Great Barrington: Threads of Tradition

By   |  Photos by David McIntyre  |     |  Community Spotlight

“I was born by a golden river and in the shadow of two great hills, five years after the Emancipation Proclamation,” wrote Great Barrington native W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) in his autobiography. The only Black child in his school, raised by a single mom, he would later reflect that “in general conduct and thought, I became quite thoroughly New England,” a cultural DNA strand that contributed to a life of epic achievement and world travel in the face of massive opposition.

But throughout an extraordinarily eventful life, Du Bois never lost his devotion to his “golden river,” the Housatonic—in 1961, at 93, he was writing to Great Barrington from Ghana to advocate for its protection. At the time, General Electric was still pumping it full of PCBs. Mitigation and cleanup have been in progress since the 1980s, and by 2012, Great Barrington was celebrating the 25th anniversary of its Housatonic River Walk in Du Bois River Park, paying homage to the great thinker and to the Mahican people who’d come before him.

Great Barrington lends itself to warmth, art, and philosophy, buzzing with a juicy New England-inflected liveliness that seduces the newcomer into joining in the fun and maybe creating some more. “In the very, very early days, when my dad first bought the place, there was some fear,” says Annie Guthrie, daughter of Arlo, granddaughter of Woody, and present-day director of the Guthrie Center, housed in the church that played a starring role in the epic of “Alice’s Restaurant.” “I think everybody expected us to run motorcycles through the building and throw litter around; they’d all seen the movie. It took a little while. But now, we have a great working relationship with the powers that be and the whole community.”

What the Guthries did at the Old Trinity Church was welcome visitors from everywhere, serving community lunches and Thanksgivings, hosting open mic hootenannies and opening an instrument lending library, and holding monthly Praise Sundays, which Guthrie says her father designed as a “bring your own God” church.

The Guthrie Center is part of a wider web in more ways than one. The Great Barrington-based Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires, founded in 2016, has 140 active member organizations. Many are decades old; affordable housing builders Construct, Inc, for example, began its work in 1969, inspired by President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” speech, and shows no signs of slowing down.

“With the Affordable Homes Act, I think a lot of us feel hopeful that we’re going to be able to make a significant dent in the challenge in the next several years, because so much money was put into it by the governor and then the legislature looked at it and added more,” says Construct executive director Jane Ralph about legislation passed earlier this year in Massachusetts that authorizes over $5 billion in spending to counter rising housing costs. “And Great Barrington probably has more resources in place than many other Berkshires towns. It’s been steadily increasing the stock of affordable housing and supporting creative measures to create workforce housing as well. The small business community, the financial institutions, the nonprofit community, the faith communities, and the town itself are really supportive of creative, collaborative ways of meeting housing needs.”

The Great Barrington Scene

“Everybody knows everybody in a town this size, for better or for worse—mostly for better,” says Ralph. “Berkshires people are open and accepting of anybody who wants to help the community thrive. It’s a supportive, welcoming kind of place. We’re trying to make sure it’s accessible to anyone who wants or needs to live here.”

Great Barrington takes pride in celebrating native son W. E. B. Du Bois.

It’s easy to see why anyone would want to—Great Barrington sparkles. “So, for example, last Saturday,” says Ralph. “My partner and I hit the Triplex Cinema for a couple of movies—it’s owned by a community collective now—and got some amazing popcorn chicken at Juju’s. The owner there, Josh Irwin, was smart enough to reach out to the Haitian immigrant community and hire some great cooks. There are a lot of wonderful restaurants here, and great downtown shops. And we love hanging out at the Berkshire South Community Center—there’s a pool and a gym, and lots of community programming.” For an evening out, there’s always something going on at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center or at Saint James Place culture center.

The Great Barrington Real Estate Market

Steph McNair, Regional Brokerage Manager at the Great Barrington Brokerage of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, says that supply has improved and things have cooled off a bit. “It’s the first time since 2019 that we’ve had around 500 properties on the market—in 2020 and 2021, it was under 200,” she says. “Demand is still high, but the market under, say, $1.2 million is vibrant. And we’re seeing a lot more mortgage offers getting accepted in the $175,000 to $600,000 range. Things are normalizing; For a while, there wasn’t much available and now there’s residential property under $700,000 to $800,000, which is really great for people who’ve been saving up and hoping. Get a good lender who’ll help you drill down and understand what kind of monthly outlay you can really afford with taxes and utilities figured in—Great Barrington tends to have lower taxes than the Hudson Valley or Connecticut, so there’s that.”

At press time, there were indeed a good selection of three- and four-bedroom houses being offered in the $350,000 to $600,000 range, mostly on lots under an acre. A two-bedroom fixer-upper on iconic Railroad Avenue was pending at $99,000. At the other end of the spectrum, $2,215,000 would get you a historic four-bedroom with oak and mahogany woodwork and high ceilings throughout and updated mechanicals and kitchen, just a short walk from all the fun of town.

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