Category: Past Talks

Tractor View from the Haley Farm, Robert Lafond, 2018

Video of the History of the Hopper

The Williamstown Historical Museum presented a free talk on The History of The Hopper with Dusty Griffin on Saturday, September 14 at 11 am in the community room at Sweetwood, 1611 Cold Spring Road in Williamstown. The talk was illustrated with more than 50 slides.

We are so used to looking at The Hopper from afar, from Rt. 7 in front of the high school or as we come home over the Taconic Trail or up Rt. 43. It is the topographic feature that defines Williamstown, the one we chose to grace our town flag. But what do we really know about this secluded valley at the foot of Mt. Greylock and the people who call it home?

Based on research in old newspapers, property records, materials in the WHM collection, and interviews with current and former residents, Griffin told a number of stories about The Hopper, from its earliest days to the present. Tales of the original settlers and the mills that sprang up on the streams that run down the slopes of the Greylock massive; farms at Mt. Hope and Arbor Acres in the mid-20^th Century and the surviving Bacon and Haley Farms of today; the old village of Sweet’s Corners; the hikers, campers, and preservationists who enjoy the area’s many trails; and the year-round residents and second-homers who have found rural peace and quiet in the valley.

---

ABOUT DUSTY GRIFFIN
Local historian Dustin “Dusty” Griffin, Professor of English Emeritus at New York University, has been a Williamstown resident since 2003. A 1965 graduate of Williams College, he is the author of many books on English literature. Griffin has

A former board member of the Williamstown Historical Museum, he curated exhibitions on “Williamstown in the Civil War” (2012) and on “Big Days in a Small Town” (2014). His recent talks for WHM audiences covered the writing career of Col. Prentice of Mt. Hope, and introduced his own book, Williamstown and Williams College: Explorations in Local History (University of Massachusetts Press, 2018).

---

Robert H. Lafond artist of
Tractor View from the Haley Farm, 2018 

Bob Lafond attended the Boston Museum School, and has an undergraduate degree in Art History (summa cum laude) from Princeton University where he studied under painter Esteban Vicente. He paints both country and city landscapes in oils and pastels, concentrating on the Berkshires and Brooklyn. He lives in Williamstown, MA.

You can learn more at:
Art blog: markandremark.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RHLafond/Artwork
Instagram: @roberthlafond
You can contact the artist at rhlafond0@gmail.com.

Parmalee Prentice:  Mount Hope’s Polymath
an illustrated lecture
presented by Dustin Griffin
Saturday, January 19, 2019
11 a.m.
at Sweetwood of Williamstown
1611 Cold Spring Road

Many know Parmalee Prentice from his development of Mount Hope Farm in Williamstown with his wife, Alta Rockefeller Prentice.  Though the farm and its owners are renowned for establishing scientifically based breeding methods, Prentice had numerous interests beyond livestock and crops.  On Saturday, January 19, 2019, popular lecturer, Dustin Griffin, discussed Prentice’s writings, collections and more in an illustrated lecture.

View a video of the lecture by clicking on this button: Parmalee Prentice: Mount Hope’s Polymath Video

Prentice near the “Million Dollar Cow Barn” at Mount Hope.

 

---

Over the last ten years the lecturer, Dusty Griffin, has presented many talks in the Museum’s lecture series, including “A Short History of Treadwell Hollow,” “The History of Flora’s Glen,” “Captain and Corporal: Two Williamstown Soldiers in the 37th Massachusetts,” “Three Eph Generals in the Civil War,” “The Hoosic and the Ohio: The Cincinnati Connection,” “The History of Fort Massachusetts,” “The History of the West Hoosuck Blockhouse,” “A Tale of Two Cities — and a Country Town,” “Enemies of the People: Political Divisions in Early Williamstown,” and “Buxton:  The History of West Main Street from Benjamin Simonds to Cole Porter.”  He has curated exhibitions at the Museum on “Williamstown in the Civil War,” “Big Days in a Small Town,” and (with his wife, Gale), “Williamstown in the Golden Age of Postcards.”

Dusty considers his lectures to be “micro-histories,” deep dives into narrowly-focused topics in local history.  A collection of his essays on the history of Williamstown and Williams College was published in the fall of 2018 by the University of Massachusetts Press.