Park Square Historic District (Boundary Increase)

This boundary increase enlarges the Park Square Historic District in the center of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Park Square is an oval green given to the town in 1790, and the added area spreads along North, South, Wendell and Allen Streets. It contains 38 contributing and eight noncontributing resources. North Street has continuous Victorian commercial facades, including banks and the England Brothers department store. South Street combines churches, a Masonic Temple, the Berkshire Museum, the Berkshire Place home for elderly women and the Colonial Theatre, designed by Joseph McArthur Vance in 1903. Wendell Avenue holds houses in Italian Villa, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival and Shingle styles, including the Thomas Colt House. The northeast corner continues the square's municipal role with the police department, old fire station and the former post office, now City Hall. The extension was added because it preserves the civic, religious, commercial and residential character of the city center, with a high level of exterior integrity.