Great Barrington in Berkshire County, Massachusetts — The American Northeast (New England)
I Have A Sentimental Desire to Keep this Place
W.E.B. Du Bois National Historic Site
Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, July 4, 2019
1. I Have A Sentimental Desire to Keep this Place Marker
You are entering the House of the Black Burghardts, as Du Bois called his grandparents' home, the place where he had lived as a child. Du Bois maintained a strong attachment to Great Barrington his entire life, and returned frequently to visit. Both of his children were born in Great Barrington, and he buried his infant son Burghardt, his adult daughter Yolande, and his first wife Nina Gomer Du Bois in Mahaiwe Cemetery. When White rioters terrorized Atlanta's Black community in 1906, Du Bois sent Nina and daughter Yolande to Great Barrington as safe haven.
In 1928, on the occasion of Du Bois' 60th birthday, a group of his friends from throughout the U.S., working with local African American forester and land entrepreneur Warren Davis, presented the social activist with his childhood home as a gift. Du Bois wanted to remodel the modest farmer's cottage into a middle-class summer retreat. But the Depression of the 1930s made this impossible. Although Du Bois held onto the property for 26 years, he was never able to restore it. The house fell into greater disrepair, and in 1954, at age 86, Du Bois sold the property to a neighbor. The house was soon demolished. Du Bois kept fire tongs from the old house with him until the end of his life, a reminder of the importance of the home and all it meant to him.
"I have a sentimental
this page online
—W.E.B. Du Bois, Letter to Edward Wooster, 1925
”I had the loveliest birthday present imaginable…”
—W.E.B. Du Bois, letter to Ethel May Ray, February 27, 1928
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African Americans • Architecture • Cemeteries & Burial Sites • Civil Rights. A significant historical year for this entry is 1928.
Location. 42° 10.638′ N, 73° 23.667′ W. Marker is in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in Berkshire County. Marker can be reached from South Egremont Road (Massachusetts Route 23/41) 0.1 miles south of Egremont Plain Road (Massachusetts Route 71), on the right when traveling south. Marker is located along the W.E.B. Du Bois Boyhood Homesite interpretive trail. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 612 South Egremont Road, Great Barrington MA 01230, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. The House of the Black Burghardts (a few steps from this marker); Grass Roots Democracy (within shouting distance of this marker); Boulder Dedicated to the Legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct
W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Mass. Amherst
2. Marker detail: W.E.B. Du Bois Family
When Du Bois' infant son Burghardt died in Atlanta in 1899, he and his wife Nina Gomer Du Bois insisted that the baby be buried in Great Barrington. "We could not lay him in the ground there in Georgia, for the earth there is strangely red; so we bore him away to the northward, with his flowers and his little folded hands."
From "Of the Passing of the First-Born," The Souls of Black Folk, 1903.
From "Of the Passing of the First-Born," The Souls of Black Folk, 1903.
Regarding I Have A Sentimental Desire to Keep this Place. National Register of Historic Places #76000947.
Related markers. Click here for a list of markers that are related to this marker. W.E.B. Du Bois National Historic Site
Also see . . . W.E.B. Du Bois Homesite.
For a sixtieth birthday in 1928, friends at the NAACP gave to Du Bois the Burghardt family homestead. Although he wanted to renovate his grandfather’s house, Du Bois never had the funds and had to sell the property. The house was demolished in 1954. In 1967 the idea for a national memorial to Dr. Du Bois was born when Professor Edmund W. Gordon and Walter Wilson, a local realtor, purchased the(Submitted on April 1, 2022, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)Homesite property, establishing the Du Bois Memorial Foundation a year later. The five-acre parcel includes the original Burghardt family homestead where Du Bois spent his early boyhood.W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Mass. Amherst3. Marker detail: W.E.B. Du Bois, Nina Du Bois,
and James Weldon JohnsonW.E.B. Du Bois, Nina Du Bois, and James Weldon Johnson visited the house soon after Du Bois acquired it in 1928.
W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Mass. Amherst
4. Marker detail: Request for Information
Du Bois sought information about his ancestors who lived on the property long before he was able to acquire it.
W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Mass. Amherst
5. Marker detail: Du Bois and Shirley Graham visit House Remains
In 1951, the year after Nina died, Du Bois married writer and activist Shirley Graham. They visited the remains of the house later in the decade. You can still see the base of the new chimney that local mason Frank Vigezzi built for them in 1928.
W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Mass. Amherst
6. Marker detail: House Renovation Blueprint
Soon after Du Bois acquired the property in 1928, he hired local architect J. McArthur Vance to create a blueprint for renovating the house. Du Bois' plans included a new living room, dining room, and kitchen, a spacious library and music room with a new fireplace and French doors opening out on to a broad porch, four bedrooms, a garage, plaster walls, and indoor plumbing and central heating.
W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Mass. Amherst
7. Marker detail: Du Bois House (1933)
This photograph of the house, taken in 1933, shows that Du Bois was able to do no more than add the chimney for the new fireplace and replace the roof.
Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, July 4, 2019
8. I Have A Sentimental Desire to Keep this Place Marker
Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, July 4, 2019
9. I Have A Sentimental Desire to Keep this Place Marker
Photographed By Steve Stoessel, March 20, 2023
10. I Have A Sentimental Desire to Keep this Place Marker
Credits. This page was last revised on March 26, 2023. It was originally submitted on March 27, 2022, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 145 times since then and 18 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. submitted on April 1, 2022, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. 10. submitted on March 23, 2023, by Steve Stoessel of Niskayuna, New York.
