Description
The Lee Historical Society presents "'Lee Comes of Age: 1850 to 1900," with Phil Smith. Exhibit at the J. Peter Scolforo Gallery in the Lee Library, July, 2023.
= = = = = = = = = =
JULY 11, 2023 - JULY 29, 2023
Lee Historical Society July Exhibit - Lee Comes of Age: 1850-1900
Lee Library
100 Main St., Lee, Massachusetts
Lee Library |(413) 243-0385 |https://www.leelibraryma.org/ | Lee
The Lee Historical Society will mount a major exhibit titled "Lee Comes of Age: 1850-1900" during the month of July at Lee Library. The exhibit is free and open to the public during regular library hours. January 25, 1850 may have been the most important moment in the history of Lee. On that cold winter day, the first revenue train on what would become the Housatonic Railroad chugged up the tracks to big celebrations. The railroad touched off a half century of prosperity in Lee as most everything coming or going was on the rails. Already moving into mass production of paper, the town acquired a large scale marble quarry just two years later. Money and goods flowed into the town. The Civil War brought many woes, but it also resulted in an age of invention and a booming national economy. Lee acquired a modern look with handsome brick and marble buildings. More prosperity came with the Gilded Age cottagers. Lee became a successful industrial town while places where the rails did not run became mostly backwaters. 
