PITTSFIELD, MA.
In 1861, Thomas Allen—a Pittsfield native who made a fortune in St. Louis, Missouri, managing and financing the railroad west—donated $50,000 to his hometown for the construction of a library and exhibit area which would “promote culture, refinement, classical learning, and the study of practical science.” Thomas Plunkett and Calvin Martin, prominent Pittsfield businessmen, then secured land on Bank Row.
The Trustees of the Berkshire Athenaeum were incorporated on March 24, 1871, “for the purpose of establishing and maintaining, in the town of Pittsfield, an institution to aid in promoting education, culture, and refinement, and diffusing knowledge by means of a library, reading rooms, lectures, museums, and cabinets of art, and of historical curiosities.” With Allen’s contribution, the Athenaeum was completed and has been Pittsfield’s public library ever since.
The Berkshire Athenaeum opened at its original Bank Row location in 1876, at a time when it was not unusual for libraries to be called “athenaeums,” a Latin word meaning “a place of learning.”
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