Bernardston — Villages Extracted from "History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, Volume II," by Louis H. Everts, 1879.       Of the two villages in the town, Bernardston Village, On Fall River, and about a mile and a half from the Greenfield line, is the most important. It is a station on the Connecticut River Railroad, is the seat of town government, and peopled chiefly by thrifty and prosperous farmers, whose neat and homelike residences materially beautify the village, which covers a broad sweep of river valley overlooked on both the east and the west by towering hills.       Here, too, are a fine town-house, built in 1877, at a cost of $3000, the Powers Institute, Cushman Hall, the Cushman Library, Cushman Park, five churches, three stores, one hotel, and a large shoe-factory. It is worthy of mention that its two chief thoroughfares, Main and Church Streets, are lighted at night with street-lamps provided by individual enterprise.       North Bernardston, near the Vermont line, a small agricultural settlement, contains, besides about a dozen dwellings, a store and a hotel, the latter familiar for years as "the old Chase tavern." | Previous Page | Contents | Next Page | | Bernardston | History of the CT Valley in Mass. | | Franklin County | Western Mass History & Genealogy | These pages are © Laurel O'Donnell, 2005, all rights reserved and cannot be reproduced in any format without permission This page was last updated on 17 Jul 2005