Prosperity!

W.B. Plunkett and C.T. Plunkett, sons of textile manufacturer W.C. Plunkett, lived on Park Street in Adams, where their father built a large mansion. In their thirties, the brothers gathered investors and formed the Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing Co., and the first shipment of textiles left their factory on August 20, 1890, seven weeks before the McKinley Tariff was enacted. That tariff levied a 33-49% tax on foreign goods, pricing them out of the market. Within 20 years, the company expanded to four mills, each larger than the one before, becoming the largest employer in Adams and the second largest in Berkshire County. The Berkshire Mills benefited greatly from McKinley's economic policies, and the Plunketts hired more employees as Adams entered its greatest era of growth and prosperity. The population swelled with workers from many European countries and Canada, and five languages were preached from town pulpits: English, French, German, Polish, and Italian. Most of the fine Victorian commercial buildings on Park Street were built during this period. Before the Berkshire Mills, Adams's business district had been a small area around Center Street, but by 1900 Park Street was full of shops, offices, and meeting halls, and a second commercial district developed on one-half of Summer Street to serve the expanding population of workers living there. Between 1894 and 1907, five churches were built, churches completed 10 major building projects in 17 years, and Park Street's four commercial blocks were built within six years. W.B. Plunkett built the central unit of the hospital in 1918, and C.T. Plunkett later added a wing in 1923 and the nurses' home in 1932.

Adams, Massachusetts · United States