Given our cloven political system, it would be surprising indeed to find a close historic affinity between Great Barrington in blue-state New England and the birth of red state Texas, that more recently has given us Bush pêre and fils, and now the iconic Ted Cruz. (OK, for the moment forget Mitt Romney and Scott Brown.)
Yet, that historic relationship is what Gary Leveille, that canny historical detective, was reminded of when he saw the above photograph. He sent it along with the following note.
“I found this photo to be very interesting,” he wrote. “It appeared on the front page of the Western Observer newspaper published in Anson, Texas. The statue [behind the protest placard] is of Anson Jones, who was born and raised in Great Barrington in the 1800s. He went on to become the last president of the Republic of Texas (which, of course, some of you already know). I am sending this only because of the Great Barrington connection, not because of any political opinion.”
Still, current politics aside, “the last president of the breakaway Republic of Texas.” Sounds like something a son of South Berkshire could attain, given our deep-seated inclination toward independence and, if necessary, insurrection.
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For parents of Muddy Brook Elementary School there are no more companionable moments than drop off and pickup, where parents can mingle while waiting for their kids to be excused from class or in the morning while their youngsters learn to unicycle in the gym.
It’s also a time to get acquainted with their kids’ friends’ parents, to plan play dates – and to muse over the future of the schools. So it was no surprise to hear Berkshire Hills School Committee member Rich Dohoney remark, as he watched his child file into Muddy Brook on the first day of school, that the inevitable merger of schools in the Berkshires at some point in the future would not necessarily mean the consolidation of all grades into one district.
“There’s nothing in the law that says a district couldn’t retain its elementary school, for instance, but send its high school students to its partner district,” he said. He didn’t specify what district he had in mind that might send their upper school kids to Berkshire Hills.
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In its wisdom, the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission is finishing up its survey of potential locations for rail passenger stations, should commuter rail service to New York City be restored. And for Great Barrington the BRPC has fixed its sites on the historic train station at the foot of Castle Street, across the tracks from Town Hall, equipped with a tunnel to downtown.
One problem with this site, however, is parking. The adjacent empty property to the north might seem to be ideal for a parking lot and platform, but its use is prohibited by a Department of Environmental Protection edict – that being the outcome of a contentious law suit between Anthony and Dana Dapolito and the property’s owner, Dale Culleton, who had a notion for the parcel to become a parking lot.
Kim Kimball has another area to consider for the future station which, as he points out, will consist of nothing more than a high level platform and parking lot: the property at the top of Rosseter Street, across the track from his fuel oil business where the railroad turntable and roundhouse used to be located many years ago. Ashes to ashes, you might say.
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Speaking of Gary Leveille, who provided us with several illustrations for this column, he has a new book out: “Legendary Locals of the Southern Berkshires.” It’s another in a series of books – all of them fascinating for the narratives they contain – that Leveille has produced in the last year or two. His previous volume, “The Eye of Shawenon,” is an eye-opening history of Egremont, told through accounts of local individuals and families.
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Report from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Great Barrington (Yes, Virginia, there is a Brooklyn in Great Barrington, and once a Brooklyn Bridge, too.): “During the past year, we had watched the parade of trucks from Wilkinson excavating roll by our Grove Street residence. Where could they be going, we wondered, since the street is a dead-end.
“No longer. A dirt road has been carved down the hill to the eastern banks of the Housatonic River, and extends all the way to Camp Eisner, as we discovered when we strolled along the river this spring. It’s for a water line that the camp paid the town to have built.
“But here’s the point, as Selectboard member and avid cyclist Sean Stanton has mused: Could it not become a hiking and biking path, an addition to the robust network of Great Barrington Trails and Greenways?”
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Notes from the culture desk: On Thursday, September 4 at 7 p.m. at the Bookstore in Lenox, the poet Karen Chase is celebrating the publication of her latest work, “Polio Boulevard,” her chronicle of having contracted this crippling disease and her recovery from it – a recovery that requires vigilance. She works out religiously at CrossFit Great Barrington on Crissey Road. On September 19 CrossFit will hold a potluck barbecue to honor her, at which she will give a reading and sign books. The event is sponsored by The Berkshire Edge.
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Finally, Music and More opens its 23rd season at the New Marlborough Meeting House with flutist Carol Wincenc and the Escher String Quarter performing a program of Mozart, Haydn, Debussy, and the premiere of Yuko Uerbayashi’s “Misericordia” for flute and string quartet.
