Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1972. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“The Old Town Hall is a historic building on Park Square in the heart of downtown Pittsfield, Massachusetts. This 1832 building served for 135 years as the center of municipal government.”
Wikipedia article Old Town Hall (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 94 National Register listings in Berkshire County · listed in 1972 · category: Building · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Berkshire County.
National Register reference number.72001299- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
The names inscribed on the monument are those of citizens of Pittsfield who died in the war, either from wounds, or, before their discharge, from disease contracted in the war ; not including citizens of other places, who served on her quota. They are as follows :
It was determined to place it at the west end of the park, in or near which, a large portion of the Pittsfield soldiers volunteered, and which possessed many other associations of patriotic interest; and the park, however beautiful, being not considered in a proper condition for the reception of the contemplated work, the town placed in the hands of the committee before-named, a further sum of seven thousand dollars, for the purpose of making some longdesired improvements. The nature of these improvements was left to the discretion of the committee, by whom the following changes were made : The oval plot which constitutes the park, was surrounded by a handsome and substantial coping of granite, outside of which a broad gravel walk, with granite curbing, was built. The surface of the plot was graded, and a considerable number of trees, which had become so thick as to impede each other's growth, were felled. The Old Elm had fallen in 1861. In addition to this, the grade of Park place was reduced so as to make it more uniform with that of Bank row.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 120 fires within 5 miles of Old Town Hall between
2002 and 2020, burning about 83 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Debris and open burning
67
Recreation and ceremony
18
Smoking
7
Railroad operations and maintenance
7
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
6
Equipment and vehicle use
4
Misuse of fire by a minor
4
Natural
2
Arson/incendiarism
2
Power generation/transmission/distribution
1
Other causes
1
Fireworks
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 1,007 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Old Town Hall between 1834 and
1975: 471 Plantae, 329 Animalia, 203 Fungi, 4 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A W Evans, A. H. Mead, A. K. Harrison and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
16 workings within 5 miles of Old Town Hall: 9 past producers, 4 producers, 2 occurrences, 1 unknown.
4 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Pittsfield, the town this property stands in, in 98 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 64 thunderstorm wind, 17 hail, 13 flash flood, 3 flood.
The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Survey team observed several structures with shingle damage to roofs. Many limbs and several trees were knocked down. Upon observation these trees were determined to be shallow rooted. Roofs dislodged from clubhouse and dugout of Waconah Park baseball stadium. Eyewitnesses with various vantage points reported observing rotating debris consistent with a tornado. Additional reports indicate a portion of the fencing at Waconah Park was also knocked down, and bleachers along the left field were pushed backward. In addition, trees and wires were downed on Tyler Street and Woodlawn Avenue, and two moored motor boats at Burbank Park were flipped over and partially submerged. There was also a report of a tree falling on a house on Charles Street. Top winds estimated at 70 mph.
A line of thunderstorms, that developed over eastern New York, moved into southern Berkshire county shortly after noon on May 25. This line of storms continued to produce strong gusty winds that brought numerous large trees and power lines down throughout the city of Pittsfield.
A cold front moving east into Berkshire County triggered widely scattered severe thunderstorms. The storms brought down large limbs and power lines in the town of Pittsfield.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
2,023 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
Original Site This building is a two-story rectangular structure measuring 63' by 42''with its' longer facade fronting on East Street and Park Square. Its' foundation is of a variety of materials. On the front side it is of cut marble, coursed; ends are of marble rubble squared, the rear has been covered by concrete, scored to give the effect of cut stone, coursed. 'Walls, are of red brick with the front and back facades stuccoed. The stucco is extended around the corners and scored to give the effect of quoining. Ihe roof is ridge with medium gable. 'A balustrade of alternating solid panels and groups of turned posts is found on both front and back. There are four brick chimneys placed regularly two at each end! One of each these pairs is false.
The front facade has three bays containing identical windows in regular placement. Windows are double hung sash 16 over 12, three to each bay. They have plain marble lintels and sills. Above each of the second floor windows is a recessed rectangular panel. The central bay is set 8 to 10 inches forward of the two flanking bays and topped by a plain pedimented central gable. The entrance is at the center of this facade. Ihe door is recessed about a foot and has a six-light transom. The eight- panel door and transom are replacements. Early photographs show additional doors in place of the center windows in both side bays as well as in the center of the end walls. 1 In 1969-70 the Old Iown Hall was completely restored and remodeled (internally) to serve as a bank branch and rental offices.
A HUD grant of $69,000 was received in conjunction with this project.
'This building served for 135 years as the seat of 1ocal government - from 1832 to 1891 as Town Hall and from 1891-1968 as City Hall. 'It is the oldest existing city building in Pittsfield and the only remaining public building of late Federal Period architecture in the community! In addition to serving as the seat of local government, the building has also housed for shorter periods a post office and a bank. It has been used many times for religious services and for several months was the county court house. 'In its earlier years when the Berkshire Agricultural Society held its' fairs in the park opposite, this building housed exhibits of housenold manufactures.
This is the oldest agricultural fair in the country./ Here also were held many patriotic meetings at which soldiers were recruited for the Civil War. S E RECÊIVED NATION" j'1L
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 72001299, 14 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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