection of Colrain artifacts, documents and photographs into a digital inventory, making these things more accessible.

Meanwhile, we’re busy planning a town-wide garden tour and plant sale in July, another new "Colrain and the Hill Towns on Canvas" art show in September and in October an invitation-only Halloween House Tour. We’re lining up programs on a “Historic Griswoldville Design;” an apple history of Colrain, beginning with Colrain’s Johnny Appleseed; “Murder on Catamount”, and more. 

 

Watch the Clarion, the Recorder, your mailbox, and your email for details. And join us on this journey.