Not too far away in the town of Lenox is Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra where concerts are held all summer--everything from classical music to pop and jazz is played. You can get tickets to listen inside "The Shed" or just sit on a blanket on the lawn and enjoy a picnic while listening to the music under the stars at night.
A bit farther north in the city of Pittsfield is Arrowhead, the home of author Herman Melville who wrote his book "Moby Dick" while living there. It's the story of a sea captain who is determined to find a huge, white whale that took off his leg on an earlier whaling voyage. The house is open to visitors.
In the same area is the town of Dalton which is where the Crane Paper Company is located. Crane is the oldest paper company in the US, and, since 1879, has been teh sole supplier of the paper used to print US currency. Google says, "Stephen Crane was the first in the Crane family to become a papermaker, buying his first mill,"The Liberty Paper Mill", in 1770. He sold currency-type paper to engraver Paul Revere, who printed the American Colonies' first paper money. In 1801, Crane was founded by Zenas Crane, Henry Wiswall and John Willard."
Just a few miles north of Great Barrington is the small town of Stockbridge, made famous by American painter Norman Rockwell in his painting of Stockbridge's Main Street at Christmas. We have a print of that painting signed by Mr. Rockwell himself hanging in our foyer. For many years he did the covers for the Saturday Evening Post, a magazine of the time. He did a lot of his work while living in Stockbridge using local people as models for his paintings. The father of own of my coworkers was used as the model for a Rockwell painting of President John F. Kennedy sitting in a chair. Mr. Rockwell used my friend's Dad for the body and added the face and head of President Kennedy to complete it. There is a museum of Mr. Rockwell's work located in Stockbridge showing some of his work and telling about his life. Click HERE for more information about the presidents of the United States.
Stockbridge was also the home of Daniel Chester French who designed the well-known statue of President Abraham Lincoln that is in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
For many of you, your grandparents will remember the song about Alice's Restaurant, a rather long son poking fun at the state of things in the world at that time (the 1960's). Alice's Restaurant was also located in Stockbridge and the church that Alice, her husband Ray and a few others lived in is just down the road from my house. As Ray was a carpenter, I met him many times as a result of my summer job at the local lumber yard.
That's probably enough information for now.
