Berkshire County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,026. Its largest city and traditional county seat is Pittsfield. The county was founded in 1761. The Berkshire Hills are centered on Berkshire County. Residents are known as Berkshirites. It exists today only as a historical geographic region, and has no county government, with the exception of the retirement board for former county workers, and certain offices such as the sheriff and registry of deeds.
Enfield is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, first settled by John and Robert Pease of Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region. The population was 42,141 at the 2020 census. It is bordered by Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, to the north, Somers to the east, East Windsor and Ellington to the south, and the Connecticut River to the west.
Hancock is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 757 at the 2020 census.
Tyringham is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 427 at the 2020 census.
Enfield is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,465 at the 2020 census. The town includes the villages of Enfield, Enfield Center, Upper Shaker Village, Lower Shaker Village, Lockehaven, and Montcalm.
The Berkshires are a highland region located in western Massachusetts and northwestern Connecticut in the United States. Generally, "Berkshires" may mean all of Berkshire County, Massachusetts and contiguous highlands of several immediately adjacent counties to the east. Highlands of northwest Connecticut may be seen as part of the Berkshires and sometimes called the Northwest Hills or Litchfield Hills. The segment of the Taconic Mountains in Massachusetts is often considered a part of the Berkshires, although they are geologically separate and are a comparatively narrow range along New York's eastern border.
Tyringham Cobble is a 206-acre (83 ha) open space reservation located in Tyringham, Massachusetts on 411 m (1,348 ft) Cobble Hill in The Berkshires. It is managed by The Trustees of Reservations, a non-profit conservation organization, and is notable for its scenic views over the rural landscape of Tyringham Valley from rocky ledges and open fields. The reservation consists of the hill and surrounding agricultural and pasture land. In 2008, part of the 2,175 mile (3,500 km) Appalachian Trail was routed over the summit ledges.
Hancock Shaker Village is a former Shaker commune in Hancock and Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It emerged in the towns of Hancock, Pittsfield, and Richmond in the 1780s, organized in 1790, and was active until 1960. It was the third of nineteen major Shaker villages established between 1774 and 1836 in New York, New England, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. From 1790 until 1893, Hancock was the seat of the Hancock Bishopric, which oversaw two additional Shaker communes in Tyringham, Massachusetts, and Enfield, Connecticut.
Harvard Shaker Village Historic District is a historic former Shaker community located roughly on Shaker Road, South Shaker Road, and Maple Lane in Harvard, Massachusetts. It was the second oldest Shaker settlement in Massachusetts and the third oldest in the United States.
Fernside, or the Vacation House for Working Girls, is a historic former resort hotel at 162 Mountain Road in Princeton, Massachusetts. It is a complex of three buildings: its main house, a barn that was converted into a playhouse, and a two-car garage. The core of the main house is a Federal style house built in 1835 by Benjamin Harrington. The house was converted for use as a summer hotel around 1870, and in 1890 it was acquired by the Working Girls' Vacation Society as a place to provide summer recreation for city working women. It is around this time that wings were added to the house, and the barn was converted to a playhouse. The property was used by the Society until it was sold in 1989. The facility is now owned by McLean Hospital, who used it as a drug treatment center.
Methodist Episcopal Society of Tyringham is a historic church at 128-130 Main Road in Tyringham, Massachusetts, and is presently the only church standing in the community. The property includes a Greek Revival church building built in 1844, and a parsonage house next door. Between 1844 and 1907, the church was also used for town meetings. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
Rock Ridge is a historic house at 48 Tyringham Road in Monterey, Massachusetts. Built in 1898, it is a well-preserved example of a turn-of-the-20th-century summer estate house. The Shingle style house was built in 1898 for Curtis Judd, an Illinois businessman who had grown up in the area. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
Shaker Farm is a historic farmstead on Dublin Road in Richmond, Massachusetts. The property is notable as the subject of a book by the Andrewses, The Fruits of the Shaker Tree of Life, in which they document the property's condition and restoration. The farmhouse was built c. 1795 by Daniel Hand of New Lebanon, New York, and exhibits a number of examples of Shaker craftsmanship. The Andrewses acquired the property in 1937, and devoted the rest of their lives to collecting, documenting, and promoting Shaker heritage. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. As of 1995, the property continues to be owned by Andrews descendants.
The Enfield Shakers Historic District encompasses some of the surviving remnants of a former Shaker community in Enfield, Connecticut. Founded in the 1780s, the Enfield Shaker community remained active until 1917. The surviving buildings of their once large community complexes are located in and around Taylor Road in northeastern Enfield, and were listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The listing included 15 contributing buildings and one contributing site.
Tyringham Cemetery is a historic cemetery section just outside the historic center of Tyringham, Massachusetts. The 3.67 acres (1.49 ha) property lies on the west side of Church Street, opposite the Union Church. The historically designated portion of the cemetery excludes a 4 acres (1.6 ha) parcel that was purchased in the 2000s.
The early chronology of Shakers is a list of important events pertaining to the early history Shakers, a denomination of Christianity. Millenarians who believe that their founder, Ann Lee, experienced the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the Shakers practice celibacy, confession of sin, communalism, ecstatic worship, pacifism, and egalitarianism. This list cover the periods from 1747 to 1826. This spans the emergence of denomination in the mid-18th century, the emigration of the Shakers to New York on the eve of the American Revolution, and subsequent missionary work and the establishment of nineteen major planned communities.
The Shakers are a sect of Christianity which practices celibacy, communal living, confession of sin, egalitarianism, and pacifism. After starting in England, the Shakers left that country for the English colonies in North America in 1774. As they gained converts, the Shakers established numerous communities in the late-18th century through the entire 19th century. The first villages organized in Upstate New York and the New England states, and, through Shaker missionary efforts, Shaker communities appeared in the Midwestern states. Communities of Shakers were governed by area bishoprics and within the communities individuals were grouped into "family" units and worked together to manage daily activities. By 1836 eighteen major, long-term societies were founded, comprising some sixty families, along with a failed commune in Indiana. Many smaller, short-lived communities were established over the course of the 19th century, including two failed ventures into the Southeastern United States and an urban community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Shakers peaked in population by the 1840s and early 1850s, with a membership between 4,000 and 9,000. Growth in membership began to stagnate by the mid 1850s. In the turmoil of the American Civil War and subsequent Industrial Revolution, Shakerism went into severe decline. As the number of living Shakers diminished, Shaker communes were disbanded or otherwise ceased to exist. Some of their buildings and sites have become museums, and many are historic districts under the National Register of Historic Places. The only active community is Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in Maine, which is composed of at least three active members.
The King Farm is a historic farm property at King Farm Road in Woodstock, Vermont. Encompassing more than 150 acres (61 ha) of woodlands and pasture, the farm has 150 years of architectural history, include a rare 18th-century English barn. Originally a subsistence farm, it became a gentleman's farm in the late 19th century, and its farmstead now hosts a regional government commission. The farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
The Tyringham Library is a historic public building at 118 Main Road in Tyringham, Massachusetts. Completed in 1905, it is one of the small town's few buildings exhibiting architectural sophistication, in this case the Arts and Crafts style. The building currently houses both the library and the town post office. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.
The Tyringham Center School is a historic schoolhouse at 2 Church Road in Tyringham, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Built in 1877, it is the town's only surviving 19th-century schoolhouse, and one of Berkshire County's only schoolhouses to survive from the second half of the 19th century. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.
