These Mysterious Hills

04/23/2026

Remembering Pat Kennedy, crushed to death on this day 175 years ago. One of a number of deaths at what is now MassMOCA

04/23/2026

State health officials are reporting a possible measles exposure at Logan Airport.

04/22/2026

Great short story. Mrs Strangeworth was the ultimate "Karen," as folks call it today.

The Edgar Allen Poe Award was awarded to Shirley Jackson by the Mystery Writers of America, at their 20th annual Edgar Allen Poe Awards April 22, 1966, for her short story "The Possibility of Evil." The story was published posthumously on December 18, 1965, in the Saturday Evening Post. Though lesser known than "The Lottery" or The Haunting of Hill House, it is often cited as one of Jackson’s literary masterpieces. Like many of her works, the story explores the cruelties and horrors of everyday life lurking behind the polished facades of small-town America.

Jackson did not live to see this coveted award, given only months after her death. The award is currently on display at the Museum on the dining room table that Jackson used for her writing while living in North Bennington.

Gift of Laurence Jackson Hyman

https://bennington.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/80435207-61A3-40D0-882A-758705505507

04/22/2026

A horrific discovery at one of these locations led to a wedding at the other, in 1885.
New exclusive local history article for subscribers this week [WARNING: content is disturbing] - link in comments

04/21/2026

Company F leaving Pittsfield, 1917.
But one soldier had to travel alone, by another route.

A total of 144 young warriors - most not old enough to vote - departed the Berkshires by train that day. Hundreds more would follow over the next few months; out of them all, over a hundred did not return from the great war in Europe.

Alfred Persip -bottom right- was on the draft list for Company F, but Woodrow Wilson segregated and strictly limited the number of soldiers of color in the military throughout the conflict. While the other troops were transported to Fort Devens, he drove to Westfield, where his cousin got him into the 372nd infantry [Company L]. The 372nd and the 371st were all black regiments that were shipped out to be under French command. There, they found themselves embraced far more enthusiastically than they had been by their own government.

"At one time I thought I would never be at the rear again," Alfred writes to his family in the fall of 1918. "There were a great many wounded and gassed, but very few killed in our company. We advanced up a hill and as soon as we got up in sight, the Huns opened up their machine guns, and I had business on the ground. I could hear the bullets whiz right by my head.

"Then we got up on the top of the hill and they threw over a barrage on us, and the shells would land so near us that the dirt would nearly cover us up. You could feel the concussion. To look back over the hill after we captured it, and see how near the shell holes were, it looked impossible to have come down there without getting hurt."

I looked up the hill he referenced. It was crucial to driving the enemy out of Fontaine-en-Dormois, which they entered the next day. The following day they were liberating the village of Ardeuil.

04/21/2026

From children playing at the pond to the darkest acts you can imagine, 180 acres of Pittsfield cemetery has seen so much history unfold within it over 176 years.

A mirror of a community; city within a city. City of the Dead is next weekend- reserve your spot now if you plan to attend by email info @ berkshirehomehistory .com

04/20/2026

Social justice protesters called "wide awakes" march on North Street in Pittsfield, MA, 1860.

The Wide Awakes were a young movement, and the conservative (i.e. Democrat at the time) newspaper, Pittsfield Sun, criticized them for inflating their numbers with 18-20 year olds, who could not vote yet.

04/20/2026

Berkshire Eagle, Mar 20, 1905. Happy 420 to those who celebrate. Please indulge responsibly and avoid going into a hallucinatory, murderous fit of psychosis.

04/20/2026

You could probably find free food in a dumpster behind the restaurant, but it won't be the same as a proper sit-down dinner.

04/19/2026

There's a growing historical consensus that the underground railroad was more predominantly a network of mutual aid and safe housing- mostly between people of color- than it was white saviors hiding people in secret rooms and tunnels. Out of necessity, such networks continued long after the Emancipation proclamation.
This is what one such network looked like in 1939.

[image from the Green Book, NYPL digital collection]

04/19/2026

Getting answers from AI is like asking the nearest meth-head. They will tell you whatever they think you wanna hear, they just want you to give them a cigarette (/some water).

04/19/2026

Every time you park at Big Y in PittsfieldMA, you're in the location where numerous people died in colorful ways, at the Burbank Hotel.

See link in comments for more about the 1872 murder and other incidents>