Springside Park

Springside Park is a 237.5-acre public park in the North End of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, framed by North Street, Crane Avenue, Benedict Road and Springside Avenue. Most of it is wooded, and nearly all of the developed area lies in the southwest quadrant. The focal point is Springside House, formerly called Elmhurst, a wood-frame Italianate house on a knoll. It has a mansard-roofed section, a flat-roofed tower, a gambrel-roofed ell and a wraparound verandah. Nearby are a Gothic Revival barn, a ca. 1920 garage, a 1939 brick bath house, Springside Pond, rusticated stone gateposts and a greenhouse complex. The park grew through a major enlargement in 1939 and later purchases in the 1950s, and the house opened for community use in 1941. In 1954 it became the headquarters of the city's parks department. A middle school now occupies part of the original parkland. Later outbuildings and the relocated Victory Hill House are counted as noncontributing.