This is a list of towns along the Yellowstone Trail in Massachusetts. They are arranged from west to east. Mileages, if any, are from Minneapolis as recorded in the 1920's and are listed here as an approximate indication of modern distances. Added to this list will be information about historic buildings, bridges, and sites. [The Mile-by-Mile pages are just being developed (Spring 2005) and will contain minimal information for some time.]
NEW YORK STATE LINE
1468 Pittsfield
Hancock Shaker Village
That Hancock village just outside Pittsfield Mass. is quite a visit, but the original Shaker commune is just across the line in NY, just off Route 20, and is well worth a visit too. It is on Mountain Road on the south side of 20; there is a sign at the juncture of Mountain Road and 20 noting that the Darrow School and the Mount Lebanon Shaker site are nearby.
Mount Lebanon
The Darrow School and the Shaker site overlap – the school has been renting space at the site since the 1920s. Thus the former worship center is now the school library and so on. While the school uses many of the buildings, many are not and are preserved as historic sites. The income from the rental helps to maintain the buildings, and the school’s use of certain buildings is done carefully and respectfully.
Driving the short distance from 20 down Mountain Road the first thing one sees is the stone front of a barn foundation, the upper portion of which no longer exists. Then beyond one sees the beginnings of a collection of large frame buildings of various sorts, the mute survivors of a once thriving community. Charlie C
Lenox
Lee
West Becker
Chester
Russell
Woronoco
Westfield
West Springfield
1525 Springfield
Indian Orchard (just E. of Springfield)
Palmer
Warren
Brookfield
Spencer
Tafts Corner
Leicester
1576 Worcester
June 2005 Koerner note: Worcester, MA is working on plans to remove the failed enclosed mall that severed the YT routing on Front St through their downtown area many years ago. Among all of the new building and other work, this plan will restore the street grid that was scraped off to build the mall, including Front St, as part of the project. Although not a noticed part of this project, it will restore a through roadway on the riginal YT routing in that area. See: http://www.newcitysquare.com for more details. This website is very new, being put up within the past week or so, and the project appears to have strong public support.
Shrewsbury
Northboro
Marlboro
Sudbury
Longfellow's Wayside Inn is a fabulous restaurant/inn for an historic experience. It was originally known as Howe's Tavern from 1716 to 1861. The first innkeeper, David Howe, operated what was then called a "hous of entertainment" along the old Boston Post Road in the same spot the Wayside Inn stands today. See www.wayside.org/
East Sudbury
Wayland
Weston
1620 Boston
Quincy
Weymouth ??
Assinippi
Hanover
North Pembroke
Kingston
1663 Plymouth
EASTERN TERMINOUS OF THE YELLOWSTONE TRAIL