Pittsfield.Online

The unofficial digital home of Pittsfield, Massachusetts — Heart of the Berkshires

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Welcome, Neighbor!

You've reached the web's friendliest corner of the Berkshires. Pittsfield — the county seat of Berkshire County, home to roughly 43,000 people, two lakes, a baseball park from 1919, and a long memory — is more than the sum of its (many) transformers.

Use the tabs above to find city services, hang out in the Town Square, start a thread on the Forum Board, or read up on our history, culture and politics.

⚒ Always under construction ⚒   NEW! Live Town Square chat

Quick Dial

Call 311

Non-emergency city information and service requests. If 311 doesn't connect from your phone, call City Hall or visit cityofpittsfield.org. For emergencies, always dial 911.

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Get Help

311 — City Hotline

This is an unofficial community site. Confirm numbers and schedules with the City.

Garbage & Recycling

Illustrative calculator only (weekly trash, alternating recycling). Holidays can delay pickup. Look up your real zone calendar with the Department of Public Services via cityofpittsfield.org.

City Departments

Getting Around & Learning

The Town Square — Live

Click anywhere to walk there. Everyone with this page open in another tab or window on this browser appears here instantly (no server — presence is shared locally). Resident bots keep you company.

The Forum Board

A Short History of Pittsfield

Before 1700s — The Mohican (Muh-he-con-ne-ok) people live, farm and fish in the upper Housatonic valley.
1750s — Settlers establish "Pontoosuc Plantation" around the Pontoosuc Lake and the Housatonic's west branch.
1761 — Incorporated as Pittsfield, named for British statesman William Pitt the Elder.
1791 — A town bylaw bans baseball within 80 yards of the new meeting house — one of the earliest written references to baseball in America.
1810 — Elkanah Watson holds the Berkshire Cattle Show here, a landmark in the American agricultural fair tradition.
1850–51 — Herman Melville lives at Arrowhead farm and writes Moby-Dick looking at Mount Greylock.
1891 — Pittsfield becomes a city.
1890s–1903 — William Stanley's electrical works arrive and become part of General Electric; Pittsfield becomes the "Electric City" building transformers.
1903 — Zenas Crane founds the Berkshire Museum.
1919 — Wahconah Park opens; baseball is still played there today.
1980s — GE downsizes dramatically; the city reinvents itself around healthcare, arts and small business. PCB contamination of the Housatonic leads to decades of cleanup.
2000s — The Colonial Theatre reopens (2006) and cultural tourism takes root downtown.

Dates summarized from general local history; consult the Berkshire Athenaeum's Local History collection for sources.

Arts & Letters

  • Berkshire Museum — art, natural history, an aquarium, since 1903.
  • Colonial Theatre — restored 1903 theatre on Pittsfield's Berkshire Theatre Group stage circuit.
  • Barrington Stage Company — Tony-honored regional theatre on Union Street.
  • Arrowhead — Melville's home, run by the Berkshire County Historical Society.
  • Berkshire Athenaeum — the public library, with Melville collections.

Out & About

  • Onota Lake & Pontoosuc Lake — boating, fishing, summer sunsets.
  • Pittsfield State Forest — trails, Berry Pond, the mountain laurel in June.
  • Springside Park — in-town woods and playgrounds.
  • Wahconah Park — wooden grandstand baseball under the evening sun.
  • Third Thursdays — downtown summer street festival on North Street.

Neighbors

Pittsfield sits between Tanglewood to the south, Jacob's Pillow to the southeast, MASS MoCA to the north, and the ski hills of the Berkshires all around. It is a working city with a strong labor heritage, a diverse community of Irish, Italian, Polish, French-Canadian and newer immigrant families, and a growing creative economy.

How the City Is Run

  • Form: Mayor-council city charter (since 1891).
  • Mayor: Elected citywide to a two-year term. Currently Peter Marchetti.
  • City Council: Eleven members — four at-large and seven by ward.
  • School Committee: Elected members plus the mayor as chair.
  • Elections: Municipal elections in odd-numbered years.

Verify current officeholders at cityofpittsfield.org.

Get Involved

Civic Themes

Recurring local conversations: downtown revitalization, the William Stanley Business Park, housing costs, Housatonic River cleanup, schools, and how to attract young families while honoring a proud industrial past. Weigh in on the board — politely, this is a small city.