When in 1894 the State Board of Education suggested that there was need of addition to the number of normal schools in Massachusetts, North Adams was on the alert. The community early recognized the value it would be to the town to have such an institution, with its trained corps of teachers, its cabinets and apparatus and its thoroughly educational and uplifting influence, located in its midst. In the struggle to obtain this institution all citizens were united, and the town was generous in its offers of money and land. The Legislature decided to place one of the new schools in North Adams and the school building, of beautiful architectural design, occupying a commanding location in the south part of the city, is a pride to all residents. The city has spent, directly and indirectly, nearly one hundred thousand dollars in behalf of the normal school. It was while making a plea before a legislative committee for the location of this school in North Adams that Dr. John Bascom of Williams College, always a good friend of North Adams, pointed to the location of the town upon the map and said, "North Adams sits at the western gateway of the Commonwealth." When the seal of the new city was chosen, it was of no conventional design, but had upon it a picture of the Hoosac Tunnel entrance, encircled by the words, "We hold the western gateway."

There has been an awakening, too, in matters relating to the history of the locality, and a movement headed by the public-spirited women of the city has resulted in the purchase of the site of old Fort Massachusetts. The deed of this plot of ground is held by the Fort Massachusetts Historical Society; and in the years to come some suitable memorial, perhaps a facsimile of the old fort, will be erected on this scene of strife of older and less happy days.*

The women of North Adams have maintained, almost entirely by their own efforts, a public hospital, for the past fifteen years.

Some two years ago the North Adams Board of Trade, alarmed at the inroads thee woodchoppers were making upon the forests upon Greylock, Mount Williams and others of the Taconic range, started a movement to have the state secure control of the mountains and preserve them in all their beauty for the enjoyment of generations to come. The movement met with a hearty response from Adams, Williamstown, Pittsfield and other nearby towns, and a bill was passed by the Legislature of 1898 which, when all its provisions have been carried into effect, will forever put a stop to the destruction of timber and save to the people a pleasure ground of unsurpassed and unique beauty.

But of course we shall find the greatest growth of Adams and North Adams shown in its manufacturing interests. The gristmills, the sawmills and the iron forges of the past have been replaced by the cotton, woolen and calico print mills of to-day. The Hoosac has long since ceased to furnish the motive power. The early pioneers in manufacturing, men of such stamp as Giles Tinker, Edward Richmond, W. E. Brayton, Jeremiah Colegrove and Deacon Crittenden, have long been in their graves; and their later successors, Duty S. Tyler, George Millard, A. W. Richardson, W C. Plunkett, James E. Marshall, William Jenks, Samuel Gaylord, Harvey Arnold, Sylvander Johnson, Calvin T. Sampson, Sanford Blackinton, W. W. Freeman, George M. Mowbray and a score of others, have all finished their labors. But they have left a lasting impress upon the communities in which they lived and worked.

There is probably no one manu-