Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1973. 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
“South Mountain Concert Hall is a historic performance hall on New South Mountain Road in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1918 by Chicago native Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, it has been home to a classical music summer performance series since then, featuring name performers including Leonard Bernstein, Rudolf Serkin, and major chamber music ensembles.”
Wikipedia article South Mountain Concert Hall, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 94 National Register listings in Berkshire County · listed in 1973 · category: Building · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Berkshire County.
National Register reference number.73001943- 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 116 fires within 5 miles of South Mountain Concert Hall between
2002 and 2020, burning about 80 acres in total. 3 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
61
Recreation and ceremony
22
Railroad operations and maintenance
6
Equipment and vehicle use
5
Smoking
5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
5
Misuse of fire by a minor
4
Natural
3
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 1,245 specimens
collected within 10 miles of South Mountain Concert Hall between 1833 and
1975: 593 Plantae, 330 Animalia, 314 Fungi, 4 Unrecorded, 2 Chromista, 2 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A W Evans, A. Brown, A. H. Mead 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
20 workings within 5 miles of South Mountain Concert Hall: 13 past producers, 4 producers, 3 occurrences.
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.
Named in the fire insurance atlases
Sanborn surveyors printed an index of the
town's establishments at the front of each atlas. This property is named in
one, read straight off the scanned sheet.
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
The South Mountain Concert Hall is located near the center of a 200 acre tract of land and is screened on all sides by woods which provide a natural barrier against the distractions of background noise. The architectural simplicity of the Concert Hall enables it to blend harmoniously with this natural setting, which is a vital element in the successful use of the building. The Concert Hall is a one-story building measuring 105 by 42 feet; it is constructed of wood and has a hip roof with a central cupola. The main (east) elevation is divided into five bays, each of which is set with French doors topped by paired casement windows and a flush fan light. The entrance to the building, located on the west side, is covered by a 22 by 58 foot porte-cochere above which is a row of hinged windows.
These windows combine with those in the opposite elevation to take maximum advantage of the natural cooling effects of the surrounding wooded area, an important feature as the building was designed primarily for summer use. The interior of the Concert Hall has a simple, functional design. The rows of seats are pews taken from a de-consecrated church in Vermont. The auditorium floor slopes gradually, enabling viewers in the rear to see the performers on the semi-circular stage and contributing to the sense of inti- macy which is achieved despite the size of the hall. The exposed framing of the building includes massive timbers from an early nineteenth century mill in Hinsdale, Massachusetts.
The wood paneling of the walls, together with these century-old timbers, provides exceptionally fine resonance, ideal for chamber music.
The South Mountain Concert Hall has been a center of music and educational activities in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, for more than half a century. The Concert Hall was built with funds given by Mrs. Eliza- beth Sprague Coolidge on land which she also provided. The building was completed in 1918 and was used for the first time in September of that year. This initial Berkshire Festival of Chamber Music became the first internationally known series of musical events to be presented in Berkshire County. Outstanding American and European musicians took part in the Berk- shire Festivals, which continued annually through 1925. By 1924, it had become apparent that the Berkshire Festival of Chamber Music had generated far more than local interest. Mr.
Willem Willeke, music director of the Festivals, suggested that Washington, D. C. would be the appropriate location for an expansion of the Festivals. The success of this new concert seriès and the international interest which it aroused formed the basis of Mrs. Coolidge's decision to contribute funds for con- struction of the Coolidge Auditorium in the Library of Congress and to establish the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation to provide for perfor- mances of chamber music there. The Coolidge Foundation has maintained a continuous connection with South Mountain ard sponsors concerts there. The Elshuco Trio, which was formed at South Mountain, performed at the Concert Hall and throughout the United States from 1918 to 1933.
Some two hundred compositions for chamber groups have been premiered at the South Mountain Concert Hall, among them works by Bartok, Webern, Ravel, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. The twenty-four chamber works of Johannes Brahms were first performed as a Brahms cycle at the Concert Hall in 1924.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 73001943, 12 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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