Prosperity!

Prosperity!. Explore Adams History. , Side 1 , The Plunkett brothers - W.B. (William Brown) and C.T. (Charles Timothy) - lived most of their lives on Park Street. Their father - W.C. (William Caldwell) - was a successful textile manufacturer who built a large mansion there. When the brothers were in their thirties they gathered investors and formed the Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing Co. The first shipment of textiles left their factory on August 20,1890, seven weeks before the McKinley Tariff was enacted. The tariff levied a 33-49% tax on foreign goods, pricing them out of the market., with 20 years, the company had expanded to four mills with each expansion larger than its predecessor. The company became the largest employer in Adams, and the second largest in Berkshire County., The Berkshire Mills benefitted greatly from McKinley's economic policies. In turn, the Plunketts hired more employees and Adam experienced its greatest era of growth and prosperity. The population of Adams swelled with workers from many European countries and Canada. Five languages were preached from the pulpits of the various churches in town: English, French, German, Polish and Italian., To serve the burgeoning population, most of the fine Victorian commercial buildings seen today on Park Street were built during this period., (photo captions, top to bottom) , - President William McKinley visited Adams in 1897 and posed for this photo on the porch of "Montrath", the Pluckett Mansion. , - W.C. Plunkett's "Montrath" was demolished in 1936. It stood to the left of C.T. Pluckett's mansion. , - C.T. Pluckett's mansion, "Foothills" once served as the American Legion Home and is now the Adams Town Hall., Side 2 , Before the Plucketts built the Berkshire Mills, the business district of Adams was a small area around Center Street. By 1900, Park Street was full of shops, offices and meeting halls, A second commercial district developed on one half of Summer Street to service the expanding population of a workers who lived in that neighborhood., (photo captions from top, clockwise) , - A postcard from 1900 shows a street once a residential neighborhood now filled with commercial buildings. , - The Trinity Methodist Church replaced a wooden house of worship that had been used since 1853. It was the first of five churches built between 1894 and 1907. , - W.B. Pluckett built the central unit of the hospital in 1918 and his brother C.T. Pluckett added a wing in 1923 and the nurses' home in 1932. , - The Baptist Church was the third church property inder construction in 1894. Churches completed 10 major building projects in 17 years. , - The Mausert Block, completed in 1900, was the last of the four commercial blocks built on Park Street in a period of six years., Explore Adams History is a project of the Adams Historical Society and ProAdams, made possible by a grant from the Barrett Fund and the support of our sponsors.