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===Early history=== [[File:Bird's-eye View of North Adams, MA.jpg|thumb|left|Bird's eye view of North Adams in 1905]] [[File:Norad Mill 60 Roberts Drive North Adams from west.jpg|thumb|[[Norad Mill]]]] North Adams was first settled in 1745 during [[King George's War]], when the most western of a line of defensive forts was built along the bank of the [[Hoosic River]], and occupied by Massachusetts militiamen and their families.<ref name="Spear">{{cite book|title=History of North Adams, Mass., 1749-1885: reminiscences of early settlers: extracts from old town records : its public institutions, industries and prominent citizens, together with a roster of commissioned officers in the War of the Rebellion|first=W. F.|last=Spear|date=12 November 1885|publisher=Hoosac Valley News Printing House|ol = 7071051M}}</ref> During the war, [[Canada (New France)|Canadian]] and Native American forces laid [[Siege of Fort Massachusetts|siege to Fort Massachusetts]] and 30 prisoners were taken to [[Quebec]]; half died in captivity. In 1747 [[Fort Massachusetts (Massachusetts)|Fort Massachusetts]] was rebuilt with improved defenses, but was never attacked again. In a period of peace following the [[Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)|Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle]], many of the soldiers who had been garrisoned at the fort turned to farming instead by opting to each take a 190-acre package of nearby land in lieu of back-pay in the nearby township of West Hoosac (now known as [[Williamstown, Massachusetts|Williamstown]]). The North Adams Women's Club began raising funds in 1895 to reconstruct the fort as a memorial site. It was dedicated in 1933 and operated as a historical tourist site until the 1960s. The 1933 Fort's replica chimney is located at the rear of the Central Markets Supermarket that opened at the site in 1960 and closed in 2016 as a Price Chopper Supermarket.<ref>[https://www.iberkshires.com/story/51163/Price-Chopper-in-North-Adams-to-Close.html Price Chopper in North Adams to Close.] 8 February 2016. Accessed 8 July 2022.</ref> The historic site was conveyed to the City of North Adams by the Golub family in 2017.<ref>[https://www.berkshireeagle.com/archives/price-chopper-gives-fort-massachusetts-parcel-to-north-adams/article_1991062f-2058-5a08-84be-eb9d99bd1af5.html Price Chopper gives Fort Massachusetts parcel to North Adams]. By Adam Shanks, The Berkshire Eagle, November 22, 2017. Accessed 8 July 2022.</ref> The town was incorporated separately from Adams in 1878, and reincorporated as a city in 1895. The city is named in honor of [[Samuel Adams]], a leader in the [[American Revolution]], signer of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], and [[governor of Massachusetts]].<ref name=Spear /> For much of its history, North Adams was a [[mill town]].<ref>[http://northadamshistory.org/history/ North Adams Historical Society: History of North Adams]. Accessed 8 Jul 2022.</ref> Manufacturing began in the city before the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], largely because the confluence of the Hoosic River's two branches provided [[water power]] for small-scale industry. By the late 1700s and early 1800s, businesses included wholesale [[shoemaking|shoe manufacturers]]; a [[brickmaking|brick yard]]; a [[saw mill]]; [[cabinet making|cabinet-makers]]; hat manufacturers; [[machine shop]]s for the construction of mill machines; [[marble]] works; wagon and sleigh-makers; and an [[ironworks]], which provided the [[pig iron]] for [[armor plating|armor plates]] on the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] ship, the ''[[USS Monitor|Monitor]]''.<ref name=ussmonitor>{{cite news|title=North Adams Marking Monitor Anniversary|url=http://www.iberkshires.com/story/40690/North-Adams-Marking-Monitor-Anniversary.html|access-date=July 22, 2014|work=iBerkshires.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729155945/http://www.iberkshires.com/story/40690/North-Adams-Marking-Monitor-Anniversary.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 29, 2014}}</ref> Expansion westwards started with the creation of three mill villages, [[Blackinton Historic District|Blackinton]] in 1821, Greylock in 1846<ref>{{Cite web |last=Oehler |first=Kay |last2=Sheppard |first2=Stephen C. |last3=Benjamin |first3=Blair |last4=Li |first4=Lily |date=2006 |title=Shifting Sands in Changing Communities: The Neighborhoods, Social Services, and Cultural Organizations of North Adams, Massachusetts |url=https://web.williams.edu/Economics/ArtsEcon/library/pdfs/NA%20Neighborhoods%2022006.pdf |access-date=5 Jul 2023 |website=williams.edu |publisher=Center for Creative Community Development |format=PDF}}</ref> and [[Braytonville]] in 1832, located to take advantage of the Hoosac River's water power. The 1850 census marked the official shift of the town from agriculture to industry, since more factory workers than farmers now resided in the town.<ref name="farewelltofactorytowns.files.wordpress.com">{{Cite web |last=Seider |first=Maynard |date=2012 |title=NORTH ADAMS INDUSTRIALIZES |url=https://farewelltofactorytowns.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/north-adams-industrializes.pdf |access-date=5 Jul 2023 |website=farewelltofactorytowns |format=PDF}}</ref> In 1870 the use of Chinese [[strikebreakers]] from [[California]] to break the [[North Adams strike]] at the Sampson Shoe Factory (today part of the Mass MoCA complex) was an important step in the movement of Chinese from the west coast to the east coast, resulting in east coast [[Chinatowns in the United States]]. On a national scale, the North Adams strike became known as the primary trigger to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act by the U.S. Congress in 1882.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}} North Adams was also the headquarters for building the [[Hoosac Tunnel]] starting in 1851 and completed in 1874, adding an east–west connection to Boston and Albany to the existing 1842 rail connection to New York. Prior to that time, inter-regional travel was limited to weekly stagecoaches from Albany and Greenfield.<ref name="farewelltofactorytowns.files.wordpress.com" /> Downtown in 1860, Oliver Arnold and Company was established with the latest equipment for printing cloth. Large government contracts to supply fabric for the [[Union Army]] helped the business prosper. During the next four decades, Arnold Print Works became one of the world's leading manufacturers of printed [[textiles]]. It also became the largest employer in North Adams, with some 3,200 workers by 1905. Despite decades of success, falling cloth prices and the lingering effects of the [[Great Depression]] forced the company to close its Marshall Street operation in 1942 and consolidate at smaller facilities in Adams.
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