We spent most of Saturday, June 20, celebrating Charlemont’s 250th birthday. State Representative Paul Mark and Senator Benjamin Downing presented the Town with a framed facsimile of its original charter, which the two men had paid to have restored. Five towns in Downing’s district had 250th birthdays this weekend, so the senator was busy. I asked if they financed restored charters for all of them, and Mark replied that this was only the third he’d ever done; not all town charters need restoring and/or not all are restorable.
State Sen. Benjamin Downing and Rep. Paul Mark with members of the 250th Anniversary Committee presenting the Town's restored Charter in Charlemont's Federated Church
Incorporated in 1765, two years after the end of the French and Indian War had made western settlement more attractive, Charlemont was already hostile to British rule. Attempts to limit westward expansion no doubt rankled, and the distinctly American culture that had emerged in the colonies by then was even more pronounced in Western Massachusetts than along the coast. A tradition of radicalism still permeates the region today with Western Mass in the vanguard of “liberal Massachusetts'" liberalism.
After lunch with Downing and Mark, which ended with a surprisingly delicious chocolate birthday cake baked for the occasion, we toured Charlemont’s historical museum, where we found a picture of our house c. 1900. (More on that to follow in a later post.) In the afternoon we headed to a pick-up softball game at the Hawlemont Elementary School and a picnic dinner, accompanied by the delightful Small Change, a country/swing quartet featuring our General Store proprietors, Dennis Avery and Karen Hogness, both talented musicians as well as dedicated shopkeepers.
Festivities continue all summer, especially the weekend of Yankee Doodle Days, July 24-26, when, along with the fireworks and other attractions, there will be a special 250th celebratory parade. A special Bissell Bridge dedication with potluck supper and square dancing is scheduled for September 26. (This particular celebration was supposed to happen six years ago when restoration of the bridge was completed. However, before the party could happen, a tree fell on the bridge, putting a hole in the new roof, and by the time it was repaired, a year had elapsed and enthusiasm for the party had waned.)
The Bissell Bridge dressed up for the 250th Anniversary
We’ve made new friends this weekend and learned more about our town’s history. I have been particularly struck by the number of times historic landscapes and even traditions like Yankee Doodle Days have been allowed to fall into disuse or disrepair, only to be revived by later generations. The 2009 restoration of the Bissell Bridge, which had been out of commission for 17 years, is one recent example.
At 250, Charlemont is looking to both the past and the future. The Hawlemont Elementary School, established in 1953 to serve both Hawley and Charlemont after the last of the one-room school houses had closed, has introduced a new agricultural program in an attempt to support the region’s revived interest in farming. At the same time, a battle to bring in a fiber optic cable network is being waged by residents tired of DSL or, worse, dial-up internet. Meanwhile, a new, year-round mountain coaster at Berkshire East, our local ski resort, is boosting tourism and increasing business opportunities. A town with its roots in the French and Indian War and home to America’s first scenic highway (1914), Charlemont is looking forward even as it celebrates its past.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHARLEMONT!!
Photographs by Steven Sternbach. For more photographs of these celebrations, the parade, and the 2015 Yankee Doodle Days, see our photo album: http://www.millbrookhousenews.com/photos/charlemont250/index.html.