1888 Map of Chesterfield

About this map

Westfield River and its numerous tributaries dominate this topographic study of the eastern Berkshires in the late nineteenth century. The drainage patterns of the Middle Branch of Westfield River and the Swift River dictated the early settlement of villages like Chesterfield Hollow and Knightville. While the Boston and Albany Railroad follows the river corridor through Chester, the rest of the landscape remains defined by a network of rural roads connecting small hamlets such as Ireland Street, Shack Street, and Jordansville. Local industry is represented by the Bisbee Mill, situated along a small waterway east of the main river. The terrain is marked by dozens of named peaks and ridges, including Kidds Lookout and Mt Pisgah, which overlooked a region still primarily agricultural and dependent on water power before the modern industrial shifts of the twentieth century.