Living at the Gateway to the Berkshires

Growing up I used to visit my mother's Uncle George and Aunt Celia in Pittsfield MA. I loved going to visit them because it was like passing into a different world. We had to travel through The Berkshires to get there. Sometimes we went over the Mohawk Trail and other times we headed out through Tolland and Becket to Great Barrington. At other times we just jumped on the MA Turnpike and drove to Lee & Lenox and then to Pittsfield. A fourth route was through Northampton, Leeds, and Dalton where the Crane paper factory is located (where the paper for US currency has been manufactured). Whichever way we went we saw beautiful scenery. And we grew up with an awareness of the music, literary and artistic culture of the Berkshires- from Arlo Guthrie and Alice's Restaurant, to Edith Wharton and The Mount to Norman Rockwell and his homey, feel good art that graced so many magazine covers. He used local people in many of his paintings. Lenox is also the home of Tanglewood- an awesome and beautiful music venue. The Berkshires have always been rich in culture.

I was born in Northampton, MA and spent a lot of time there while growing up. I witnessed its transformation from the city that all the rural farm town people traveled to for their hardware, clothing, shoes, pharmacy, medical and mail order needs to a funky, artsy, cultural mishmash with retail shops, restaurants and entertainment venues like the remodeled Academy of Music and the renovated Calvin Theater where I watched Disney movies as a kid. It's always been a college town (Smith College is right there and UMASS, Amherst College, Hampshire College and Mount Holyoke are all nearby.) The streets were jammed with street performers, and a variety of colorful characters. It still is a wonderful place to visit, to walk up and down the main street and visit the shops, boutiques and eateries.

When I moved to Westfield in 1973 downtown was still pretty vital. I remember going downtown with my parents for sidewalk sale days in July- going in all the shops. I used to go to the movies, walk up and down Elm Street and hang out with friends downtown throughout high school. Then Newbury's department store burned down leaving a gaping wound in the face of this city. Westfield's downtown became less vital with each loss of business, each closing until it was like a ghost town. I worked at Conner's, Inc. from 1993 until it closed in April 2007. It was a sad time because that store had been there for generations of shoppers and wore a number of different hats from bookstore, to camera shop, to office products, cards and gifts. Walking through the door, you felt like you were in a time warp- we knew all our customers by name and greeted them, chatted with them, gave them a little discount if they were a little short that day. We prided ourselves on customer service- something you don't get much of these days.

Over the past few years certain groups in Westfield have been working hard to revitalize the downtown area. Westfield has always been known as the Gateway to the Berkshires and we fell down flat on our face for a few years.

During the past year or two a lot has changed in Westfield's downtown as we've struggled to bring our city back from the brink of becoming a derelict downtown to a place where we can walk the sidewalks and feel pride once again in our picturesque little city at the base of the foothills leading into the Berkshires.

I'm fortunate to be a part of the cultural movement here in Westfield as one of this city's authors. I belong to a fledgling group that is getting its legs underneath it. The Articulture event at the end of April clearly showed that our community wants a music, art, and literary identity. We have a lot of talented people living here and in surrounding communities. We're working to harness that energy and talent and direct it into venues that will draw people downtown- a place where many people still believe there are dozens of empty storefronts and a lot of urban ugliness. The face of downtown Westfield is changing. It's not perfect yet, but dramatic changes have begun. Downtown has the potential to be vital once again. The hard work has started to get the community motivated to come downtown and sample the variety of food, and visit all the new shops- the book store, the art galleries, the music store, the store that showcases the talents of our artisans, the places where musicians are gathering. The esplanade in front of the Athenaeum has become a venue for lunchtime live music. The Farmer's Market on the front lawn of the Church of Atonement has also been showcasing live music while you buy fresh plants and produce from local farmers and growers.

Westfield may be the Gateway to the Berkshires where there has consistently been a lot of this type of art &culture in evidence, but we're going to keep ramping up the arts and cultural events here at the Gateway to the Berkshires and making Westfield a vibrant place to kick off a trip through the Berkshires!

Let the journey begin here!