Great Barrington — The Guthrie Center, located at 2 Van Deusenville Road, was founded in 1991 by musician Arlo Guthrie. The building was originally the St. James Chapel, built in 1829. Eventually, the building was expanded in 1866 and renamed the Trinity Church. It was purchased in 1964 by Ray and Alice Brock, who also opened Alice’s Restaurant in Stockbridge.
Musician Arlo Guthrie was a friend of the Brocks and stayed with them at the church during Thanksgiving. The year was 1965 when both Guthrie and his friend Rick Robbins helped to clean out garbage from the Brocks’ property, which subsequently led to their arrests for illegally dumping trash down a Stockbridge hillside all because they could not find a trash dump open on Thanksgiving day.
Guthrie used the story about the arrest, along with a story about how he was drafted and how the arrest helped him get out of serving during the Vietnam War, for his infamous 1967 song “Alice’s Restaurant.” The song, and the story behind “Alice’s Restaurant,” became a worldwide phenomenon, leading to a movie, several books, and a cookbook, as well as fame for the Brocks and Guthrie.
The Brocks sold the church in 1971, and it fell under different ownership over the years, while Alice Brock shut down Alice’s Restaurant in Stockbridge in 1979. Guthrie purchased the Old Trinity Church building that his friends, the Brock family, formally owned and turned it into The Guthrie Center.
With the 1960s many years past, the spirit of the generosity of the era still lives on at The Guthrie Center. The center regularly holds concerts and a series of community service programs. Almost every Wednesday, The Guthrie Center offers a free lunch to residents.
During its Wednesday community meals, The Guthrie Center also offers free legal clinics by the Berkshire Center for Justice, Inc.
The Center also holds its “Hootenanny” open mics throughout the year, along with various fundraisers and interfaith fundraisers throughout the year.
In the continuing spirit of generosity stemming from the spirit of the 1960s, The Guthrie Center is embarking on its new “Check it Out” program, where residents from Berkshire County can check out musical instruments to play for free. “It’s a musical instrument lending library,” Guthrie Center Director George Laye told The Berkshire Edge. “Over time, I’ve been collecting instruments. One day we had some visitors, and they said, ‘Hey, we have a guitar in our attic! Would you want it for anything?’ To me, musical instruments should be played and not gather dust in someone’s attic. But then the wheels in my mind started to turn: How many kids can’t afford an instrument? How many parents purchased an instrument for their kid and are in their attics or their basements?”
As part of the program, The Guthrie Center will lend out guitars, banjos, violins, autoharps, flutes, drums, and other musical instruments. “When it comes to everything in the world, we need to eat, have water, and some shelter, but we also need to have fun,” Laye said. “What is more universal than music? It’s everywhere! I don’t care if it’s a tribe in Africa or an Eskimo singing along in the winters of Alaska, music is just universal and wonderful. The more people that have access to it, the better. We’re here to give them opportunities to have access to that music.”
For more information on The Guthrie Center’s “Check it Out” program, contact the center at (413) 528-1955. The Guthrie Center’s website can be found here.
