PITTSFIELD  , a

city and the county-seat of Berkshire county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., in the western part of the state among the Berkshire Hills, and about 150 M . W. of Boston . Pop . (1890), 17,281; (1900), 21,766, of whom 4344 were foreign-born; (1910 census), 7,2,121 . Area, about 41 50 M . It is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford and the Boston & Albany (New York Central & Hudson River) railways, and by two inter-urban electric lines . Pittsfield is a popular summer resort; it lies in a plain about r000 ft. above sea-level, is surrounded by the picturesque Berkshire Hills, and is situated in a region of numerous lakes, one of the largest—Lake Pontoosuc —being a summer pleasure resort . On either side of the city flow the east and west branches of the Housatonic river . Standing in the public green, in the centre of the city, is the original statue (by Launt Thompson) of the " Massachusetts Color Bearer," which has been reproduced on the battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania . The principal institutions are the House of Mercy Hospital, with which is connected the Henry W . Bishop Memorial Training School for nurses, the Berkshire Home for aged women, the Berkshire Athenaeum, containing the public library, the Crane Art Museum and a Young Men's Christian Association . Prominent buildings are St Joseph's Cathedral and the buildings of the Berkshire Life Insurance Company, the Agricultural National Bank and the Berkshire County Savings Bank .

In the

south-western part of Pittsfield, on the boundary between it and Hancock, is Shaker Village, settled about 1790 by Shakers . Pittsfield has water-power and important manufacturing industries . In 1905 its factory products were valued at $8,577,358, or 49'1% more than in 1900 . Fully half of the manufactures consist of textile goods . The first settlement in what is now Pittsfield was made in 1743, but was soon abandoned on account of Indian troubles . In 1749 the settlement was revived, but the settlers did not bring their families to the frontier until 1752 . The settlement was first called " Boston Plantation," or " Poontoosuck," but in 1761, when it was incorporated as a township, the name was changed to Pittsfield, in honour of the elder William Pitt . In 1891 Pittsfield was chartered as a city . It was here, in the Appleton (or Plunkett) House, known as " Elm Knoll," and built by Thomas Gold, father-in-law of Nathan Appleton, that in 1845 Henry W . Longfellow (who married Nathan Appleton's daughter) wrote his poem " The Old Clock on the Stairs." For thirty years (1842-1872) Pittsfield was the home of the Rev . John Todd (1800-1873), the author of numerous books, of which Lectures to Children (1834; 2nd series, 1858) and The Student's Manual (1835) were once widely read . From 1807 to 1816 Elkanah Watson (1758-1842), a prominent farmer and merchant, lived at what is now the Country Club, and while there introduced the merino sheep into Berkshire county and organized the Berkshire Agricultural Society; he is remembered for his advocacy of the building of a canal connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean, and as the author of Memoirs : Men and Times of the Revolution (1855), edited by his son, W .

C . Watson .