Stockbridge deserves to have the word “bridge” as part of its name. In addition to the multitude of bridges throughout the town, over the decades there have been more bridges over the Housatonic River in various locations in Stockbridge than in any of the neighboring towns.
The rare photograph shown above was taken circa 1890, near the Stockbridge train depot, looking north on Route 7 towards town. The bridge is likely a curved pony truss design. This location is probably the oldest major bridge crossing in town, originally a river ford, and then the site of the “Great Bridge” mentioned in early Colonial town records. The bridge photograph was taken by Marie Kendall, a prominent photographer from Norfolk, Conn. who focused primarily on Litchfield County images. Self-taught, she made well over 30,000 photographic glass-plate negatives.
Why did Kendall come to the Berkshires to take a photograph of the Stockbridge bridge? Probably because she freelanced for the advertising department of the New Haven Railroad, and evidently visited the Stockbridge train station.
Kendall exhibited at the Columbian Exhibition (World’s Fair) in 1893 and was the only woman at the fair to win an award for photography. She was also active in the temperance movement and the women’s suffrage movement. Always frugal, Kendall later destroyed nearly 30,000 of the glass-plate negatives she had accumulated, selling the glass for one cent a piece.
The present-day Housatonic River bridge in Stockbridge is now undergoing repair and restoration, as shown below.
