Citizens Hall

Citizens Hall stands on a hill in the middle of a wide flat expanse of grass, with the Berkshire hill rising beyond. To the rear of the building, the land drops off in a woodland thicket, while dwellings built in the vernacular Greek Revival style flank it. The 1870 Hall is two stories high and has a gracefully curved Mansard roof. The boarded walls terminate in wooden quoins at each corner. Interrupted only by a tower, a wide cornice with elosely spaced and delicately detailed brackets encircles the Hall. Although the impression given is that of a nearly square building, the side facades are two bays wide and the main facade is five, with a three bay pavilion centered on it.

The middle bay of this pavilion projects slightly to form a two-story entrance tower which rises through the roof of the building. The tower walls are topped by a bracketed cornice identical to that below the main roof. The uppermost member of this cornice extends to form part of the curb between the two slopes of the main roof. The straight sides of the tower's roof taper and culminate in a simple cornice. Above this rises the crown of the tower -- a lacy, ornamental iron balustrademm The imposing main entrance in the tower is topped by a broken roundheaded pediment which is supported on each side of the door by a single elongated pilaster with ornamented capital. Beneath the pediment, the elaborately decorated entabla- ture is broken by a semi-circular light over the door.

The shape of this light echoes the curves of the roundheaded dormer windows.

Citizens Hall, which was built in 1870, is primarily significant for its architecture. It is a small-scale version of the civic buildings constructed in the Second Empire (Mansard) and Italianate styles in major American cities following the Civil War. In Citizens Hall, that typically stone and brick architecture is translated into a wooden rural idiom and combined with elements which reflect the characteristic exuberance of the Victorian period. The Hall is the architectural epicenter of Curtisville, a small community within the Town of Stockbridge, which grew up around twelve mills. The mills are gone but several small dwellings in Greek Revival vernacular style, a brick store building, a Federal brick church and a Greek Revival inn remain.

Historical records for Citizens Hall are scant and most are contained in the Selectmen's Report for the Town of Stockbridge for the year ending April 1, 1871. According to that report, Citizens Hall was designed by C. T. Rathbun. The construction of the building was the result of a new system of school administration begun in Stockbridge in 1866. Existing school districts were abolished and public education facilities were to be concentrated in the three business centers of the Town -- the Plains, Glendale and Curtisville. The two rooms on the first floor of Citizens Hall housed the Curtisville school and the second floor was the community assembly hall. The Town of Stockbridge is negotiating the sale of the property to the Berkshire County Historical Society.

The sale of the property is with preservation restrictions approved by the Massachusetts Historical Commission (General Laws, Chapter 184, as most recently amended). These restrictions cover the exterior of the building and certain interior features.