1838 Colrain Center drawing by JW Barber ms for CHS #586

 Rev Feb 15, 2025  --- added maps.

 This "picture" of Colrain was printed in the 1839 book "Historical Collections ..." by John Warner Barber. This is scanned item #586 , CHS Archives. It  is believed to be taken from that 1839 book (or one of the later editions)

Last week (Jan, 2024) Sarah Hollister discovered that Mass Historical Society has the original worksheet for the 1839 view. I have marked up that image:  (see bottom of page for clean copy)


  MHS dates this manuscript at 1838, meaning that Mr. Barber stood here on Route 112 facing east to the village center.  This may be the oldest drawing of any scene in Colrain (?), decades before any photographs were made of the village.
What are these buildings??   The words in quotation marks in the list are verbatim from the drawing. Italics are current opinions.

1) Site of 5 Main Road?   - a large 2-story building with 7 windows on 2nd floor...
2) "Cong. Church" "brick" "white" (top)
3) "Post Office" "Brick"
4)  3-bay garage ?
5) "Magee's Tavern"
6)
7)
8) "Methodist Ch." ...   Belden: Oddly, the Church is turned 90 degrees so that it faces east instead of north. ...
9)
10)
11) "Mr. Dexter Daniels"
==========================================================


Below:   Online Tax map for 2025 by Don Purington

Don found online pics of several of these house sites - below is his key map, followed by his pics:


These are just guesses now.. some are just sites ... it is not at all certain now that these 2025 houses are 1839 houses.





#11 above , today's Pitt House, was
added by Don for context. This building
dis not exist in1839.
AND, the true #11 on the Barber view is actually
a building up on the hill to the right, a site
on Greenfield Road




"Below:  The back side (verso) of the MHS scan,  citation page, an online Link.


Below:  The Mass.Historical Society citation page.



LINK:  https://www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=6704&mode=large&img_step=1&





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