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

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

Hager’s Farm Market, 1232 Mohawk Trail ( Route 2), Shelburne, MA

Nancy Dole Books, 20 State Street, Shelburne Falls, 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.

Program: Colrain, Apple Capital!

How the apple got to Colrain, and what we did with it, will be the topic of the Colrain Historical Society’s October program. West County Cider’s Field Maloney will tell the story of the apple in Colrain from early settlement to the present. Colrain’s history has been rich in apples and cider and orchards for several centuries now. 

The program on Thursday, October 10, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. will follow the business meeting and election of CHS Officers at 7 in the Stacy Barn behind the Pitt House. 

Refreshments will be served, including cider. 

The program is free and open to the public.

Photo above: Terry and Judith Maloney on Catamount with fresh glasses of their West County Cider, 2007.

Article from the Brattleboro New England Farmer in November 1910 stating the opinion of one Colrain apple grower that “the best apples in the world are grown in Colrain.”

Colrain and Hilltowns on Canvas - 5th Annual Show!

September 21 and 22, 2024, 10am to 4pm 

Cost of admission is $10.00. 

 The Colrain Historical Society will sponsor the fifth annual fundraising art show at the Shelburne Buckland Community Center, 53 Main St. in Shelburne Falls. 

As well as Colrain themed art, paintings showing our neighboring hilltowns will round out the display. Regionally famous painters will include George Gardner Symons, Steve Maniatty, Robert Strong Woodward, W. Lester Stevens and A. Hale Johnson among others. 

There will be over 50 paintings by 40 different artists. Most are works on loan from private collections and homes in the hilltowns. The artists are contemporary or deceased, famous and not so famous, as well as self taught. It is intentionally a non-curated show. The mixed media, skill of the artist and their prospective is part of the magic experienced when walking through the rows of art. Many of the paintings show a period of time long gone and people find themselves reminiscing about their family's past. 

We will also have prints and reprints of items in the Historical Society’s collection and old maps of our area for sale. 

Please join us again this year for a rare opportunity to see this bit of visual history.

The photo above shows a landscape painting by George Gardner Symons.

[Source: September 2024 issue of the Colrain Clarion.]

Program: Timber! Logging, Lumbering & Millwork - Stories & Reflections

Thursday Sept. 12th, 7:30pm.

A group of local woodsmen and colleagues, including our very own Matt Slowinski, Lee Denison, David Nims, Kenny Noyes, and Harry Hollister (voicing Carroll Stowe), will share their stories and reflections on logging, lumbering and mill work in Colrain for a program of the Colrain Historical Society, Thursday, September 12, in the Stacy Barn at the Museum of Colrain History at 8 Main Road. 

The program at 7:30 p.m. will follow a business meeting at 7. 

The public is invited to this free program. Refreshments (Bill Cole’s not-yet-famous lemon bars and "ants on a log") will be served afterward. 

The undated photo above, courtesy of Lee Denison, shows a portable, steam-powered sawmill and workers: Carroll Denison, far right; Gilbert Barton, second from left.

[Source: September 2024 issue of the Colrain Clarion and email from CHS.]

Sunday, August 25 - Free ice cream cones at the Museum of Colrain History's first Ice Cream Social!

The Colrain Historical Society & Museum of Colrain History Invites you to its FREE ICE CREAM SOCIAL ! 

 Sunday, August 25th, 2 to 4 o’clock (1:00-3:00 Music & 2:00-4:00 Ice cream) at the Museum of Colrain History (fka The Pitt House) at 8 Main Rd, Colrain MA.

 Homemade ice cream from Blueberry Haus in Guilford VT! 

   Chocolate 

   Vanilla 

   Cookie Dough 

   Maple 

   Black Raspberry 

   Coffee 

Come at 1 o'clock for a performance by Greg Reil!! Greg is a Southampton musician-singer who will be providing music—Country​, Classic Rock and Pop—from 1 to 3 o'clock.​

Musician Greg Reil

This Weekend: Garden Tour, Plant Sale, and Tool Raffle!

 The Colrain Historical Society is sponsoring two flower garden tour days this year. The self-guided tour of nine gardens in Colrain is July 20 and 21 from 10am to 4pm. There will also be a plant sale and a raffle of high quality gardening tools.

Colrain Historical Society Facebook post with poster for the weekend event.

Colrain Historical Society Facebook post about the plant sale.

Colrain Historical Society Facebook post about the raffle for 4 gardening tools.

Garden Tour - July 20th & 21st

Advertising flyer for Garden Tour & Plant Sale

The Colrain Historical Society is sponsoring two flower garden tour days this year. The self-guided tour of nine gardens in Colrain is July 20 and 21 from 10am to 4pm.

You will see plant collectors gardens, perennials, pollinator habitats, unusual annuals, well established trees and shrubs in the various landscapes of Colrain. 

Tickets with tour map can be purchased at Pine Hill Orchards or Catamount Country Store for $20 per person.

Rare specialty plants from a CT nursery, a large selection of daylilies, and native pollinator plants will be for sale as well. 

Grab and go lunches are available at Catamount Country Store on Saturday and Pine Hill on Saturday and Sunday. Bring a blanket and enjoy lunch in a garden of your choice!

Flower garden in a Colrain front yard.

[Source: July 2024 issue of the Colrain Clarion.]

Renewed Barns!

Photo by Maria Kingsley 

The barns at the Museum of Colrain History were recently stained a traditional barn red with white trim by a crew from the Franklin County House of Correction, who spent a little over a week on the job. 

In recent years the museum had been painted white so its a striking visual change - and looks wonderful with the new sign!

[Source: July 2024 issue of the Colrain Clarion.]

Program: A Murder on Catamount

Thursday, June 13th at 7:00 pm in the Stacy Barn, located at the Colrain Museum of History, 8 Main Road, Colrain.

Pownal Station circa 1875

On September 9, 1875 at the Pownal, Vermont train station, two fugitives slipped aboard a train among a crowd of firemen returning from a muster in North Adams. Their hasty plans to leave behind their problems — and the scene of a crime — are the subject of the Colrain Historical Society’s program on June 13. 

This forgotten story, researched and presented by the Catamount Hill Association’s historian, Prentice Crosier, will follow the Historical Society’s 7:00 o’clock business meeting at the Stacy Barn, 8 Main Road in Colrain Center. 

 The program is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Joseph Riley Farnsworth is buried in Colrain’s West Branch Cemetery. His distinctive zinc monument is easily found on the west side of the cemetery near Adamsville Road.

Program: Griswoldville, The Grand Plan

Thursday, May 9th at 7:30pm in the Stacy Barn, located at the Colrain Museum of History, 8 Main Road, Colrain

A photo from the report. 

The view is from High St. looking North toward St. John’s Church and Church St. on the right, and on the left is the canal, Main Road (Rt. 112), an apartment building, a house, and the covered bridge crossing the North River at the start of Adamsville Rd.

The May program at the Colrain Historical Society will be a photographic journey through the village as far North as the Willis Place block as it was in 1920. The Griswold Manufacturing Company commissioned a Boston firm to develop a plan to improve and expand life in the village. A book with black and white photos and the grand plan was presented to the company.

The plan outlined where to put athletic fields, tennis courts, swimming pool and lockers. It mentioned the locker area could be small as only men would be swimming- this was 1920! The pictures to be shown from the book are one of a kind and show the entire village with the ideas for improvements, including sidewalks, shrubs and tree planting. They suggest painting all the houses lovely pastel colors.

Of the multitude of suggestions in this plan not one thing happened. Years ago the book was pulled from the trash at the mill and eventually found its way to the Historical Society.

The program in the Stacy Barn, Thursday, May 9, at 7:30 p.m following the business meeting at 7pm is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

The report was prepared by a landscape architect from Boston named Bremer W. Pond.

Photocopy of the report cover

Photo of Bremer Whidden Pond

Biography of Bremer Whidden Pond

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.)