North Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its population was 13,708 as of the 2010 census. Best known as the home of the largest contemporary art museum in the United States, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams has in recent years become a center for tourism, culture and recreation.
The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum in a converted Arnold Print Works factory building complex located in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing arts in the United States.
The Granite Railway was one of the first railroads in the United States, built to carry granite from Quincy, Massachusetts, to a dock on the Neponset River in Milton. From there boats carried the heavy stone to Charlestown for construction of the Bunker Hill Monument. The Granite Railway is popularly termed the first commercial railroad in the United States, as it was the first chartered railway to evolve into a common carrier without an intervening closure. The last active quarry closed in 1963; in 1985, the Metropolitan District Commission purchased 22 acres (8.9 ha), including Granite Railway Quarry, as the Quincy Quarries Reservation.
The Cheney Brothers Historic District was a center of the silk industry in Manchester, Connecticut in the late 19th and early 20th century. The 175-acre (71 ha) district in includes over 275 mill buildings, workers houses, churches, schools and Cheney family mansions. These structures represent the well-preserved company town of the Cheney Brothers silk manufacturing company, the first America-based silk company to properly raise and process silkworms, and to develop the difficult techniques of spinning and weaving silk. The area was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978.
The Crane and Company Old Stone Mill Rag Room is one of the oldest surviving buildings of Crane & Co., one of the oldest papermaking businesses in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. It is located in southwestern Dalton, on a site where paper has been manufactured since the early 19th century. The building, originally used for processing rags, has housed the Crane Museum of Papermaking since 1930, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1983.
The Parkhill Mill is an historic mill complex at 1 Oak Hill Road in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Built between 1885 and 1915, it was one of three mill complexes of the Parkill Company, one of the city's largest employers of the period. The mill complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. The complex has been restored and is used by a variety of public and private businesses, and as residential space.
The Berkshire Mill No. 1 is a historic mill complex on Hoosac Street in the center of Adams, Massachusetts. Built in 1895 by the locally prominent Plunkett family, it is an important surviving reminder of the town's industrial textile past. Now converted into mixed residential and commercial use, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The Blackinton Historic District is a historic district in the western part of North Adams, Massachusetts, roughly along Massachusetts Avenue between Ashton and Doanes Avenues and Church Hill and the Boston & Maine Railroad. The district, which encompasses North Adams' best preserved mill village, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
The Cranesville Historic District is a historic district in Dalton, Massachusetts, centered on the business and residential properties associated with the papermaker Crane and Company. The district, centered on Main Street west of the town civic center, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
The Johnson Manufacturing Company was a historic mill complex at 65 Brown Street in North Adams, Massachusetts. Developed beginning in 1872 and enlarged through the early 20th century, it was at the time of its 1985 listing on the National Register of Historic Places a well-preserved example of late 19th century industrial architecture, used for the production of textiles for many years. The complex was demolished in 2007.
The Norad Mill is a historic mill located at 60 Roberts Drive, between Massachusetts Avenue and Route 2, in Braytonville, North Adams, Massachusetts. It is the oldest mill complex in North Adams that has not had its exterior significantly altered, making visible much of its Italianate styling.
Phillips Woolen Mill is a historic mill at 71 Grove Street in Adams, Massachusetts. With a construction history dating to the mid-19th century, it is a good example of small textile mill complex of that period, containing elements that date from the 1920s potentially back as far as the 1830s. The mill complex was added to the National Historic Register in 1982.
The Renfrew Mill No. 2 was a historic mill complex at 217 Columbia Street in Adams, Massachusetts. Most of its buildings were built between 1867 and 1878, and were brick buildings with Italianate styling. They were built by the Renfrew Manufacturing Company, a textile manufacturer, to replace an earlier complex further down Columbia Street that had been demolished. The property was acquired by the Arnold Print Works in 1928. The mill was the town's largest employer for much of the second half of the 19th century.
The North Canal Historic District of Lawrence, Massachusetts, encompasses the historic industrial heart of the city. It is centered on the North Canal and the Great Stone Dam, which provided the waterpower for its many mill complexes. The canal was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, while the district was first listed in 1984, and then expanded slightly in 2009.
The Central Mills Historic District encompasses a historic mill complex on the Quinebaug River in central Southbridge, Massachusetts. Located at the corner of Foster and North Streets, the site consists of three brick buildings, the oldest of which has portions dating to 1837. Despite being extensively rebuilt in the early 20th century, the complex has an appearance that is more typical of 19th century mills.
The Saco–Pettee Machine Shops is a historic factory complex at 156 Oak Street in the Newton Upper Falls area of Newton, Massachusetts. Although the area has an industrial history dating to the early 19th century, the oldest buildings in this complex, consisting of about thirteen brick buildings, were built in 1892. The property, a major economic force in the development of Newton Upper Falls, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. It was home to Clark's N.A., the North American home base to Clark's Shoes, makers of fine footwear, until they relocated to Waltham Ma. in October 2016.
The Houghton Mansion is the former home of Albert Charles Houghton and his family in North Adams, Massachusetts. It was later used as a Masonic temple, but is now empty.
The H. W. Clark Biscuit Company is a former industrial complex at 179-191 Ashland Street in North Adams, Massachusetts. The bakery that Herbert W. Clark built at this site began at a facility on Liberty Street, and expanded into a shoe factory building that Clark had operated with a partner. When the Liberty Street plant was destroyed by fire in 1913, Clark placed its employees on a second shift in the shoe factory building, and had the building now called the Icing Building constructed. This building was built in a style reminiscent of mills built in North Adams fifty years earlier, and is still sometimes thought to be an older building.
The Head of the River Historic District is a historic district encompassing a village area at the head of navigation of the Acushnet River, which separates Acushnet and New Bedford, Massachusetts. The village is centered at the junction of Tarkin Hill Road, River Road, and Mill Road in New Bedford, and Main Street in Acushnet. The area went through two significant periods of development: the first was in the late 18th and early 19th century, and the second was in the early 20th century. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
Braytonville is a former factory village, one mile west of downtown North Adams that grew around a stone mill, constructed in 1832. The area is now part of the West End of North Adams and includes Brayton Elementary, Brayton Park and houses to the south along West Main Street.
