250th Celebration, Flower Garden Tours, and Apple Capital Cookbook

250th Celebration

The Colrain Historical Society invites you to a celebration of our country with free ice cream and birthday cake on Sunday, July 5 at 2 PM at the Museum located at 8 Main Road in Colrain. There will be patriotic music.The Trout Quartet, founded as a jazz ensemble, plays a wide mix of traditional and new music. For the 250th anniversary celebration of our nation's independence, the group will perform classic marches and patriotic music, and early and modern jazz tunes and dance music. Instrumentation includes wind instruments, flutes, percussion, horns, and keyboards, including a Hammond XB-3 organ. The Trout Quartet will help get us celebrating! Join us and find out the origin of the group's name. 

Flower Garden Tours

The Colrain Historical Society is sponsoring 2 days of flower garden tours in Colrain July 11 and 12. Tickets can be purchased at Pine Hill Orchard after June 30 and include the self guided map to all 8 of the locations. Event is 10- 4 PM and includes 2 locations to buy plants both pollinator and perennials. There will be 2 mini lectures in 2 gardens ,one on The Whys of Using Pollinator Plants and the other on Challenges When Starting a Hobby Greenhouse. Lunch can be purchased at Pine Hill or Catamount Country Store (Saturday only). The cost of the tour is $20.00 and all proceeds benefit the Historical Society’s continued work. If you have questions please call 413-624-8800.

Rose blossoms in Colrain in late June.

Apple Capital Cookbook

Hot off the presses and 20 years in the making, the Apple Capital Cookbook: 250 Years of Colrain Apple Recipes and Stories is now available for sale at Pine Hill Orchards and Catamount Country Store in Colrain and at Nancy Dole Books in Shelburne Falls. 

At the turn of the 20th century Colrain was the apple capital of Massachusetts. The Colrain Historical Society has collected scores of apple recipes, including desserts, main courses, beverages and baked goods, from early times to the present, along with some apple art by local artists. But it’s not just a cookbook. We’ve added letters, news clippings, and brief accounts of local apple lore, even apple poems by local authors. It’ll make a great gift for cooks and history buffs.

Program: Colrain Resolves of 1774

In recognition of the 250th national celebration, the Colrain Historical Society will present a program about the Colrain Resolves of 1774, which anticipated the Declaration of Independence by two years. The presentation will include showing of a short film dramatizing the event by Irish filmmakers. 

The program is at 7:30 pm on Thursday, June 11. It will follow the June meeting at 7 in the Stacy Barn behind the Pitt House at 8 Main Road in Colrain. 

 Both are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Photo: screenshot of a copy of an address titled The early settlers of Colrain, Mass.; or, Some account of ye early settlement of "Boston township no. 2, alias Colrain." by McClellan, Charles H., 1885. There are no known copies of the original Resolves. This is the earliest account of the event that exists.

Colrain Garden Tour Fundraiser

Save the dates:

July 11 &12, 2026

Colrain Garden Tour

Fundraiser for the Colrain Historical Society

There will be 8 gardens in Colrain to tour with a self guided map which you will get with your ticket. Tickets will be sold at Pine Hill starting at the end of June. There will be a large perennial plant sale and 2 scheduled mini lectures during the days. Artists will be painting in some of the gardens. Watch for more details in the July Colrain Clarion. Questions call 413-624-8800.

Photo: flowers behind a short stonewall in Colrain, early June, 2026.

Colrain Historical Society archives photos

Above is a stock certificate for the Griswoldville Manufacturing Co., sold to Edward Hollister, Sarah Hollister’s grandfather, in 1922. It is signed by Lorenzo Griswold, President of the company and son of founder Joseph Griswold. Joseph’s photo is on the stock certificate.

Below is a photo of Lorenzo Griswold’s home on Main Road in Griswoldville, now gone, where only two river-stone pillars mark the entrance to what is now a parking lot. We don’t know when this house was demolished. Please contact us if you have any information about the date.