1948 Map of Peru

About this map

Hinsdale and Peru sit at the heart of this post-war landscape in the Berkshire hills, where a network of small family-named roads like Bennett Road and Geo Schnopps Road connect scattered upland farmsteads. The industrial and transit corridor is anchored by the Boston and Albany Railroad, which follows the path of the Housatonic River through the southwestern corner near Washington Sta. Notable water features including Ashmere Lake and Windsor Reservoir dominate the central terrain, while the northern edge features the dramatic Wahconah Falls. Genealogists will find a wealth of local burial sites, from North Cem near the Windsor border to the secluded Perry Cem. The map illustrates a rural Massachusetts community still defined by its complex drainage systems and the peaks of French Hill and Garnet Hill, just as early 20th-century travel was beginning to modernize along the Berkshire Trail.