City Hall- 70 Allen Street

Pittsfield, MA 01201
Mayor's Office Phone (413) 499-9321
Mayor's Office Fax (413) 442-8043
Website: www.pittsfield.com


Statistics
Population: 40,717
Total Area: 42.32 square miles
Density: 962 per sq. miles
Normal Annual Precipitation: 44.8 in
Normal Temp in Jan: 23 degrees
In July: 69 degrees
Household Size:
Race and Ethnicity: White (92.6%), Black (3.7%), American Indian (0.1%), Asian (1.2%), Hispanic (2.0%), Other (0.4%)
Registered Voters: 28,573
Democrats: 12,968
Republicans: 3,369
Unenrolled and Other: 12,236
Tax Rate: $15.65 (Residential)
$25.05 (Commercial)
Assessed City Value: $3,166,516,001
Average Single Family Tax Bill: $2,238
Mayor: James M. Ruberto
City Clerk: Jody L. Phillips
City Councilors: Gerald Lee (President),
Tricia Farley-Bouvier, Matthew Kerwood,
Daniel L. Bianchi, Pamela Malumphy, Lewis Markham, Louis Costi, Linda Tyer, Jonathan Lothrop,
Anthony Maffucio, Ozias "Chuck" Vincellete
Total Annual Payroll: $59,043,881
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No. of Retail Establishments: 375
Total Sales: $430 million (Autos $90 million,
Food stores $113 million, Eating/drinking establishments $41 million)
No of Housing Units: 21,366
Owner Occupied: 11,979
Renter Occupied: 7,725


Background

Pittsfield is the commercial, political and social center of the Berkshires. The county seat since 1868, Pittsfield is the largest community in the Berkshires and serves as the region's industrial-manufacturing center. Some of the county's largest companies in the county (General Dynamics Defense Systems, G E Plastics, Berkshire Life, KB Toys and Berkshire Medical Center) are all located in Pittsfield.

The city is known as the "Plastics Technology Center of the Nation" with more than 40 plastics companies, including GE Plastics, making their home in Pittsfield. Although the total number of jobs in Pittsfield has remained relatively static over the last 20 years, there has been a significant shift in the makeup of those jobs from manufacturing to service jobs.

Pittsfield was founded in 1761, named after British Prime Minister William Pitt (who would later take up the American colonists cause before the revolution). In the 1800 census, Pittsfield's 2,261-person population put it on relatively equal status to almost a dozen other communities at the time, including New Marlboro (1,848), Tyringham (1,712), and Sandisfield (1,857). The community's fast waters and flat open land attracted industry and Pittsfield soon flourished. Nevertheless, farming continued to play a major role through much of the 20th century. In 1885, Pittsfield was selected as one of the 20 most productive agricultural communities in Massachusetts.

Pittsfield was incorporated as a city in 1891 and rapidly grew with a burst of new manufacturing activity. Stanley Electric (which would later become General Electric) turned out the first of many large power transformers in 1901. In 1914, Pittsfield became the "high-voltage capital of the world" when it built a laboratory in which GE produced an artificial 10 million-volt lightning bolt twenty years later. During World War II, more than 10,000 people worked in the GE plant. Population peaked in the 1950s at about 58,000.

The city has had its fair share of famous residents who have made major contributions to the nation's history, including: Herman Melville, who wrote Moby Dick at Arrowhead; Civil War Colonel William F. Bartlett who rose from private to become the youngest major general in the war at the age of 24; and Lieutenant Colonel Charles W. Whittlesley won the Congressional Medal of Honor as commander of the "Lost Battalion" during World War I.



City Trivia

The first parking meters in the county were installed in Pittsfield in 1948.

Many historians claim that the first agricultural fair in the United States was held in Pittsfield's Park Square on October 2, 1810.

In 1738, the wealthy Bostonian, Col. Jacob Wendell, bought 24,000 acres of lands known originally as Pontoosuck, a Mohican Indian word meaning "a field or haven for winter deer," as a speculative investment, which he planned to subdivide and resell to others who would settle in the area which became Pittsfield.

The fastest trotter in the U.S. in 1892 was said to be Kremlin, a stallion owned by William Russell Allen, of Pittsfield.